SueZ Wrote:
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> Horsea Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I went to a Christmas party about a decade ago
> > when one of my friends was going to an
> Acupuncture
> > College and the #2 man from China in Health was
> > there and I asked him why they were eating
> white
> > rice instead of brown rice and he said that
> white
> > rice is a sign of prosperity because long ago
> only
> > royalty could afford to eat white rice, but
> now,
> > everyone could afford to eat white rice.
> >
> > Of course only the upper crust could afford
> white
> > rice: it costs money to process the brown rice
> to
> > a greater or lesser degree (you could tell the
> > miller how much bran you wanted removed).
> >
> > This does not mean that royalty was consuming
> > white rice for frivolous reasons in the first
> > place.
>
> What the guy at the Christmas party said was the
> story that has come down through and to the masses
> and was missing the real substance of the
> historical reason for eating white rice.
>
> In truth the white rice the rich ate (all the way
> back to 2,000 years ago in the Persian Empire and
> India) was not merely more expensive and coveted
> because the husk and bran was removed but because
> the white rice was processed in a much more
> expensive way. The expensive white rice was
> parboiled which required talented preparers and
> steam pressure.

Just to be more clear - parboiled rice is pressure steamed BEFORE the bran is removed. Parboiling rice is NOT a DYS project - especially for those of us who don't have our own rice paddy in our backyard.

Parboiled rice is not to be confused with precooked rice or those other of the "Minute Rice" brand type.

For those of you here who are still into cooked food - parboiling rice does not cut down on cooking time. It is in no way an instant rice.

Thanks to all of you for your very good responses to my posts. I would say it comes down to he said/she said. The article writers at NY Times have as much capacity to just copy what someone else said, as less known persons would. How do we get to the bottom of this?

2 things I would like to add:

No one lives on rice alone for extended period (except for macrobiotic-type fast, which is only 10 days, and our present weakened populace would run screaming from this challenge after a day or two, likely). We eat grains with other things. In the cold weather I can't endure a lot of raw, though I love raw food, so I eat kichari, which I discovered decades ago. (I'm late middle aged now.)

Dr. Michael Tierra in the following excerpt makes some good points about white vs brown rice. I find his comments even handed and he has no agenda. He notes that brown rice, well-chewed, challenges your digestive system in a good way. But as far as I can see he doesn't advise brown-rice-only consumption unless you are prepared to chew-chew-chew and have the teeth for it. We are not cows.

Why White Rice?

Rice is universally regarded as one of the most perfectly balanced foods. The difference between naturally brown and white rice is that brown rice has all of the out skin or bran intact while white rice has been mechanically polished to remove part or all of the bran depending on one's digestive capability. Japanese Macrobiotics favors the use of brown rice but they also advocate chewing each mouthful of food 80 to 100 times. For most this is extremely impractical and overly rigid especially since many older people may not even retain all of their teeth for proper chewing. White rice has less of the whole food nutritional elements of brown rice but it is better assimilated. Further, by adding beans or other proteinaceous foods to white rice what is lost nutritionally is mostly replaced.

Basmati rice is preferred because it is the best nutritionally and the most delicious variety. It is more expensive because it yields less per acre than all other types of rice. Assuming that one is taking kichari because they are in a weakened state and must have food that is easily digested, polished white basmati rice would be the best to use.

However, recognizing that just as our outer physical body must be moderately challenged to develop one might use more whole grains such as brown rice to maintain digestive strength. The rule is that when one is weaker white rice used with kichari is best. However, to develop and maintain digestive power one can make kichari with whole brown basmati rice or a judicious mixture of both.

As an aside, in rural villages throughout Asia, people would bring their rice to the local miller. Depending on their need, they could specify how much of the bran to leave or remove in the milling process. For older people or individuals with weaker digestion, more or all of the bran is polished away.

[www.planetherbs.com]

So sorry to be going on like this, but there's one more thing, maybe: that there is more to food than its individual components. I think that is what Tierra might be trying to say.

