My husband is working with a new chiropractor, Dr. Marie Andersson in Hendersonville, NC. I am vastly impressed with her knowledge that goes far beyond the stack ‘em and crack ‘em school of chiropractic.
Among her admonitions: Lose the white trash! That means we should eat nothing made with white flour, rice or potatoes.
Her advice: Love brown rice.
I think she’s absolutely right, although I limit my quantities even of good carbs because I think that an excess of any kind of carbohydrate is bad for my waistline.
Simple carbs are the worst. That’s because they rush through your system, spiking blood sugars just the same as if you were eating spoonfuls of sugar. Yes, that’s right, that white rice and white bread and even potatoes will put you on a blood sugar roller coaster:
Your energy is low
You eat a simple carb
Your energy increases
Your blood sugar spikes
But it crashes again a couple of hours later
You crave more simple carbs to get your energy back up
I call this the White Trash Roller Coaster.
Why brown rice instead of white? Brown rice is less refined than white rice. Only the tough husk of the rice kernel is removed during the refining process. Brown rice retains its side husk and the all-important bran, while all of those healthy components and their nutrients are removed in refining white rice.
The side husk and the bran in brown rice make it a complex carbohydrate, which means it travels through your system much more slowly than white rice, keeping you off the White Trash Roller Coaster. That means it doesn’t spike blood sugars and lead you into a nosedive a couple of hours later, craving more to get your energy levels back up.
Brown rice is far nutritionally superior to white rice: It is a rich source of iron, manganese and phosphorus and an excellent source of vitamin B3.
Brown rice has a low glycemic rating, so it can be a helpful tool in weight loss and its bulk helps keep you feeling full longer.
It’s rich in fiber, which numerous studies tell us reduces the risk of colon cancer.
It is a rich source of manganese, good for the production of energy and sex hormones and also a powerful preventer of cholesterol buildup.
It’s also a good source of magnesium, one of the many minerals essential for building strong bones.
My husband is a Filipino. Like many Asians, the consumption of large quantities of white rice every day is an essential part of his culture. Brown rice has long been considered to be lower class or unsavory in some way. Not surprisingly, diabetes is quite prevalent in the Philippines even among people who are not overweight.
It took Joe a couple of years to wean himself from the white rice habit, but his blood sugars thank him every day for that. Yours will, too.
