Can Rice Be Healthy For You?

by James Frankie

Is rice healthy for you? Many people think that starchy foods like breads, rice and pasta are fattening but in reality they are not. If you add fats like margarine, oil, mayonnaise, cheese sauce or gravy to them, you will be adding many extra calories. Grain products such as bread, cereal, rice, and pasta are good for you as they are important sources of carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.

Rice is the principal food in Asia and most rice is eaten in the country where it is grown and it is the main reason why Asian diets are so low in saturated fat. The finished product of paddy rice is a long black grain that you can find on most grocery store shelves. Asians view rice as the focus of the meal while Americans tend to view rice as a side dish to a meat-centered diet.

Cooking rice is simple; all you have to do is to simmer it until the rice is cooked soft. If you don’t have a rice cooker, you can always use an oven or a pot. Mill-husked rice is more expensive than wholly unpolished rice. You can clearly notice the difference between paddy rice and wild rice during the cooking process.

When you remove the outer inedible husk from a rice grain, you will get the brown rice. Brown rice has a light tan coating which is very nutritious and high in fiber and it is quite chewy and taste like nut. The fiber in brown rice is very useful for controlling the blood sugar level so anyone with diabetes problem should treat brown rice as a staple.

The fiber in brown rice can also help to protect you against colon cancer since fiber binds to cancer-causing chemicals, keeping them away from the cells lining the colon, plus it can help normalize bowel function, reducing constipation. While traditional brown rice requires about 45 minutes of cooking time, quick-fix brown rice is now available that takes only 10 minutes to prepare.

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