Rice is one of the most consumed foods in the world. It is the staple food for almost half the world’s population (most of Asia), and so entrenched in the culture of China and Japan that it is actually synonymous with the word, “meal,” over there. Rice is highly versatile, and can be made into so many varieties of noodles, cakes, cereals and crackers. There are also now many cultivars of rice, most of them stem from the original rice plant, Oryza sativa.
Basically, rice is prepared in 2 ways, which is brown or unpolished rice, and white or polished rice. Brown rice is rice with just the other chaff, or hull removed, so it looks brown because the bran and germ have not been removed.
Most of the nutrients found in rice are concentrated in the bran and germ, so that is why white rice is commonly regarded as “empty calories,” because the bran and germ have been removed during the milling process. Nonetheless, white rice is one of the most inert, easily digestible foods that can be tolerated by just about anyone, even those with gluten allergies (it contains no gluten).
While there are both hill rice and paddy rice, the main forms of rice produced are either:
- Long grain rice
- Medium grain rice
- Short grain rice
Long grain rice is the one most often preferred by Asian cuisine, especially the fragrant variety. When cooked, the grains do not stick together so easily, but separate into fluffy grains. The medium grain rice tends to stick together a little more than the long grain rice, while the short grain rice is highly sticky and tender when cooked (the grains looks almost round).
Rice is a good source of complex carbohydrates and B vitamins (the brown form). In early times, a diet poor in food variety and only consisting of rice was a sure way to get beri-beri, although it is hardly heard of today. Beri-beri is caused by a deficiency of vitamin B1. It has very little fat, sugar, and sodium. While rice in its original form has good amounts of fiber, white/polished rice only has negligible amounts.
100g of raw white rice supplies about 7g of protein, trace fat, 80g of starch, 1g of fiber, and 364 calories, while 100g of raw brown rice supplies 8g protein, 2g of fat, 3g of fiber, 78g of starch, and 370 calories.