Wikipedia says
“Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima. As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world’s human population, especially in East and South Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the West Indies. It is the grain with the second-highest worldwide production, after maize (corn).
We are more interested in how we can prepare it and what nutritional value it has for us. The most common type of rice in the US is white long-grain.
100g or 3.5 oz of raw rice has
Calories – 365
Carbohydrates – 80 g
Sugars – .12 g
Fiber – 1.3 g
Fat – .66 g
Protein – 7.13
GI of boiled long grain white rice – 64 where 0-55 is low, 56-69 is med and over 70 is high
Serving size is 1 cup = 36 g of carbs
GL per serving is 23 where 0-10 is low, 11-19 is med and over 20 is high maxing out around 60
How To Cook Rice
Most rice can be cooked by boiling 1 cup of rice in 2 cups of water for around 20 minutes. The way I prefer is to use a rice cooker. The following is a video of Jamie Oliver showing you how to cook rice.
The Glycemic Index and Load
We on the Fat Farm are interested in eating well but eating things that will keep our blood sugar in the 60-80 mg/dl range. That is the concentration of milligrams of glucose in deciliters of our blood. Rice is all over the Glycemic Index depending on which type you choice. Before I get into the index values of the various rice types, I want to confuse you some more.
The GI compares foods at the same carbohydrate level, rating their ability to raise your blood sugar, with glucose being 100. This is the Quality of the food. Since different foods contain various amounts of carbohydrates we need an index that shows the blood sugar effect by volume. That is the Glycemic Load indicator. The GL measures the Quantity of carbohydrate in a food. The GL is a much more accurate measurement of the effect of the food on our blood sugar. The glycemic load of a food is calculated by multiplying the glycemic index by the amount of carbohydrate in grams provided by a food and dividing the total by 100.
Neither the GI nor the GL are easy concepts to grasp, but for the health of our pancreas it is important that we try.
Notice in the list below that Jasmine Rice has a higher GI rating than Glucose itself. That means that Jasmine Rice will spike your blood sugar very quickly.
Types of Rice and Their Loads
There are literally hundreds of different kinds of rice and most even very by country. Here are a couple to contemplate.
[one_fifth] Type
white Rice
Brown Rice
Basmati Rice
Jasmine Rice
[/one_fifth] [one_fifth]
GI
64
55
58
109[/one_fifth] [one_fifth]
Serving Size
1 cup
1 cup
1 cup
1 cup[/one_fifth] [one_fifth]
Carbs/serving
36
33
38 [/one_fifth] [one_fifth_last]
GL/Serving
23
18
22
46[/one_fifth_last]
To sum it up – Brown rice good, white long grain rice OK, Jasmine rice Bad.
Farm On You Fat Farmers. Let me know if you have any questions – Jughandle