Bad Carbs, Good Carbs: Un-husking the No Rice Diet

CEBU, Philippines - I recently attended a "seminar" for a networking company selling health supplements and anti-ageing products. One of the speakers, who claim to have benefited from their products, said that his quest for a better body introduced him to a variety of fad diets including the "no rice" diet believing that rice is the culprit behind his bulky tummy.

Many of us are led to believe the same thing, and for this reason, many would choose to have only half a serving of rice during meals or even do away with it altogether, preferring to instead fill-up on meat.

Is rice really that bad for the body?

Rice is carbohydrates, mostly, and depending on the variety that you prefer, some may contain varying amounts of vitamins, minerals, protein, and even omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which are also essential in cholesterol reduction and in brain function.

However, when rice or other sources of complex carbohydrates are processed, many of the nutrients that they contain would be lost. This, however, does not make rice, or other carb-loaded food bad.

Yes, carbohydrates, when in excess, are turned into fat by our body. This then get stored in areas like the tummy, the inner portions of our arms, the thighs, and buttocks, or coating our internal organs like the heart and liver.

However, since carbohydrates are the first source of energy for our body, most of that which we consume goes to powering our body up, and for this reason, if we have an active lifestyle (that is if we walk 10,000 steps in a day), we get to burn most, if not all, of those carbs that we take in.

But then again, considering the popularity of the sedentary lifestyle, it won't be a surprise if most of those carbs that we consume would accumulate in those inconvenient parts of our body. You see, unused carbs in our body would be stored as glycogen and if still not used, would eventually be converted into fats.

Complex vs. simple carbs

Carbohydrates are of two kinds: complex and simple.

Complex carbohydrates include starches and fiber. Their structures are more complex, thus would require the body to spend more time to process. They are considered good carbs as they help clean our digestive system as well as help prevent the accumulation of bad cholesterol in our body.

There are however times when food materials, that's otherwise a rich source of complex carbohydrate, are processed in factories in order to make them more versatile for our culinary demands. This includes flour and those ready to eat cereals that we so love giving our kids because they are supposedly healthy.

Essentially complex carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars through the process of digestion. However, because their structure is complex, it would take longer for them to be processed and thus the sugars that would result in its breakdown won't overwhelm our body.

On the other hand, there are the simple carbohydrates, which are mostly sugars. They are high in calories and low in nutrients, making them the culprit that must be shunned. This form of carbohydrates is what we get in candies and other sweets rich in sugar, including rich chocolate coated ice cream, pastries, soft-drinks, energy drinks, and sugar-coated cereals made of pre-processed grains.

Because their structure is simple, they are easily absorbed by the body, resulting in a sudden surge in blood sugar levels minutes after feasting. Simple carbohydrates give us that rush of energy, but once depleted, we also get that sudden decline of energy. This decline triggers a craving for more sugar and should we give in to it, would then be the culprit behind the accumulation of fats in our body via a vicious cycle that would lead us wanting for more sweets.

So, really, the misconception about carbohydrates has nothing to do with rice. Rice is good for our body as it is rich in complex carbohydrates. However, we must also be wary on the kind of rice that we eat. The less processed the rice that we choose, the better they are for the body.

One way of knowing that the variety of rice that you're having is richer in complex carbohydrates rather than the preprocessed kind, which "uncomplexes" the sugar chain on the carbohydrate, is when they remain whole even when cooked. But when they turn starchy and clumpy, it means that they've undergone so much processing that they've actually been pre-digested, making the carbohydrates more simple than complex. These varieties of rice are the ones that may not be too good for the body.

So shun carbohydrates? Definitely not. We just have to make smart choices in choosing what food to put in our mouths, because as the US Department of Health and Human Services pointed out in its 2005 "Your Guide to Lowering Your Cholesterol with TLC": "the key to weight management is really calories, not which foods they come from."

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