It has long been thought in Paleo circles that white rice—if consumed as part of a Perfect Health Diet
styled Paleo (Paleo + starch as white rice)—is basically just a means of providing carbohydrate but not really much of anything else.
Though it’s fine to get a reasonable amount of starch carbage (30% of kcal daily is a good mark) via something that’s actually food-like, I think it’s not quite accurate to dismiss potential real health benefits to rice: parboiled rice.
Here’s from the Wikipedia article:
Parboiled rice (also called converted rice) is rice that has been partially boiled in the husk. The three basic steps of parboiling are soaking, steaming and drying.[1] These steps also make rice easier to process by hand, boost its nutritional profile (other than its vitamin-B content, which is denatured) and change its texture. About 50% of the world’s paddy production is parboiled. The treatment is practiced in many parts of the world such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Guinea, South Africa, Italy, Spain, Nigeria, Thailand, Switzerland, USA and France.[2] […]
Parboiling drives nutrients, especially thiamine, from the bran to endosperm,[3] hence parboiled white rice is 80% nutritionally similar to brown rice. Because of this parboiling was adopted by North American rice growers in the early 20th century.
The starches in parboiled rice become gelatinized, then retrograded after cooling. Through gelatinization, alpha-amylose molecules leach out of the starch granule network and diffuse into the surrounding aqueous medium outside the granules[4] which, when fully hydrated are at maximum viscosity.[5] The parboiled rice kernels should be translucent when wholly gelatinized. Cooling brings retrogradation whereby amylase molecules re-associate with each other and form a tightly packed structure. This increases the formation of type 3-resistant starch which can act as a prebiotic and benefit gut health in humans.[6] [emphasis added]
OK, that takes care of a couple of the items, higher nutrition and more resistant starch. But how about glycemic index? Here’s a source, but there are many.
Parboiled rice has double the fiber than you’d get from cooked white rice. It has a low glycemic score of 38, compared with a high 89 for white rice, notes Harvard Health Publications. A low glycemic score indicates that the carbohydrates in parboiled rice do not cause a large spike in blood sugar. [emphasis added]
That right there is good evidence that the resistant starch levels are higher, since we have so manny anecdotes of blood glucose blunting by taking potato starch sometime before or with a meal. RS slows digestion, so you’re getting about the same amount of carbs, just over a longer period of time.
Mark Sisson even highlighted the interesting aspects of parboiled rice as compared to brown and white back in this 2010 post: How Bad is Rice, Really? Of parboiled rice, he writes:
Parboiled rice is interesting. Parboiling involves partially boiling the intact rice seed – husk, bran, and all. This, in theory, is supposed to incorporate some of the bran’s nutrients into the interior. The parboiled rice is then dried and milled, producing a white rice with greater nutrient content than regular white rice. How does it pan out? A 100g raw dose contains:
- 81 g carb
- 2 g fiber
- 1 g fat
- 7.5 g protein
- 0.224 mg thiamin
- 5 mg niacin
- 0.74 mg iron
- 27 mg magnesium
It kinda works. There’s very little mineral change from white rice (perhaps even a reduction), but some of the vitamins seem to increase by parboiling. Interesting.
Yep Mark, indeed it is. One thing I was not able to find was a source for phytic acid levels in parboiled rice, compared to brown rice or plain polished white rice. Perhaps someone can dig that up if available and drop it in comments.
Update: I should mention that I also typically increase the nutrition even further by cooking it in the rice cooker with Kitchen Basics chicken stock. Two cups of Uncle Ben’s Original Parboiled rice to a 1-quart container of the stock. Leftover rice goes immediately into the fridge for cooling and to later make my now favorite fried rice dish: Chicken Fried Rice, Filipino Sinangag (Garlic Fried Rice) Inspired.
sootedninjas 
Toby Akurit 
Edward 
Brad 
Diane 
Nathan
on a very limited budget here. I can’t afford the parboiled stuff, but I do buy the 5 pound bags of long grain white rice. How do I maximize the RS content? Is it best to NOT soak and rinse the rice before cooking until the water runs clear (as I would have done in the past.)
