Wholegrain Rice

One Of The Best Carb Sources

By Doug Hamilton

Rice is possibly the most consumed food in the world. It is the staple food of millions of people in Asia, Oceania, South America, the Middle East and all of Africa, and it has been for thousands of years. But it is also common throughout the West, where it has become an essential food for everyone interested in maintaining a balanced diet. However, although rice is one of the healthiest sources of carbohydrates, there is a significant difference between white rice and wholegrain rice, nutritionally speaking, and this cannot be ignored.

There is no food more associated with a bodybuilding diet than rice, as the white grain plays a key role both in a bulking up phase or in contest preparation. Especially when it comes to establishing a diet for definition, such as in a pre-contest phase, or simply for fat loss, white rice has become the fundamental food.
Naturally most people use widely available commercial brands of white rice, but this has been subject to numerous refining processes that leave it devoid of many of the nutritional properties of the natural grains. In the case of bodybuilders, who frequently go for weeks or even months eating little but chicken breasts and white rice, this means they are a long way from providing their body with all the nutrients it needs and, furthermore, white rice is an astringent and provokes constipation.

Not All Rice Is Equal
What we know of as rice is the grain of the oryza sativa, a plant of the Poaceae family. Its principal nutrient is carbohydrate along with around 7% protein, a large number of vitamins and quite a bit of fibre, but practically no fat.
Harvested rice consists of the grains with the hull and a covering of fibrous bran, which makes up 40% of each grain. After the hull is removed the remaining product is brown rice, and when the layers of bran are removed as well what is left is white rice.
Through the process of refinement the rice loses some of it nutritive properties. For example, analysing brown rice, which includes the bran, 100g comprises 87g carbohydrate, 7.5g protein and 1.8g fat. This equates to 357kCal as well as 10mg calcium, 1g iron, 0.3mg vitamin B₁ (thiamine), 0.05mg B₂ (riboflavin) and 4.6g nicotinic acid (vitamin B₃). Once the bran has been removed, white rice contains 87g carbohydrate, 6.7g protein and 0.7g fat for 360kCal, but the big difference is in the vitamin B content: B₁ drops to 0.08mg and B₂ to 0.03mg, and the remaining nicotinic acid is barely 1.6mg.
Such low levels of these vitamins have led to the spread of a condition called beriberi among populations that eat almost exclusively white rice. It is caused by serious vitamin B₁ deficiency and has primarily been seen in people in Asian countries where white rice is the staple food. Symptoms include the degeneration of peripheral nerves as well as gastrointestinal disorders, mental illness, abnormal swelling of the heart and tachycardia, which in severe cases can lead to death by heart failure.
Although industrial refining processes that preserve a large amount of the nutrients in rice have been developed, involving a preparatory steaming treatment, and hybrid species with added nutrients are also now available (“golden rice”, for example, on the market since 2000, appears yellow because of the added carotene), excess consumption of white rice without adequate complementary foods can result in a vitamin B deficiency that may lead to beriberi. In addition, frequent consumption of refined rice tends to cause constipation.
There are many different types of rice but basically two distinctions: those that consist of separate grains, and glutinous rice that sticks together in a gooey mass. The latter variety is very rich in soluble starch, dextrin and maltose and due to its glutinous properties is largely used in sweets and cakes. The former type is what is commonly used in cooking; it is easily digested, palatable when simply cooked in water and can be eaten hot or cold, making a very versatile source of fat-free carbohydrate. 

Rice As An Energy Food
Carbohydrates should form the basis of the human diet, particularly for athletes, as they provide the energy that is used by the muscles and the brain. Whether a diet is aimed at losing weight or bulking up, rice is the special ingredient that guarantees it is effective.
As we mentioned above, in the world of fitness and bodybuilding where athletes take their body fat levels to extreme lows it is very common to find them achieving this on a diet largely consisting of rice and boiled chicken. This provides their body with the two essential elements: carbohydrates and protein, with an almost total absence of fat.
Generally this provides good result, but they could be much better if wholegrain or brown rice was used instead of white rice. The worst thing about white rice is actually not that it has lost most of its fibre and vitamin content, but that its glycemic index (GI) is much higher than the unrefined grains. This means it is more rapidly absorbed into the system, creating quickly elevated levels of blood sugar and a consequent insulin spike. Insulin is released to transport excess blood sugar to the muscles and liver to be stored as glycogen, and also to adipose tissue to be stored as fat as an energy reserve.
Rice is a complex carbohydrate, meaning it is made up of long glucose chains, and thus is digested slowly, but it still has a high GI. The glycemic index is a fairly new tool scientists use to control hyperglycaemia, or high blood sugar, having discovered that different carbohydrates stimulate the release of insulin at different rates depending on whether they are simple or complex, fast or slow.
The GI classifies foods by how quickly they raise blood sugar and stimulate insulin release from the pancreas. The higher the GI of a certain food, the higher blood sugar rises after it is eaten and the greater the consequent insulin release. A glycemic index of around 50-55 is considered low, while anything above 70 is high.
Now, white rice has a GI of almost 80, and those rice cakes so popular amongst dieters have a GI of 82 whereas the GI of wholegrain rice scarcely surpasses 50. Let me remind you of the importance of fibre, which has been eliminated from white rice: it promotes bowel movement, helps eliminate cholesterol, lowers the probability of suffering heart disease, drastically reduces the risk of certain types of cancer, particularly colon cancer, as well as slowing the digestion of carbohydrates and the speed at which they convert to glucose, that is, reducing glycemic index. 

More Energy, Less Fat, Better Health With Wholegrain Rice
You may be thinking, “What’s the big deal? Plenty of bodybuilders get defined and lose fat eating chicken and white rice”. Well, that’s true, but it is more a consequence of the reduction in calories in their diets and other complementary factors like aerobic exercise, etc. If we look at the glycemic index, clearly white rice is not the best dietary source of carbohydrates, because it over stimulates insulin release. Evidently wholegrain or brown rice is a much more healthy and effective choice.
Given that fibre and fats slow down the absorption of carbohydrates and reduce their GI, then if you must eat white rice be sure to combine with other foods rich in fibre and a little linseed oil, for example.
As you can see, the best option is to replace white rice in your diet with wholegrain rice, and after all, it tastes better anyway.