I’ve been pondering that lately. This week’s eating plan is vegan. I decided to really give vegan a fair shake (even though everyone I’ve ever met that was a vegan was fat)… so I’m making it a slow-carb vegan week.
I’m not eating bread, noodles, potatoes, carrots or any other high carb vegetable. I am eating refried beans which is a slow-carb. It is high carb, but metabolizes slowly. Some call it a low glycemic index.
I am also eating rice in the form of greek dolmas. I just love dolmas and dolmathes (stuffed grape leaves) and had no will power to eliminate them during a vegan week.
I also have my doubts about rice. According to low carb theory, white rice is just as bad as bread, noodles, potatoes and other pure simple carbohydrate based foods. Eating rice should make you fat under low carb theory.
I have had a lot of success on low carb eating plans, so I almost accepted that premise by default.
But wait! Rice is the staple diet of 1/3 of the world’s population. Most residents of all Asian and African countries eat a ton of rice… and are the thinnest people in the world.
It is also a staple in central America where I recently spent a couple of months. Costa Ricans eat a LOT of rice. They are thinner than North Americans. What gives?
I’m really not sure. Initially I thought perhaps refinement was the culprit. Most low carb advocates acknowlege that carbs that are fiber simply don’t count as evil. In fact, fiber carbs might actually count in reverse and help weight loss.
American rice is very refined. The fiber has been mostly eliminated. Previously rice was simply hulled and the result was called “brown rice” which retained the germ and a lot of fiber. In the U.S., you can get brown rice, but most rice sold has had the germ removed and has been polished. It has even been coated with a starch.
It is fairly well known that brown rice is much more nutritious than the highly refined white rice. There is a story (that might be an urban legend) that the railroads were mostly built by Chinese immigrants in the U.S. These immigrants were used to a diet of rice EXCLUSIVELY. That was great for the railroads. Rice was cheap, so they fed their workers only rice.
The workers became very sick and many died. It was eventually discovered that they were used to eating unrefined brown rice. The railroads were feeding them refined white rice. It wasn’t nutritious enough to sustain life.
That makes sense.
It also makes sense that you don’t want to coat your rice with a starch that is known to have fattening effects. That problem can be easily resolved by rinsing your rise before cooking it. The starch is water soluble and will rinse off very easily.
Of course that doesn’t work with minute rice which isn’t even rice at all. It was made from rice and then made into a mush with lots of things added and then reformed back into the shape of rice. That isn’t even worth discussing.
Of course, I think brown unrefined rice with all of the fiber intact is better than white rice, but… most of the Asian and African world is now eating white rice and are still skinny. How can we explain that?
I really don’t know. I’m completely baffled by the rice conundrum. It seems to be a high carb item that should be just as fattening as bread, noodles and potatoes, but… the fact is that billions of people eat a ton of rice every year… and are still skinny.
What do you think? How can that be explained?
-James D. Brausch
8 Comments
The weight loss program at Duke University depends very heavily on rice, or did when I read about it some years ago. In fact, that’s about all the people got to eat for weeks at at time.
The writer talked about how they became un-addicted to food when what they had to look forward to was rice and water, every day every meal. When they were allowed to eat fruit, they could truly enjoy it. This residential approach broke up their eating habits and they were able to retrain themselves. I looked at Duke’s web site and can’t tell at a glance if that is still the case.
What I think is that rice, even polished white, all-starch rice is a whole grain, not ground up, watered down and reformatted with drying or baking (except for minute rice). Oriental people eat a lot of rice and a little bit of oil, vegetable and protein, often soy–not the milk and butter my mom used when she made rice, or the heavy country-fried-steak gravy we liked so much. What do the Costa Rican folks eat with their rice?
I expect whole oats or wheat berries or barley corns would be healthier than bread and pasta. At various times people have lived off potatoes as a healthy staple food, not french fries or “loaded” with cheese and bacon.
James:
It’s all about portion control and exercise. Yes, people in the Third World do eat lots of rice, but for the most part, they also have a very low protein diet, and most of them work their assess off. They have to eat a lot of rice just to survive. In America, we eat too much and exercise too little. It’s that simple.
Rice isn’t bad for you if you consume it in moderation. I eat either rice or pasta with my evening meal every day. I also have a serving of meat, and a serving of vegetables. I make sure each of the servings is about the circumference of my fist. I eat everything on my plate and don’t go back for seconds, which really isn’t an issue since I’m satisfied when I’m finished. Another thing you need to do is eat 5 or 6 meals a day. I know this sounds like a lot, and is counter intuitive to what many people on diets have convinced themselves (eating less = losing weight). But if you eat 5 or 6 smaller meals, it will speed up your metabolism and actually help you to lose more weight. You will also feel full throughout the day and won’t have snack cravings. I eat cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and the aforementioned dinner; I eat supplement bars in between those 3 regular meals so that I can get in my 5 to 6 meals a day.