Here’s how I prepare my rice: After cooking in the rice cooker I let that rice cool, then put it in the fridge for a few hours. Then I’d fry it up (and maybe add some flavor to it like hot sauce, other spices.) Then I’d put that in the fridge and I’ll eat it cold later. Does this work for at least a little RS? thanks
not sure where you are located BUT I’m @ Sacramento, CA
I found in WinCo converted rice also known as parboiled rice @ $0.40 per pound.
Yep Mart, but try to find parboiled or converted rice in your budget. Or, less rice, more beans and taters but make the rice parboiled. Also, check out my fried rice recipe in the update to the post. That was breakfast, this morning. I took 2 T of PS beforehand and BG maxed at 125 eating about 2 cups worth of that fried rice.
Mart, I just bought 20 lbs. of parboiled rice at a local Indian market, at $.80 per lb. It says grown in the US, but marketed to Indians, “Raja Foods”. I don’t know what regular Uncle Ben rice is in the grocery store, but on Amazon, one type of Uncle Ben’s was around $1.30 per lb. before shipping and tax. Also we got some big plantains there at $.99 per lb. I’m going to make dried plantain chips for the New Years party.
Our save a lot sells parboiled rice a 20 pound bag for just under $10 that’s pretty much .50cent a pound was the same price as the white rice. We just picked up a big bag plus 2 pine apples 9 pound of bananas and 6 pounds of sweet potatoes we paid $18.99 for all of that.
Sams’ s Club…25 lbs. Converted rice for $11.00
Richard,
The “subscribe without commenting” link does not work for me
Ellen, yes, I am aware. I got that fixed, but moved the site to a new host on Friday. Now it’s broken again. I’ll get on it this week.
I have been using the Uncle Ben’s stuff since this whole RS thing started here. It has a different taste than normal white rice, which I had switched to from brown rice. I like the taste of it immensely. I will try the fried rice thing. My daughter in law’s mom is Filipina so I have had the wonderful lumpia as well.
@Cathy
want more RS in your Asian dish. then eat more Pancit made with rice vermicelli or mung bean starch. looks like a clear transparent noodle. or Fresh lumpia made of thin egg wrapper then dip in garlic sauce. maybe even add some potato starch to the garlic sauce AFTER the sauce has been cooked and cooled.
now I’m finally hungry. stopping by the Asian Market in an hour.
I am absolutely doing pancit next week. Back in 83/4 in college, a girlfriend had a live in philipina aunt (Lola) who once showed me how she make her pancit (and lumpia, and chicken adobo, etc). Wish I could remember. But I’m sure I’ll get along. 🙂
yeah there are a lot of recipes available in the net BUT none can come close to the way my lola does it, “old world” style and with lots of love 🙂 I’ll finish a whole platter.
OMG…LUMPIA!!
Are rice noodles also a source of resistant starch?
Here’s the whole list of what has resistant starch. Yes, rice noodles are a decent source.
https://freetheanimal.com/2013/08/resistant-starch-content-of-foods-other-anecdote-and-miscellania.html
yeah. Vietnamese Noodles soup with tendons. FTW !
I’ve tried finding this stuff in the Netherlands, but I have no idea of what it’s called.
Also on the phytic acid, white rice has very little phytic acid to begin with. I don’t think parboiling would reduce it’s contents significantly though.
Reddy NR and others. Food Phytates, 1st edition, CRC Press, 2001, pages 30-32: PHYTATE41
As Percentage of Dry Weight
Sesame seeds dehulled 5.36
Brown rice 0.84 – 0.94
Parboiled brown rice 1.60
Milled (white) rice 0.2
I’m not sure how to make sense of that, but if anything, it indicates the phytates don’t change much. As long as it’s not a staple I wouldn’t worry about those, anyway.
CHeers.
Hi Nils,
You don’t start with white rice and then parboil it. Parboiled rice starts as ordinary brown rice, husk and all that is boiled to an extent, dried and then milled the way brown rice is usually milled to make white rice, only this way it produces parboiled rice which is also white.
Regards,
Edward
It’s simply called ‘parboiled rijst’: http://www.ah.nl/appie/zoeken?rq=parboiled
Is this the same as Minute Rice?
