I’ve been trying to puzzle this one out on my own, and thought I’d just ask.
So, large parts of the world, especially the eastern world, eat white rice as a major staple food, probably 2-3 meals a day.
The common wisdom though is you should generally avoid white rice because it is pretty much just an empty carb.
For the sake of argument, to eliminate places where white rice may be a staple purely because it is cheap and available in places that may not have fantastic access to foods, let’s consider Japan. They’re as modern as anywhere else and have pretty high availability of nutritious foods too. They also, though, still probably have white rice with every meal.
How are they able to have a healthy diet while including white rice? Is it just they tend to eat lighter fare than say places like the US, on average. Is it because their meals tend to be more varied? Or are they walking around with lots of their own sets of nutritional problems?
This is a good question imo.
As many mentioned japans serving sizes are quite small in comparison. Also i would argue its not the rice that makes a difference, its the rest of the diet that makes the japanese more healthy. They eat way more fish and fermented foods for example.
Rice is an excellent source for simple carbs that are easy to digest. i think eating rice is very beneficial for anyone with digestion problems and or a hyper caloric diet.
What rice cant offer are vitamins and minerals which is why it has somewhat of a bad rep. If you add some veggies and/or fish (like the japanese do) you can easily make up for the lack of micronutrients from the rice and end up with an easily digestible and nutrient rich meal.
Don’t know where you’re from, but portion size difference may be something to consider.
I like to watch YouTube videos where people just walk around and get street food/go to restaurants, etc and I remember being a little surprised by the size of a “large” portion of rice someone shows at a hotel buffet that had an automatic rice machine! As they were showing off the breakfast buffet in a local hotel in Japan.
I can not speak to the “health” of a diet, but from what I’ve seen people eating in places where white rice is a staple, there are smaller portions of rice and a LOT of fresh veggies, fruit, fish, beans, etc, and other healthy items along with the rice. I noticed that meals were more of a variety of things in small portions that make up a large meal.
Fiber. Fiber is the answer to your question.
The biggest reason we are told to eat brown rice is its inclusion of fiber. Fiber slows down digestion and absorption in the intestines. This means that any carbs that come with the fiber will be absorbed at a more even pace (vs just hitting your blood all at once in a big spike), and some portion of them will make it further down your system, be broken down more, and be absorbed in that new, largely beneficial form.
So, in Japan, they eat a lot of white rice, but eat relatively smallish portions and they pile it high with veggies and beans and the like - all high fiber foods. By doing this they’ve essentially replaced the fiber that was stripped off of the rice to begin with, so they regain most of the benefits of eating brown rice.
They also eat a lot of cooked then cooled white rice creating a starch resistant white rice which creates a lower glycemic index and helps reduce glucose spikes
Actually white rice is not a terrible food, it’s an old idea that white carbs are bad (or that carbs are bad in general). In fact, rice is easy to digest making it a great tool to improve gut health. It’s also a great source of energy and a great way to replenish carbohydrates (glycogen) after workouts which is why so many athletes eat it most days of the week. It comes down to serving size for sure because in actuality, carbohydrates like rice are really beneficial… you just want a high quality rice like jasmine or basmati.
It’s about how much you eat. Carbs have been unfairly pilloried, they’re entirely reasonable as part of a healthy diet. What tends to be happen in the west is that people eat a cup plus of cooked white rice with a meal (or eat it as coconut rice/fried rice which adds heaps of fat calories) which is multiple servings.
Having read through all of the comments, it bears reviewing some historical context. Up until the modern age, only the very affluent in Asia ate white rice or white flour. Just talk to an Asian grandparent and you will learn they ate brown or black steamed buns or hand processed rice. That would be almost what would pass for brown rice nowadays. Given that China has the fastest growing diabetes population in the world at a full 2 points lower BMI, I would severely like to counter any assertion that “they have a healthy diet with white rice.”
The Japanese eat other nutrient rich foods with their rice: Beef and fish, all sorts of vegetables.
If white rice was the only or primary thing you were eating, then its lack of nutrients or excess starch content could be a bigger problem.
If you are insulin sensitive, you may be able to tolerate a diet with a lot of starch in it.
If you are insulin sensitive, you have a good chance that your glycogen reserves have space in them when you eat, so some of the glucose goes there, and after the rest gets converted to fat, your insulin returns to normal, and you have a good chance to burn that fat later.
If you are insulin resistant, things don’t work as well.
There may also be genetic factors; if a culture has eaten the same diet for thousands or tens of thousands of years you may see some evolution towards more tolerance of that diet.
