Q & A Thursday: is white rice as bad as eating sugar?
Posted by kathryn in Carbohydrates and Q & A Thursday
This is quite a common statement among health food people – that white rice should be avoided because it’s just like eating sugar. I can see why people say this, but it’s somewhat of a simplification.
What’s wrong with sugar
Two of the main problems with sugar are that it’s high in kiljoules and it has a high Glycemic Index (GI). Therefore if you eat sugar, not only are you consuming a lot of energy (for it’s weight and size), but it’s also not sustaining energy, so you’ll be hungry again shortly afterwards.
The other problem with sugar is that it provides “empty kilojoules”. Sugar is basically 100% carbohydrate, there’s no protein, no fibre, no vitamins, no minerals – it’s just sugar. It’s a nutrient empty food, that gives energy, but nothing else.
Is white rice as bad as sugar?
Kilojoules: white rice is lower in kilojoules than sugar – 100g of sugar has 1,600 kJ, while 100g of cooked rice has 523kJ.
Nutrient density: while white rice is primarily a carbohydrate source (79% raw and 29% cooked), it does also contain 2.3% fibre (0.8% cooked), 7% protein (2.3% cooked) and small quantities of a handful of vitamins and minerals, including some of the Bs. Not a lot of variety, but certainly better than sugar.
GI: glucose, the form of carbohydrate we use in our body, is the GI benchmark against which all other foods are compared. Glucose has been assigned the GI of 100. The sugar we put in our coffee and into cakes has a GI of about 60, so it’s actually considered a medium GI food. White rice on the other hand varies in its GI. At the bottom end of the scale, in the low GI category is basmati (58) and at the top end of the scale, with a glucose beating GI of 109, is jasmine rice.
To sum up
Eating rice is definitely better than eating sugar. Sugar gives you pure energy but nothing else, whereas at least rice also provides fibre, small amounts of protein and a handful of the micronutrients. For the most part, I encourage people to eat lower GI rices and to really cut back on the higher GI types. If you are going to have high GI rice, then make sure you’re having plenty of vegies and some protein in the same meal.
07 June, 2007
Comments
A type of rice that has a bigger sugar rush than pure glucose. Wow.
FTL – There are actually a handful of foods like this – dates (doesn’t stop me from loving them though) and some potatoes from memory.
Rice vs Sugar – equally evil?...
I found a new blog today called Limes & Lycopene, written by an Australian nutritionist. She takes a look at rice and how it stacks up against sugar. A lot of folks recommend a low carb diet, especially for diabetics, and rice is often singled out …
thanks for that Kathryn. i knew rice had to be better for you than sugar but now i know exactly why it is so! and i didn’t know that rice contained protein, so i’ve learned something new today. (actually lots of things, because i read all the other Q&A posts too!)
No problems Lindsey. An awful lot of foods do contain small amounts of protein – which all make up our total daily intake. The protein in rice and other grains, is particularly important in a vegetarian diet. Glad you are enjoying the Q & A posts and they’re proving useful.
[...] Limes & Lycopene « Q & A Thursday: is white rice as bad as eating sugar? Q & A Thursday: brown rice vs white rice » [...]
Interesting Blog. Thanks for putting this together.
A diet rich in Broccoli and Tomatoes has recently been shown to be more effective in inhibiting prostate cancer growth than a leading drug for prostate cancer. Scientists believe the active ingredients responsible for this are: Lycopene, DIM, Sulforaphane and Selenium.
More info is available at:
http://www.activamune.com/news.htm
Thanks for the info and link Mike – I’m always glad to hear news of the wonderful health benefits of lycopene and that’s interesting research.
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