What should I do if I can only eat rice when eating out? Nutritionists recommend…

Friends often ask Stella that they often hear nutrition experts say "white rice is refined starch, it is best not to eat it and eat germ rice, brown rice or whole grains instead", but they cannot buy germ rice or brown rice when eating out for meals, so how should they eat it? Stella, who has been eating out since elementary school, can understand the feeling of "being in the world and having no choice", so she decided to write an article to let friends who can only eat white rice know how to balance the nutritional loss and deficiency of eating white rice with other foods^_^

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If you eat white rice instead of brown rice, which nutrients will be lost more seriously?

When we look at the nutritional differences between white rice and brown rice using information like “brown rice contains nearly 6 times the fiber of white rice, 2 times the calcium, 3.3 times the iron, 3 times the vitamin B2…”, it’s easy to feel that eating white rice is a heinous crime and that it contains much less nutrition. But from a practical perspective, not all of these descriptions of nutrient differences have substantive significance.

What is the substantive meaning? Taking vitamin B2 as an example, brown rice contains 0.06 mg of vitamin B2 per 100 grams and white rice contains 0.02 mg, so the difference between the two is three times. But did you know... the recommended daily intake of vitamin B2 is 1.6 mg? So even if you change to brown rice, every 100 grams can only contribute 3.8% of the daily requirement of vitamin B2. So it really doesn't make much sense to say that brown rice contains three times as much vitamin B2 as white rice.

Therefore, when discussing whether we can eat brown rice and can only eat white rice, we should look at the nutrients that are most seriously lost in brown rice itself, which can meet 15~20% of the daily requirement of that nutrient, because these are where the nutritional losses will be severe when we cannot eat brown rice. So if we look at it from this perspective, the nutrients that are most seriously affected by eating white rice instead of brown rice are vitamin B1, niacin and magnesium (the brown rice content of these three nutrients accounts for about 25~33% of the daily requirement), as well as fiber and vitamin E (accounting for 16~20% of the daily requirement).

Ps. Although the loss of phosphorus is also high, phosphorus is commonly found in processed foods. The main problem of Chinese people is too much phosphorus rather than not enough phosphorus, so they simply ignore the difference in phosphorus.

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Choose the right side dishes to make up for the nutritional loss of only eating white rice

Since white rice is mostly eaten with meat and vegetables, you can make up for the nutritional loss of eating white rice by simply choosing other foods rich in these nutrients to pair with rice.

• Fiber: Mainly found in vegetables and fruits, so remember to eat more vegetables to supplement fiber. Basically, as long as you can consume 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables every day, you can probably meet your fiber needs.

• Vitamin E: Because it is widely present in food, oils, nuts, and fat-rich foods all contain vitamin E, and can be stored in the body, it is rarely deficient. As long as you don't completely avoid fat or only eat low-fat foods, you don't have to worry too much about vitamin E deficiency.

• Vitamin B1: Germ is rich in vitamin B1, so you can buy wheat germ and add it to cereal flour or oatmeal; or eat some nuts and seeds such as melon seeds and peanuts every day. In addition, you can also choose pork, offal, or beans, mushrooms and other dishes to pair with white rice.

• Nicotinamide: Many foods rich in vitamin B1 are also rich in nicotinamide, so the food sources of the two are similar, but there are more foods rich in niacin in meat. In addition to pork, lean meat such as chicken, fish, shellfish, poultry and livestock are all good sources of niacin. (Although milk and eggs contain very little niacin, they are rich in tryptophan, which can indirectly provide the niacin needed by the body.)

• Magnesium: In addition to germ and whole grains, seafood such as fish, shellfish and kelp are good sources of magnesium; in terms of plant foods, beans, mushrooms, green vegetables and nuts such as melon seeds generally contain a lot of magnesium.

ps. Among the above nutrients, vitamin B1 and nicotinic acid are more important. Because rice needs to be washed, and B vitamins are water-soluble, they will be lost in the process of washing rice.

(Photo provided by nutritionist Stella)

Finally, I would like to remind everyone again that the sugar problem of modern people is not eating too much white rice, because according to statistics, the daily white rice consumption of Chinese people is actually decreasing. Data from the Council of Agriculture's 2013 Food Supply and Demand Annual Report shows that Taiwan's white rice intake has dropped from about 232 grams per person per day 30 years ago to only 123 grams in 2013.

So, even if you change 123 grams of white rice into 123 grams of brown rice, the nutritional contribution is quite limited. Therefore, instead of worrying about the problem of white rice being bad, it is better to deal with it with the right attitude (by choosing other side meals to make up for some of the nutrient loss) and focus on the real sugar crisis of modern people - too much refined starchy food (such as bread, toast, noodles, buns, steamed buns and biscuits, snacks, cakes, etc.); and sugary drinks, desserts, etc., to truly solve the health crisis brought by sugar.

This article comes from: Nutritionist Stella's Weight Loss & Nutrition Blog

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