Brown rice better than white

There is a prevailing misconception that the whiter the color of a rice, the better. This is because well-milled or polished rices are believed to be cleaner and have better qualities.

Wrong. The fact is unpolished or brown rice has more calories, vitamins, minerals, essential oils and other nutrients than the white rice commonly found on the dining table of Filipinos, according to Dr. Leocadio Sebastian, executive director of the Philippine Rice Research Institute in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija.

Sebastian and Dr. Emil Q. Javier, former UP president and incumbent chairman of the Asia Rice Foundation, spearheaded the launching of the revival of brown rice consumption at the Kapihan sa Sulo recently.

Brown rice, popularly known as pinawa in Tagalog, was displaced by white rice when rice milling machines were introduced in the early 1950s. Before, palay or paddy rice, was hand-pounded using mortar and pestle or stone-grinder. This process removes only the outer hull with the brown coating or bran layer left intact. But with mechanical milling, the whole grain is polished, removing entirely the bran and giving off the white color.

But, according to Sebastian, the bran is more nutritious since it contains various minerals, fiber, oils and vitamins. Among them are important nutrients such as thiamine, an important component in mother’s milk; fiber (that helps prevent major disease like gastro-intestinal and heart ailments); and phytate which is said to inhibit some forms of cancer.

Brown rice as an excellent source of minerals has been validated by a study conducted by researchers of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology.

Rafael Ryan A. Feliciano and Dr. Trinidad P. Trinidad compared the mineral content of different rice varieties such as IR 65, IR 841, PSB RC54 (Abra) with brown rice, PSB RC 34 (Burdagol).

PSB RC 34 or Burdagol was found to be the best source of iron among the rice varieties studied, containing 13.6 mg of iron per 100g sample. It has the highest iron availability (23.5 percent), which suggests that more iron can be potentially absorbed in the gastrointestinal tracts than earlier considered.

While Burdagol was also found to be the best source of calcium and zinc, these minerals are not as readily availability for absorption compared with the rest of the rice varieties. PSB RC 54 (Abra) gave the highest calcium availability (83.5 percent), while IR 841 exhibited the highest zinc availability (44.5 percent).

The low availability of calcium (41.2 percent) and zinc (23.1 percent) in Burdagol may be due to the interaction of iron, zinc and calcium with other substances present in rice such as phytic acid, tannic acid and dietary fiber.

The higher phytic acid content (543.4 mg/100g) of Burdagol rice than of the other rice varieties inhibits availability of calcium and zinc but not iron. On the other hand. PSB RC 54 and IR 841 have higher calcium and zinc availability than Burdagol rice because both rice varieties have lower phytic acid content, 272.2 mg/100 and 141.1 mg/100g, respectively.

The tannic acid content of all rice varieties was not significant enough to inhibit mineral availability.

Brown rice, Burdagol. contains more dietary fiber (10.0g/100g) than the other rice varieties (6.1 to 7.6/100g). Studies have shown that fermentable dietary fiber does not inhibit mineral absorption. Instead. dietary fiber shifts absorption of minerals from the small intestine to the large intestine (colon). In addition, dietary fiber found in brown rice may help prevent chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes mellitus. – JB Gacusana