Rice is probably the most reviled of grains. Doctors tend to recommend wheat over rice. Millets have been edging out rice for years now.
The narrative goes like this. Rice can make you put on weight. Too high in calories and high in glycemic index leading to blood sugar issues.
True? Not entirely.
God lies in the details!
Here is the nuance.
Firstly, No one we know eats rice in isolation. It is always combined with some dal or animal protein like fish or meat. Case in point almost all of South East Asia and China, or even Japan. These geographies don't remind you of obesity. But they eat rice all meals of the day. Why? Because of the combination. Rice when eaten with protein tends to reduce its glycemic index and is better absorbed by human bodies.
Secondly, rice gives us energy. So while our ancestors in the South and East of India ate rice, they had a lot of physical exertion to go with it, so the energy was badly required and easily expended. Hence no obesity in the past. Yes, they ate quite a bit of rice, but they did not have the sedentary lifestyles we do. So rice intake must be combined with an ample portion of workouts.
But somehow along the way, we in India started eating more rice, while slipping into more relaxed professions. Physical labour was looked down upon. Modern conveniences made lives easier. Public policy of subsidizing rice, particularly in the South, made rice the cheapest item on the plate, by far, compared to vegetables and dals/fish/eggs/meat.
So eating mounds of rice became the norm.
And then, no surprise, we became the diabetes capital of the world. And the rate of obesity is faster than our GDP!
Long story short, rice is not the enemy. The kind of rice we eat and the amount of rice consumption are.
Three quick recommendations:
1. Eat rice mainly with bran
2. Eat organic and diverse varieties of rice
3. Combine rice with protein and vegetables on your plate (preferred ratio 1:1:2 respectively)
Photo shows cauliflower rice. Made with lots more vegetables than rice, combined with the egg and raw veggies on the side.
Make rice your meal. Not the enemy.
We can replace rice for a short while, but we will not be able to shake off generations of genetic code in us that loves rice.
Hence eat rice.