White rice is not living or raw. But I had a sprouted black rice curry dish from the raw vegan restaurant called Forbidden Curry Rice. Yesterday yum.. Some say Black rice doesn't sprout. I do not see why it wouldn't. But I consider it a raw friendly dish if it is not raw.

SueZ Wrote:
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> But unenriched parboiled white rice has over twice
> the thiamine in it that brown rice has.
>
> [nutritiondata.self.com]-
> and-pasta/5814/2

But SueZ, your link is for the parboiled white unenriched dry (.4 mg thiamine per cup).

The parboiled white unenriched cooked is .1 mg thiamine per cup - only half as much thiamine as in a cup of long grain brown rice cooked.

[nutritiondata.self.com]

Good to know though that parboiling the white rice increases thiamine content.

suncloud Wrote:
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> SueZ Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > But unenriched parboiled white rice has over
> twice
> > the thiamine in it that brown rice has.
> >
> >
> [nutritiondata.self.com]-
>
> > and-pasta/5814/2
>
> But SueZ, your link is for the parboiled white
> unenriched dry (.4 mg thiamine per cup).
>
> The parboiled white unenriched cooked is .1 mg
> thiamine per cup - only half as much thiamine as
> in a cup of long grain brown rice cooked.
>
> [nutritiondata.self.com]-
> and-pasta/5815/2
>
> Good to know though that parboiling the white rice
> increases thiamine content.


I'm sorry. I didn't notice that your links were of cooked rice. Back when I was eating cooked rice I always chose parboiled over brown rice. I found it much easier to digest and once it fermented with urad and fenugreek legumes for idli and dosa batters I practically lived off of that for my balanced carbs and proteins.

Idlis also freeze very well. I used to make a large batch one day that would last me for weeks. I highly recommend going that route for non raw vegans on a very tight budget.

I think you cannot increase thiamine content by parboiling store bought white rice. It has to say parbolied in the bag.

[en.wikipedia.org]

Quote

Parboiled rice (also called converted rice) is rice that has been partially boiled in the husk

if you boil it with the husk, then it has higher thiamine than white rice. Otherwise, it won't.

Panchito Wrote:
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> I think you cannot increase thiamine content by
> parboiling store bought white rice. It has to say
> parbolied in the bag.
>
> [en.wikipedia.org]
>
> Parboiled rice (also called converted rice) is
> rice that has been partially boiled in the husk
>
> if you boil it with the husk, then it has higher
> thiamine than white rice. Otherwise, it won't.


Yes. That is what I said. Parboiled rice is prepared under pressure before the husks and bran have been removed.

"Just to be more clear - parboiled rice is pressure steamed BEFORE the bran is removed. Parboiling rice is NOT a DYS project - especially for those of us who don't have our own rice paddy in our backyard."

SueZ wrote:

once it fermented with urad and fenugreek legumes for idli and dosa batters I practically lived off of that for my balanced carbs and proteins.

Tai:
Sounds exotic. Where did you learn that? That reminds me to ask for a good source of organic sproutable fenugreek from an internet store, if anyone knows.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2015 10:38PM by Tai.

Tai Wrote:
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> SueZ wrote:
>
> once it fermented with urad and fenugreek legumes
> for idli and dosa batters I practically lived off
> of that for my balanced carbs and proteins.
>
> Tai:
> Sounds exotic. Where did you learn that? That
> reminds me to ask for a good source of organic
> sproutable fenugreek from an internet store, if
> anyone knows.

I learned how to cook cuisines from all over the world from cookbooks. Now it's much much easier with all the youtube videos and websites to learn from. I probably have around 200 cookbooks, lol.

You just need around a half teaspoon of fenugreek legumes for making Idli batter - but you have to use them unwashed. The batter will rise anyway, of course, without them but they have the authentic "right stuff".

[www.amazon.com]

John- Man does spoil his food by cooking it. You would think in olden times he must have been starving. They say the reason white men grew to dominate the entire world was that the white men had domesticated animals and they had steel guns and germs. What do you say to that.