Charlie.
Nope, not really, though I don’t know the RS of minute rice. Could be higher. I suppose they are parboiling longer or something. I’m talking about Uncle Ben’s Original Converted or Parboiled rice.
manage subscription is NOT working for me right now. So I just make a comment and click on follow-up comments option
Soot, yea, there was a prob with that before that I got fixed and it broke again in the move. I’ll get it fixed again this next week.
Parboiled basmati rice is called Sella Rice. It needs to be soaked for at least 4 hours before cooking.
out of curiosity I tested my BG.
1) after a 1 hour HIT workout (30 secs recumbent bike all out sprint HR 154 Mets 10.1 by 90 seconds rest by 8 reps + 45 minutes upper body 5×5 lift)
2) 1 hour after a post workout shake that has 50g of Whey Protein Isolate/Hydrolized + 15g Maltodextrin + 10g Creatine Mono + 5g L-Glutamine + 10g Leucine
3) 1 hour after a post workout meal
4) 2 hours after a post workout meal
It is basically my smallish CARB Backload protocol. Unfortunately, I do not have numbers to compare before I started my RS protocol. Been doing RS for about 3 weeks now. Also, I’m cyclic LCHF Paleo whatever that means. Anyway, here are the numbers.
1:35 PM BG 79 – After HIT Workout
1:40 PM PWO Shake
2:40 PM BG 83
2:40 PM PWO Meal – 1lb steak, 3 eggs, avocado, plate of veggies, 1.5 cup garlic fried rice
3:00 PM Finished Meal
4:00 PM BG 100
5:00 PM BG 96
Was pleasantly surprised the I did not even hit 100+.
thoughts anyone ?
soot,
Those numbers look fantastic. Have you tested your numbers after a large carb meal without the HIT session. It will be interesting to see the comparision.
Please tell me that is not your regular PWO shake. You are probably wasting a lot of protein as one cannot synthesize more than 25 to 30 protein at a time. You might be better off to split your 50g pre and post workout. You are definitely taking more than twice the needed creatine- your body only needs about 3 – 5 g after your muscles have been saturated, which happens after about 30 days on a 5g dose. Leucine is probably an overkill too as your protein should already contain the required amounts.
T-Nat
yes. That is my regular post workout shake. It is based on Keifer’s Carb Backloading. I can’t articulate it clearly BUT it was explained in detail why on his book.
I don’t eat a large carb meal unless after a heavy workout. I tend to gain weight really fast if I do and the craving comes back hard. Although, I do 2 heavy workouts weekly sometimes even 3 when my HRV indicates I recovered already.
The first week I tried RS, I added more safe starches on my daily meal but it affected my active recovery workouts (Kung Fu and Tai Chi) because I felt heavy, dense and slow so I cut that off immediately. Will try that again after 3 more weeks and see if my body adjusted appropriately on my RS protocol.
However, the RS protocol is showing positive effects like great sleep, excellent bowel movement even on a day of high magnesium supplementation, BG control and second meal effect. I started tracking me FBG 2 days before I started RS and up the 1st week of the RS protocol my FBG was around 95-105. In the last few days it has been trending down to around 85-93.
sootedninja, thanks for the great info. what are you using to track your HRV?
Thanks.
I use emwave2 for meditation purposes BUT I also use it for HRV. What I do 1st thing I wake up is measure my FBG then a 5 minute HRV session using emwave2. I extract the RR data and import to Kubios to measure RMSSD which translate to HRV.
The BG looks great but what about the Cholesterol?
It’s not the same as minute rice. Minute rice is *completely* cooked and then dried out. Parboiled rice is *partially* cooked.
Today as an experiment I added a shot glass full of SCD EM Probiotics to my 2T Potato Starch. First thing AM empty stomach. I was expecting massive gas but got just the opposite. No gas at all – but also a massive headache. I’m suspecting some dehydration and/ or salt depletion but in trying repleting those only partially lifted the headache. Not sure what to make of this but reporting it anyway.
