Why you should stop eating white rice, according to a physician


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Why you should stop eating white rice, according to a physician

Erin Brodwin

White rice (along with other refined carbohydrates) is so inferior to whole 
grains that physician Roxanne B. Suk...
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   - White rice is a refined carbohydrate, just like white bread, flour 
tortillas, and most breakfast cereals.
   - Cleveland Clinic physician Roxanne B. Sukol says refined carbs should be 
called "stripped carbs" because they've been "stripped of all their nutrition."
   - Research has tied diets high in refined carbs to weight gain and obesity.
   - But that doesn't mean all carbs are bad for you — healthy carbs include 
whole grains like brown rice, wheat bread, beans, and bran.

 

>From a nutritional standpoint, white rice pales in comparison to its whole 
>grain cousin, brown rice.

It gets digested quickly, is rapidly processed into sugar, and only fills you 
up for a short period of time. In comparison, brown rice is processed slowly, 
churning out a steady stream of fuel to power your muscles and keep you feeling 
sharp.

White rice is a refined carbohydrate, similar to those found in white bread, 
flour tortillas, and most breakfast cereals. So inferior is it to whole grains 
that Roxanne B. Sukol, a Cleveland Clinic physician and the medical director of 
its wellness enterprise, says people should simply call it a "stripped carb" — 
because it has been "stripped of all [its] nutrition."

In the book "Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America," Sukol told 
author and chef Michael Ruhlman that these "stripped carbs" were her chief 
nutritional concern. In rice, they can be easily avoided by choosing brown over 
white. But refined carbs lurk in dozens of processed foods as well, including 
granola bars, baked goods, pizzas, and pastas.

Diets high in refined carbs have been tied to weight gain and obesity. A review 
of 50 studies on diet and weight gain published in the journal Food and 
Nutrition Research found that on average, the more refined grains someone ate 
(like white bread and white rice), the more weight they tended to gain over the 
study period. By contrast, the more whole grain foods someone ate (like 
whole-wheat bread and brown rice), the less weight they tended to gain.

"Stripped carbs" start out just like their whole-grain cousins. In the factory, 
however, food makers remove the grains' nutritious, fiber-rich outer shells, 
such as the germ and bran. As a result, refined grains have less protein, 
fiber, and vitamins than whole grains.

Business Insider / Anaele Pelisson

Cara Anselmo, a nutritionist and outpatient dietitian at New York's Memorial 
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, said another problem with refined carbs like 
white rice is that they are easy to overeat.

"It's definitely easiest to overdo it with drinks, refined carbs, foods that 
have added sugar or are highly processed — those are things that we just tend 
to keep going," she told Business Insider.

This doesn't mean all carbohydrates are bad, however. Instead of telling 
clients to ban things like bread and rice from their diets, Anselmo advises 
swapping foods with refined carbs for whole grain alternatives, like brown rice 
and whole-grain bread.

Beefsteak/Facebook

"People need to understand there are nutritious carbohydrates," Sukol told 
Ruhlman. These include fruits, vegetables, many beans, and legumes, which Sukol 
said contain a "fiber matrix" that slows down how quickly they get converted to 
sugar.

Several recent studies suggest that the best diets are based around whole 
grains, vegetables, and lean proteins. US News and World Report's analysis of  
the best eating plans described plant-based diets — which have whole grains and 
vegetables as their cornerstone — as "good for the environment, your heart, 
your weight, and your overall health."

If you're looking to make a simple, healthy change to your diet, this might be 
one to try.

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