It’s easy to get more fibre if you are a frequent rice eater. Just replace white rice with brown rice that contains much more fibre.

Why you should have brown rice

Researchers at the American Heart Association recommend eating six to eight servings of wholegrain foods a day. Brown rice is one of the world’s healthiest wholegrain due to the high presence of fibre content. Fibre causes food to stay in stomach longer. This makes you feel full and your blood sugar doesn’t go up quickly after you eat.

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Brown rice contains the entire grain – the bran, germ and endosperm. Bran and germ is removed in white rice to give it a finer texture. This process strips the grain of important nutrients, leaving pretty much nothing but carbohydrates that increase blood sugar.

Portion control is very crucial to make this gluten-free carbohydrate a nutrient rich food. A serving of brown rice doesn’t have too many calories but it has a high nutrient content certainly. This makes it an overall healthy rice choice.

What are the benefits of brown rice

It is a gluten-free food as long as it is not contaminated by gluten substances. Most of the gluten-free grains lack fibre and B vitamins but they’re in plenty in brown rice.

It provides a good amount of dietary fibre required by your body.

Providing nutrients like thiamine (Vitamin B1), riboflavin (Vitamin B2), niacin (Vitamin B3), vitaminB6, copper, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, iron and selenium, brown rice helps in forming new cells, carrying oxygen in the blood, regulating thyroid and maintaining healthy immune system.

It may help in losing weight by making you feel full for longer and eating less.

Having a low glycaemic index, brown rice may help control blood sugar.

By binding cholesterol in digestive system which causes it to be excreted by the body, the healthy rice choice may control blood cholesterol.

It prevents constipation and hard bowel movements.

Due to the presence of large amount of plant ligans, this healthy whole grain shields against heart diseases. Being a rich source of magnesium and selenium, it significantly improves heart health and decreases cardiovascular risk factors.

Absorbing and producing the digestive enzymes, developing bone health, forming immune system defences are the benefits of brown rice due to the abundance of manganese content. The nutrient combats many health issues, including weakness, infertility and bone malformation. Manganese also helps to absorb calcium properly and metabolise carbohydrates.

When you plan your diet for the week, it’s important to include a variety of whole grains because each differs from other in types of nutrient contents.

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