The New Complete Book of Food

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r Rice

(Wild rice)

See also Wheat cereals.

Nutritional Profile

Energy value (calories per serving): Moderate

Protein: Moderate

Fat: Low

Saturated fat: Low

Cholesterol: None

Carbohydrates: High

Fiber: Low to high

Sodium: Low

Major vitamin contribution: B vitamins

Major mineral contribution: Iron, calcium

About the Nutrients in This Food

All rice is a high-carbohydrate food, rich in starch, with moderate

amounts of dietary fiber. Brown rice, which has the bran (outer seed

covering), is high in fiber.

Rice’s proteins are plentiful but limited in the essential amino acids

lysine and isoleucine. All rice is low in fat, but brown rice, with its fatty

germ (the center of the seed), has about twice as much fat as white rice.

Brown rice is higher in vitamins and minerals than plain milled

white rice. Enriched white rice is equivalent to plain brown rice. All rice

is a source of B vitamins, including folates. In 1998, FDA ordered food

manufacturers to add folates—which protect against birth defects of the

spinal cord and against heart disease—to flour, rice, and other grain prod-

ucts. One year later, data from the Framingham Heart Study, which has

followed heart health among residents of a Boston suburb for nearly half

a century, showed a dramatic increase in blood levels of folic acid. Before

the fortification of foods, 22 percent of the study participants had a folic

acid deficiency; after, the number fell to 2 percent. Rice is also a source of

calcium and nonheme iron, the form of iron found in plant foods.

* Dry uncooked rice is low in sodium. Cooked rice has absorbed liquid; its sodium

content depends on the sodium content of the liquid in which it’s cooked.