06/19/2012
Part of what makes choosing the healthiest rice difficult is the many, many varieties. Last week, Padmaja asked whether a particular brand of rice that claims to be good for diabetics because it has a low Glycemic Index (GI) number is truly good. (The GI describes how quickly a food is converted into glucose or blood sugar, and how much of it. The lower the GI number, the better.)
Here is the Basmati rice brand she asked about: http://www.amazon.com/Laxmi-Basmati-Lower-Glycemic-Diabetics/dp/B0077S75NI.
It's too bad I don't have a good answer about this specific brand. This is because I can't find a GI number done by an independent (and thus unbiased) academic lab for this particular rice, as I can for others.
But by looking at the various rice varieties studied by academic centers for their GI values, I am able to explain general principles that I feel will help Padmaja and also yourself make an educated decision on what rice to eat for good health. Here they are:
1. White basmati rice has a lower GI value (which is good) than other varieties of white rice.
2. Brown rice has sometimes the same and sometimes lower GI values than white rices.
3. Parboiled rice, which is rice that is cooked in a way to make the white version soak up some nutrients (like thiamine) naturally found in the parts (bran and germ) discarded by the manufacturers, has variable GI values.
Let me address why Basmati rice seems to have a lower GI number (and is thus better if you want to control your blood glucose level) than other varieties. It turns out the starch in rice is made of mostly amylopectin and some amylose. According to a 1992 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition paper (http://www.ajcn.org/content/56/6/1034.full.pdf), most rice starch is about 20% amylose. But one rice variety had more amylose, about 28% of total starch. And this rice was the rice with the lowest GI number.
And it seems Basmati rice also has more than 20% amylose, which gives Basmati a dry quality compared to sticky rice that is more common eaten in East Asia, which contains more amylopectin and less amylose. Amylose is hard for us to digest compared with amylopectin, which is digested quickly and with ease. And this biochemical fact is why the amount of sugar in our blood (as measured by the GI) is less when we eat amylose-heavy rice like Basmati. (A source of this information is http://www.netwellness.uc.edu/question.cfm/66613.htm.)
Let me now address parboiled rice. This is white rice which is also called converted rice, made by partially boiling raw (brown) rice so that the starchy endosperm (ie, the white rice) will absorb some nutrients like thiamine from the bran and germ. Thus, even after processing the nutrients stay in the white rice. As this site explains, the GI number varies widely between different parboiled rice varieties: http://www.healthynerd.com/2007/06/16/three-rice-options-for-diabetics.
I really like this brochure from the Canadian Diabetes Association, which explains what variety of rice (and other grains including breads) fall into what GI category (low or good, medium, and high or bad): http://www.diabetes.ca/files/GlycemicIndex_08.pdf. I have pasted that information below. Note that in this table that parboiled rice seems better in terms of GI than even brown rice or Basmati rice. (Of course, this table says nothing about the nutritional value of brown rice, which is generally better than parboiled.)
Finally, here's a tabulation of GI numbers for various Basmati rice varieties from Dr. Mendosa's website. The lowest GI Basmati in this table is the Sainsbury's brand, which seems to be available only in the UK.
Source: David Mendosa. Revised International Table of Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL) Values—2008. Hosted on Mendosa.com. http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm.
So if you're in the US, Canada, Australia or India, the table of GI for Basmati rice may not help. But remember the general principles.
1. White basmati rice has a lower GI value (which is good) than other varieties of white rice.
2. Brown rice has sometimes the same and sometimes lower GI values than white rices.
3. Parboiled rice, which is rice that is cooked in a way to make the white version soak up some nutrients (like thiamine) naturally found in the parts (bran and germ) discarded by the manufacturers, has variable GI values.
Knowing these principles, you'll know that Basmati is a healthier variety. This is because it has a low to medium GI value, which means less of it is turned into sugar as the same amount of rice from a different variety.
Some of you may be wondering: Would brown Basmati rice be healthier? Yes, in general.
Why? Well the GI value will be the same or lower than white Basmati rice. Plus, brown Basmati rice has more fiber and nutrients like thiamine and folic acid than does white Basmati rice, even if parboiled. (But strictly by GI value and not overall nutrition, parboiled white Basmati rice may be better for diabetics.)
So something like this is what I'd suggest is the healthiest variety of Basmati rice: http://www.amazon.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Basmati-27-Ounce/dp/B004VLVEMM.
In general, Basmati rice, white (parboiled) or brown varieties, are better for you than other varieties of rice.
