Dr. Nick Zyrowski - Is Rice Healthy | White Rice or Brown Rice?

Short Summary

Main recommendation: Dr. Zyrowski says rice should not be part of your daily diet and is not a health food, but if you eat it occasionally, choose organic, sprouted or germinated rice (basmati or jasmine preferred), wash it, and cook it in excess water to lower arsenic. He argues that the common view of white versus brown rice is more complicated than it appears, since brown rice has more nutrients but also more arsenic.

Key Points

• White rice has had the bran and germ stripped out, so it lacks vitamins and minerals and has a moderately high glycemic index of 64, which spikes blood sugar.
• Brown rice keeps the vitamins, minerals, and fiber-rich bran, and has a slightly lower glycemic index, but it is higher in arsenic because rice stores arsenic in the bran.
• Rice is the biggest food source of arsenic, which the speaker links to heart disease and cancer; rice absorbs arsenic because it grows in wet, marshy environments.
• Brown rice is high in phytic acid, an antinutrient that blocks absorption of its nutrients.
• The speaker argues that rice-heavy populations such as China have long eaten rice, and that diabetes links are confounded by junk food and poorer lifestyle choices; he says research he reviewed does not show a strong correlation between rice consumption and weight gain.
• Rice hides in many "healthy" foods, including gluten-free flour, rice crackers, rice cereal, rice milk, rice syrup, and rice cakes.

Details Worth Noting

• Concrete instructions: If you eat rice, wash it and cook it in a large pot of excess water, similar to cooking pasta, then drain it, which the speaker says can lower arsenic by 50 to 60 percent.
• Concrete instructions: Choose basmati or jasmine rice, which are estimated to be the lowest-arsenic options.
• Concrete instructions: Choose organic rice and sprouted or germinated rice to reduce phytic acid and improve nutrient absorption.
• Concrete instructions: Read ingredient labels on snack foods and "health" products to check for rice or rice flour, since they are often hidden in them.
• The speaker says he lives where well water has high natural arsenic, so he uses a robust filtration system for drinking and cooking water.
• He notes that inorganic arsenic in soil may be increased by pesticides and environmental pollution, and that arsenic is one of the most toxic substances on earth.

Bottom Line

Rice is best treated as an occasional food rather than a staple, and if you eat it, how you choose and prepare it matters a great deal for arsenic and nutrient content.