Discriminating foods based on Carbohydrates makes me real unhappy!!
Someone, who has a fat loss goal, brown rice or white rice, is not going to make any difference. “CALORIE DEFICIT” is the secret here.
Perpetuated myths lead people to believe they must exclude their favorite foods such as rice, bread, grains, potato, and many other foods and replace them with whole wheat/whole vegetable versions to lose weight or improve overall health.
I heard one of my friends saying that she is “being good and moving towards a healthy lifestyle” starting tomorrow – being Feb 1, by swapping white rice for brown.
I was a little surprised, just looking at the nutritional values. It shows that brown rice holds almost similar caloric and fiber values to white rice.
We are just misleading ourselves when we do that.
Glycemic index and glycemic load are as useful as BMI for sure.
For weight loss all that matters is:
Law of Energy balance:
- Calories in > Calories out, Weight gain
- Calories in < Calories out, Weight loss
- Calories in = Calories out, weight maintenance
No rocket Science here!
Rice aside, fiber may be the one main nutritional difference between these carb-based foods. Although there is more fiber in the less refined foods, thus offering more likelihood of satiety, this is not guaranteed. Because despite feeling fuller, we can still choose to eat more.
The real problem is palatability, some foods make us eat more simply because they’re palatable and tastier than others.
Try eating a big pack of potato chips and try eating boiled potatoes. Two products made out of the same thing.
We can’t eat boiled potatoes but we are able to eat several bags of chips.
A diet rich in fiber is advised to support overall health, gut in particular. But in terms of composition, it boils down to the same thing again – energy balance. As you can see, there is a marginal difference in calories between the both varieties of rice.
Yes, consuming higher fiber foods enhances overall health and satiety, this doesn’t mean every single food we eat must be high in fiber. No single food makes you lean or overweight.
That 2 grams extra fiber from brown rice can easily be taken in the form of vegetables, fruits. More fiber doesn’t mean healthier.
If you like the taste of brown rice good; by all means go ahead and have brown rice. For me- It’s expensive, takes more time to cook.
If you like the taste of white rice better, then have white rice. The point is to make it a lifestyle and to choose the food items that you can have on a daily basis and not for a day or two.