Why do doctors think white rice is bad for you

In terms of nutrition, white rice carries much less value than its closest relative, brown rice. White rice is fast-digesting, quickly converted into sugar and feels full for a short amount of time. Brown rice is processed slowly and thus creates a constant flow of energy needed by the muscles.

White rice is a fast carbohydrate found in white bread, flour cakes, and most breakfast cereals. It is less nutritious than whole grains, and Roxanne B., a Cleveland Clinic physician and director of his own wellness center, calls white rice "empty carbohydrate" because it has little or no nutritional value.

In Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America, Sakol told author and chef Michael Roelman that her biggest nutritional concerns are these "empty carbs." With rice, they can be easily avoided by substituting brown for white. But insidious carbohydrates lurk in many other foods: granola, baked goods, pizza and pasta.

Foods high in fast carbohydrates have been linked to weight gain and obesity. The results of 50 studies related to diet and weight gain, published in the journal Food and Nutrition Research, showed that the more processed grains a person eats (such as white bread or rice), the more weight they gain by the end of the study. Conversely, the more whole grains in the diet (for example, whole wheat bread or brown rice), the lower the subject's weight.

Fast Carbs come from the same grains as their whole grain counterparts. However, in the plant, food manufacturers remove the nutritious, fiber-rich shells. As a result, refined grains contain less protein, fiber and vitamins than whole grains.
Kara Anselmo, a nutritionist and physician at the New York Cancer Center, says another problem with fast carbs is that they can easily be eaten too much.

“It is definitely easiest to overdo it with drinks, fast carbs and foods with added sugar - these are the foods we often eat out of control,” she says.

However, this does not mean that all carbs are bad. Instead of banning customers from eating bread and rice, Anselmo advises replacing them with healthier alternatives like whole grain bread and brown rice.

“People need to understand which carbohydrates are nutritious,” says Sakol Rulmanu. These include fruits, vegetables, many beans, which Sakol says contain "fiber" that slows down their conversion to sugar.

Some recent research suggests that the best diets are based on whole grains, vegetables, and lean meats. U.S. News & World Report reviewed the best diets and described plant-based diets that are based on whole grains and vegetables as "great for the environment, heart health, weight maintenance, and overall health."

If you want to make simple dietary changes to improve your health, try starting with carbohydrates.

Kordopolova M. Yu.