First off you have been infected by bad food/ good food by uneducated people that don’t know a damn thing about nutrition other than what they saw on social media that has no scientific backing. There is nothing wrong w/ white rice or brown rice. Anything over eaten can be bad. It’s discipline of the person, not the food. Japanese are healthy individuals because they don’t stigmatize carbs, are active and don’t overindulge themselves into a calorie surplus like the western diet. They are not dumb people. They have a life expectancy of 84yrs. A healthy diet of fats, carbs and protein is the best way to eat. Granted a donut of 700 calories vs a cup of rice or a steak of 700 calories are going to have drastically different performance and feelings after ingested. Calorie surplus = weight gain, calorie deficit = weight loss.
My understanding is that everyone processes carbs such as rice differently. What we see on continuous glucose monitors is that based on genetics, nutritional history, exercise, sleep, gut biome everyone reacts differently. For instance, my glucose does not change much to potatoes and but with rice, it is very reactive. Other people I have seen have little reaction to rice but a big reaction to potatoes. This is probably why the glucose index did not work very well.
I think it’s portion size for sure. I’m Asian (Taiwanese) and I eat rice 3-5xs a day. I recently started tracking my macros and I eat 40% carbs, 30-35% protein, 25-30% fats. Those are rough estimates because I just track when I feel like it and not every day haha.
I’m a woman, I just started working out and I have 18% body fat according to some body scan machine + 2 personal trainers. I’m 5’6” 105ish (heavier when I’m bloated). I’ve never weighted more than 107lbs even when I just ate straight up junk food.
I’ve heard that Asian bodies are just better at processing rice. And 90% of Asians are lactose intolerant. Also, fun fact, 90% of East Asians don’t have body odor. Our bodies are just built different…
The idea that simple carbs are bad for you is just a pernicious myth. They’re fine for you! What’s wrong with the western diet is not “too much rice”. It’s too much fatty meat and sugar.
Japanese people are healthy because they don’t overeat. What you’re eating matters way less than that.
It’s enriched rice. In some places it’s called super rice. It’s also not the only thing that is eaten. Beans or another non-meat protein source are used as a staple as well. Meat becomes an infrequently eaten food type.
Nutrition could be improved, but, survival is survival and full nutrition is not always possible.
In Italy, if you’re served pasta, I think it’s a two-ounce serving, and it gets served with vegetables of some sort.
In Japan, you’re gonna be served rice… but again, it’s not what Americans would think of as a full serving, and yeah, vegetables again.
When I was in Japan I walked everywhere when I wasn’t riding a train of some sort. The portion sizes of food and drink were also considerably smaller. There’s probably a genetic component that allows them to eat the quantity of rice they do. I gain weight just staring at uncooked white rice.
I eat rice nearly every day.
Just because I have a 1-2 cups of rice a day doesn’t mean that my entirely daily intake of other foods are completely devoid of nutrients.
I eat a lot because I’m an athlete. I utilize empty carbs and kind of need empty carbs or my stomach would explode if I had to eat a ton of nutrient filled foods. II want empty easily digestible carbs before a hard training session.
To judge someone’s whole diet on the consumption of one food item… meh probably not fair.
The thing with rice in my option is what you eat with your plate of rice… When adding eggs for example you raise the protein and fat content of your meal and therefore lower significantly the GI of your food intake. When adding dal to your rice you add fiber and complex carbs…
>The common wisdom though is you should generally avoid white rice because it is pretty much just an empty carb.
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>How are they able to have a healthy diet while including white rice? Is it just they tend to eat lighter fare than say places like the US, on average. Is it because their meals tend to be more varied? Or are they walking around with lots of their own sets of nutritional problems?
putting it simply, you are correct in assessing that meals from traditional cuisines tend to be more varied and portions tend(ed) to be more controlled than present-day america, but most importantly “common wisdom” is wrong in that regard
the discussion about brown and white carbs (I can’t even call the brown versions “whole” because that misses the point - white rice is less processed than brown wheat flour) misses how some of the allegedly refined grains/cereals have been staples of many traditional ways of life for millennia and are far from “empty” sources of energy. an empty carb is sugar or highly-industrialized store-bought packaged desserts full of other additives and poor-quality fats as well
rice is far from being the most nutritious food in the planet, which is why variety is paramount - meals should have a balance struck between energy and nutrients (besides other cultural and social aspects) and most traditional cuisines do that
fwiw white rice and black beans have for a long time been staples in Brazilian cuisine, a country with a long history of severe food insecurity and for a long time they have been important affordable foods to keep people from starving even when meat, dairy, eggs, vegetables and fruits might not be accessible
Japanese love rice do much they even eat it in desserts and snacks. Mochi rice cakes with sweetened adzuki paste filling is a traditional snack. So are the various types of rice crackers. Part of why the rice in Japanese diet is so healthy also ties into the types of food they eat with rice. Miso soup, tofu, seaweeds, etc…. Those are nutrient-dense foods with anti-carcinogenic qualities.
