There was a time, long, long ago where young Josh believed that brown rice was an important part of a healthy diet.
Brown rice used to be on my plate every night and I used to hate it.
Back when I first started learning about health and fitness I was intense and strict with what I would eat. Foods that tasted horrible but were healthy went down my throat. Even gross ass tasting supplements.
Well years have passed and new information has been learned and applied.
Not that long ago, I would say maybe 4 years ago I was reading an article that was explaining that white rice was superior to brown rice. You should have seen my face when I read that statement. I was confused and didn’t really understand why I’ve been lied to for so long.
Being the curious person I am, I kept reading and towards the end of the article there was nothing I could argue with in the article. And after making the switch and experimenting with white rice myself, I have to agree.
White Rice Is Superior to Brown Rice
Why?
Let me break it down for you:
The bran and germ are still intact with brown rice which makes it a lot harder for your body to digest it
People with Leaky Gut Syndrome should avoid brown rice at all costs. With white rice you don’t have to worry about destroying your gut. It’s a lot easier for your body to digest white rice and use it for its purposed.
Refueling your glycogen levels after an intense workout.
Brown rice has phytates and lectins which bind to vitamins and minerals, blocking absorption
I know a lot of people claim that they eat brown rice for their higher vitamins and minerals content but when you look at a food that has high levels of phytates and lectins like brown rice then you start to question weather your actually absorbing all the vitamins and minerals that brown rice provides.
Brown rice reduces protein digestibility and nitrogen balance
If you don’t know anything about what your nitrogen balance is don’t worry, your probably not alone, probably. I mean it’s not a very talked about subject in fitness but it is important. Protein is the only macro-nutrient that have nitrogen in it.
Knowing that, this nitrogen balance thing should be pretty self explanatory. If you have a negative nitrogen balance then that means your amino acid supply to your muscles is very low. So you’re not feeding them the nutrients they need to grow.
If you have a positive nitrogen balance then you’re where you want to be. In terms of gaining mass.
With that little explanation I hope you were able to take in the importance of having a positive nitrogen balance.
Eating brown rice, especially on a consistent basis is hindering your results. Just think how much bigger you’d be if you started eating white rice.
Brown rice just taste way better then brown rice
Why would anyone optin for a dry and bland version of rice when there’s already a version so fluffy and delicious that everyone should want to eat it.
Adding seasonings* and some grass fed butter into the rice after it’s done cooking makes for an even more orgasmic tasting rice.
*Seasionings
Pink Himalayan Salt
Any Flavor God Seasoning (I’m not affiliated with them, I just like their seasonings)
Who Should Eat White Rice?
Plain and simple, white rice should be eaten by people that are very active, meaning they have an activity (job, sport, etc) that requires a lot of movement and burns a lot energy. And on top of that they train in the gym 3 to 4 times a week.
I recently read a book by Nate Miyaki called The Truth About Carbs, he explains since very active people are burning tremendous amounts of calories in their everyday life (not including working out) they have to make sure they’re replenishing their glycogen stores so they don’t start burning other sources like amino acids. (MUSCLES!)
When you’re body doesn’t have any more glucose or glycogen (your bodies first source of energy) to make energy with then your smart ass body will look somewhere else for the needed energy.
This is when your body starts burning fat and muscle tissue.
If your focus is fat loss then this should sound attractive to you but it’s not, I’ll explain.
The main goal in transforming your body into what you want it to be is to add on muscle while minimizing the fat stores OR burn as much body fat while minimizing muscle loss. Depending on the person and their goals, one of these options is what every gym goer is looking for.
When you try to lose fat by depleting your glucose and glycogen stores (low carbing it) while trying to maintain a highly active life style then you’re going to start losing muscle mass while burning fat.
This is what we’re trying to avoid. So here’s a little secret.
If you want to burn fat while minimizing muscle loss all you have to do is concentrate on total calories.
See everyone has their own specific calorie requirements to maintain their body as is. With this number you can either decrease it (fat loss) or increase it (gaining muscle or fat). Your macros can be anything but should reflect on you energy demands (how much energy you burn throughout the day).
If you’re active and also workout on top of that then you have to make sure your getting at least 40-50% of your calories from carbs. The more active the closer you should be to 50%. This will make sure you maintain good glycogen stores so your body doesn’t dig into your muscles for energy.
Protein should be 30-35% of total calories and the remaining should come from fat.
And don’t sweat it, if your goal is fat loss you’ll still burn fat if you’re in a calorie deficit.
The only people I don’t recommend eating white rice are people that are sedentary. If you sit for most of the day and come home to more sitting then you don’t need many carbs to replenish your glucose levels or glycogen stores.
Since you didn’t really exert much energy throughout the day your stores are pretty much at their max and if you’re eating without mindfulness then the calories you’re eating are spilling over into fat stores.
So the question, “who should eat white rice?”, really all depends on the individual.
You know yourself the best so with the information in this post you’ll be able to answer the question.
What’s the Best White Rice to Eat?
I’m not going to sit here and tell you one white rice is better then another one. In my eyes all white rice is pretty much the same. Fast digesting and absorbing.
What I am going to tell you is that when I talk about white rice I’m not talking about the highly processed shoprite brand white rice.
If you want to eat rice I invite you to try Jasmine White Rice. I’ve been eating it for years and it’s definitely my favorite. There’s a nice sweet fragrance when cooking the rice and it comes out nice and sticky.
