Brown Rice: Is It Really the Healthier Rice Option?

Just last year, almost 428 million tonnes of rice of the brown and white variety was produced around the world. Rice is commonly found in several types of cultural dishes around the world; in Asia alone, over 520 million people depend on rice as their staple food. With rice being so common in our diets, the millions of people who strive to eat healthy seem to always choose brown rice over white rice. But are they really making the healthiest decision?

Photo of white rice (left) and brown rice (right). Source: VegKitchen

Nutrient Comparison

Research has shown that the main nutritional benefit is that brown rice contains more fibre compared to white rice (3.5 g per 1 cup vs 0.5 g per 1 cup). Fibre is very helpful for digestion in humans so this is a substantial health benefit that brown rice has. In addition, brown rice contains the same vitamins as white rice, but there are higher amounts of these vitamins in brown rice compared to white rice. The following video from the Healthline: Authority Nutrition channel gives an in-depth comparison of specific nutrient amounts that brown rice and white rice contain:

Comparison of Arsenic Levels in Rice

So far it appears that brown rice is the healthier choice because it has more nutrients than white rice, but it also contains more of other things that are not so good. Brown rice has been found to contain higher levels of arsenic which is a known carcinogen (causes cancer). Specifically, there are two types of arsenic found in rice, inorganic and organic; what is important to us is that the inorganic kind is the one that is most dangerous to humans.

A study was done by Meharg et al. on arsenic levels in brown rice versus white rice. They measured the amount of arsenic in about 40 different specimens of brown and white rice and they found that brown rice had up to 0.61 mg/kg of Arsenic and 46% of that was the harmful inorganic kind. On the other hand, white rice only had up to 0.28 mg/kg of arsenic and 39% of that was inorganic. Therefore, throughout the study brown rice was consistently found to contain higher levels of arsenic (see graph below) and more alarmingly–the dangerous inorganic kind. This study also concluded that the negative effects of arsenic in brown rice pose more of a risk for people who consume it daily as a main part of their meals.

Graph of percentage of inorganic arsenic in brown and white rice for the different rice samples. Source: Meharg et al.

Decision Time

Brown rice may have appeared to be the healthiest rice because of its nutrition, but knowing the arsenic risk from consuming brown rice makes the decision on which rice to consume a difficult one. The best suggestion would be to incorporate equal amounts of white and brown rice in your diet because one type is not necessarily healthier than the other! Balance is key!