Hi JeffM, could it be that there are tyramines in the probiotic that caused the headache? The PS may have amplified the probiotic effects: http://www.relieve-migraine-headache.com/food_with_tyramine.html
Does dry oatmeal, which I understand is high in RS, lose any RS when soaked, not cooked, just soaked like you’d do beans? And, does it matter if it’s rolled or steel cut?
If you don’t heat it, retains 100% of RS. Whatever the diff is, if there is one, between rolled and steel cut, it would be the same after a soak.
Perhaps the Swiss with their Muesli have been onto something all along.
I’m half Swiss and have been eating oats all my life, Muesli included. Now I soak it, drain it, add ghee and cinnamon, cool it, then eat it with a little cream…
Charlie,
Rolled oats are steamed…so RS is mostly lost. Steel cut should have all the RS as in raw oats and try soaking in yogurt overnight. Throw in some raw honey as well while soaking. The good bacteria in yogurt should breakdown raw completely- meaning, the thick solid raw honey will completely melt. I did it for a while, it’s pretty good. But I am not sure of the phytates so I don’t do it any more.
T-Nat
Thanks T-Nat for the info, but like I said to Richard, I’ve eaten oats all my life without any ill effects and I’m 67, lean and in great health, so I’m not sure what oat phytates are suppose to do, but they don’t seem to do it to me.
Another question…If soaking beans then cooking them, then cooling them creates retrograde RS, why wouldn’t that same process hold for steel cut oats?
Yogurt and I don’t get along…and I’m from a long line of dairymen and milk drinkers…go figure.
To further clarify the yogurt comment…it’s milk, kefir and yogurt I don’t get along with (sinus congestion and heartburn…no gut issues) and I tolerate butter and a little cream.
I also get heartburn from nearly all fermented foods.
“If soaking beans then cooking them, then cooling them creates retrograde RS, why wouldn’t that same process hold for steel cut oats?”
Charlie, that’s a question I have as well. Wonder if the coating of bacteria on beans has something to do with the RS conversion. Maybe, Richard or Tatertot Tim can help us with it.
T-Nat
So, was this question about cooking and cooling steel-cut oats ever answered? I make large batches (I get gluten-free and add hemp, pumpkin, or chia seeds), freeze individual portions, and eat with blueberries for breakfast. I’ve been eating them on and off for 2 years, and I feel my bowel function is always better when I’ve been eating oats.
Try asian markets. 50% of the worlds rice production is supposedly parboil processed. Hard to believe that it can’t be found in the USA.
Paraboiled rice is so widely available in the USA. Heck, I buy mine from Costco. It’s available on Amazon. And I guarantee you will find it at any Indian grocery store. You need to try a little bit harder next time. Also, it is usually cheaper than white or brown rice.
T-Nat
As someone mentioned parboiled rice is fairly easy to recognize as the rice kernels are translucent (semi tranparent) versus opaque white of normal rice.
I don’t like that I the Uncle Bens is enriched with iron and such. Anyone else found another brand?
@Diane, search Amazon, there are lots.
@Natural, yeah seems steel cut would have all the anti-nutrients of raw grains, not only phytates. I once soaked and sprouted some wheat berries then fermented them along with some home made kefir. It was pretty good. The wheat made for a nice chewy texture in the kefir. Not a quick process but tasty and healthy.
What’s the consensus on arsenic levels in rice? I see the RS benefit of rice, but the threat of toxins outweighs the benefit for me.
I have been following along with the RS articles faithfully and was still under the impression that
brown rice was best for RS…
So, I went to Nijiya Japanese market in SF and picked up a ‘partially milled’ Japanese Brown Rice.
Cooks up nice and fluffy in the rice cooker at the same amount of time as white rice.
The cooked rice immediately goes in the fridge and I usually pull it out and let it get to room temp
before eating. I imagine this is still OK for RS?
Am I getting the same amount of RS, more or less, with ‘partially milled’ brown rice as the parbroiled Uncle Ben’s white?
…I did look on the internet for a bit, but couldn’t find my answer.
I have a ton of brown rice, but will switch to Uncle Ben’s if it is better overall than brown.
@Nathan
No, not the same. It is the parboiling that increases the RS, not the milling process.