I also work out 3 times a week. I’m not a gym fanatic. It’s a 30 minute home workout consisting of 4 sets of crunches on an ab machine, interspersed with 3 sets of pushups (the number of pushups is not nearly as important as using strict form and not cheating); after I’ve finished with the calisthenics, my heart rate is up and I move on to 20 minutes of interval cardio on my elliptical machine.
For many years I’ve kept fit mostly by lifting weights, but in my late 30’s I injured an elbow and got terrible tendonitis. I simply couldn’t lift weights anymore, and this depressed me to the point where I simply stopped lifting. I didn’t work out for a couple of years. I started drinking heavily, eating poorly, and eventually gained a lot of weight. Last January I went in for physical and my doc told me I had high cholesterol and high blood sugar — if I didn’t change my ways, I would eventually become diabetic and have heart disease.
This was the wakeup call I needed. So I implemented the regimen that I just outlined to you. My injury is now healed. Since I’m doing calisthenics rather than lifting heavy weights, I haven’t reagrivated it. I’ve lost over 30 pounds. My BMI in now 23.5. My body fat percentage is around 17%. Not bad for a 42 year old guy who drinks a glass of wine every night and more than a few beers on Sundays while watching football. It’s all in wise choices, moderation and exercise, my friend.
P.S. You’ve inspired me. I’m thinking of starting a blog on fitness and general self improvement.
I don’t see white rice as being very different from the breads and noodles you mention. It might be a slightly different GI, but is essentially still a lot of caloric dense, nutrient sparse, refined carbohydrate. Not that I’m saying it’s bad - at the right time it’s great. i.e. after a workout or earlier in the day. If you’re trying to loose weight, I’de limit it in the evenings.
As far as the chinese go, well, I guess there total calorie intake is less than in the western world. They’re probably more active too, everybody seems to ride bicycles.
Great improvements in the pics, btw. Even your posture has improved. Keep it up.
I am currently following the Rice House Diet guilelines and enjoying it a lot - it’s not just about rice though, but includes any whole grain, plus veggies and fruits (with just a little protein - I usually have salmon or skinless chicken). High protein diets don’t work for me.
I think the type of diet that works for a someone depends on their body type. Then whatever that is (more protein or more carb), the foods selected should be lean, whole and packed with as much nutrients as possible.
My theory for why cultures who eat a lot of rice are trim - they also don’t eat a lot of meat (it’s used as a condiment not the main course), eat more fish and lots of veggies, and healthy fats (no transfats), and very little sugar. So it’s a combined diet not just the white rice. Plus they usually do a lot more physical labor and\or walk and bike.
When dieting, I try to use the most nutritous form of a food so I definitely use whole brown rice, but also have oatmeal, salba (a powerhouse ancient grain), and quinoa.
How much Protien is in rice? (and that is w/out adding butter, creams, or oils to it). Last I checked it has at least 4grams of protien regardless if white or brown rice.
What is the truth on this one?
~active vegan/vegetarian/pescatarian
Perhaps this will help show the nutritional value of some forms of white rice. http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c21UI.html
I think the basic message everyone agrees on is portioning and balance. Asians, latin, middle’eastern, etc eat pastas and rice, sure. But how much? They may be the filler or feature of a dish, but they are still served with vegetables and appropriate portions of proteins.
US rice is enriched as required by law since almost all nutrients are removed in the brown-to-white-processing. The processing is done to increase shelf life. Dieting on rice alone (like any extreme) can’t be a good thing.
Have rice. But be weary of what is added to give it flavor! I know many a people that add tons of soy sauce, butter, salt, etc… and this may seem necessary for the sake of flavor, but it can also be detrimental. Sodium, saturated fats, etc.
Try adding rice, a dash of oil, coat the rice properly, add some curry power, pepper and a dash of salt and some vegetable broth. Or, lightly toast/brown the rice, substitute curry power for tomato sauce and some chopped onion, tomato and jalapenos.
Simple and not over done. Serve it with a portion of any meat and vegetables and its great!
How bout just eat a balanced diet with a calorie reduction to lose weight. All the while watching your nutrient intakes to make sure you do not ingest to much trans/saturated fat/sugars….etc. You are just setting yourselves up for failure. FAD DIETS DO NOT WORK. How many times do you need to hear it before it actually penetrates your thick skulls?
The basic idea of weight gain is about insulin spike. More insulin spike in your blood will make you gain weight.
So when you are eating anything with carbs (rice, wheat and other stuff). Your body releases tons of insulin… Best way to counter is to add lot of protien with your carb intake…
Oh btw, rice eating people are not thin… If you just take a walk in South India(where Rice is main food and most of them are veg). Almost every single guy has a gut. Women are known for their thunder thighs (even actresses)
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