In Asia, white rice is almost always eaten with extremely rich and satiating foods.
A large minority of Asians, particularly those of the previous generation also practice eating only until you are 90% full. In short, ignore the glycemic index of rice because absolutely no one eats rice by itself.
Diabetes, heart problems, high cholesterol, high blood pressure. Etc. are becoming more prevalent due to Western influence. More processed snacks, fried, salty foods similar to Western fast foods and snacks are available all over country.
Japan has a long history of problems with beri beri, a thiamine (B-1) deficiency, that lead to a whole host of health problems.
I think the religious consumption of pickles, like daikon, help make up for the problem.
Im no expert by far but im gonna say proportions and how they prepare it/ what they eat with it. Proportions are probably smaller and the other food they eat isnt as processed/ heavy/ unhealthy i don’t think. But thats j a hypothesis i have no idea
I think white rice can be fine in moderation. Like have some with ur veggies/ protein but have veggies/protein w a side of rice, not rice w a side of veggies/protein yk?
The problem is not so much that it is an empty carb — most staple carbs are relatively empty. Don’t believe me? Go to https://nutritiondata.self.com/ and compare them all.
The problem is that white rice is a processed carb that will digest quickly in the body. Fast and easily digested carbs are the cause of metabolic syndrome, precursor to diabetes. Your insulin system gets out of wack, and you start gaining weight. Obesity is driven by sugar, white rice, white bread, potato chips, etc.
Additionally, processed and simple carbs encourage overeating because they lack the natural satiety found in whole foods. Easy to overeat sugar, bread, rice, etc. Overeating even a small bit (say 100 calories a day) causes major weight gain in the long run (100 calories a day is 36,500 calories a year, and that is 10 pounds a year. Do that for 10 years, and that’s a 100 pounds of fat, which is at the stage of morbid obesity no matter your body frame.)
If you want to learn more about the role of your stomach and liver play in food digestion and why these simple and processed carbs are so bad, watch this documentary: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2381335/
Of note, healthy is a subjective term that depends on a lot of things. As mentioned by everyone, lots of factors make Asian food a more healthy option when compared to SAD, however the above should be noted (ie:the more rice you eat the more likely you are to get diabetes) and the “healthiest” Asian diet I’ve heard (Okinawan) actually didn’t eat much rice at all (their stable starch was the sweet potato).
A few years ago, I lost 50 lbs eating white rice ⅔ meals a day. I ate a lot of veggies/ good protein with it, but really felt the rice helped me carry through until the next meal (and I missed it when I didn’t have it).
It really breaks down to portion size. When I ate rice, I had max 100g cooked per meal. Enough to fill, but not enough to take up most of my stomach space with rice.
Rice is great to supplement! Like for example the reason in Latin countries they eat a lot of white rice and beans. This combination includes all amino acids needed to create a complete protein! But yeah rice on its own I wouldn’t see a ton of benefit.
Like you guessed, it’s mostly that they just eat less in general. Smaller portions make smaller people.
And as far as carbs go, white rice is much better than the bleached white bread that is a staple in average American diet. They’re also bigger on fish, which is leaner than the land meats we like to eat here.
Food in general is “overcomplicated”…
Having “empty” carbs is still better than not having nutrients.
And the difference between empty carbs and any form of high quality macro is smaller than you might think, usually the difference is “scaled up” to really explain differences.
I know r/nutrition will hate this comment, but rice isnt thaat bad.
“How are they able to have a healthy diet while including white rice?”
If you wanna make it “stereotypical” lets compare a Japanese Diet with alot of rice, fish, veggies, soy-sauce that are often prepered in nutrient conserving methods to the american diet which consists of basically just deep fried stuff, served with extra sugary drinks and desserts.
Ofc. this isnt the truth, but that would be an example of a big difference…
Rice isnt just sugar.
Cooked Rice has about 25% carbs of which is part fibre (small) and even a smaller part sugar.
If you include different type of rice, unprocessed rice etc. you get a quiet good base for any food.