We actually don’t keep track of any of our food stats whether it’s calories, fat grams, carbs or nutrients. One of the key messages I took away from Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food, is that if you eat a variety of whole foods that’s heavy on plants and reasonable in quantity then the rest will just fall into place. After all the subtitle of his book is “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” And we agree that this philosophy is a whole lot easier than weighing out 4 ounces of salmon for dinner or writing down how many calories we consumed in a day.
Now that’s not to say knowing how nutrients in different foods compare couldn’t be valuable information, which is why I’m sharing the below charts today from the Whole Grains Council. In a recent post about “Understanding Grains” I detailed the difference between some of the most common whole and refined grains, and overall I think most people get the fact that whole-wheat is far more nutritious than refined white flour. But lately quite a few readers have been trying to challenge me when I say brown rice is more nutritious than white rice. So without further ado, below are the exact numbers from the Whole Grains Council that very clearly show you the difference between…
- The whole grain – In the case of wheat and rice the whole grain versions are whole-wheat flour and brown rice, although other colored rice (like black and red) are also considered to be whole-grain.
- The refined grain – The refined grain is what you end up with after two of the most nutritious parts of the grain are removed (the bran and the germ…read more about this in the “Understanding Grains” post), which gives the grain a longer shelf life.
- Enriched grain – Since refining the grain takes out a great deal of nutrition, food scientists try to compensate by adding back in what nutrients they think are missing and most important. The problem is that nature is complex and food science isn’t easy…so the end result, enriched white flour or enriched white rice, is still not as nutritious as the original whole grain.
(Click image to enlarge chart)
(Click image to enlarge chart)
Growing up we usually ate converted, or parboiled, rice. How does that compare? My mom says that it is more nutritious than white, but almost as nutritious as brown but can store longer without going rancid. Any thoughts?
Hello. This might be helpful: https://www.livestrong.com/article/274189-parboiled-rice-vs-brown-rice-nutrition-health-benefits/.
i’m not sure if someone already commented on this but whole wheat flour contains more fibre than white flour but at’so about it, it’s not more nutritious. Whole grain flour IS more nutritious, as it contains all 3 parts of the wheat kernel.
http://www.healthyalberta.com/1537.htm
I have a question regarding Brown Rice Flour. We are gluten free due to my husbands allergy but in keeping with the Whole Grain theme I try to replace any whole wheat flour with brown rice flour. Is that considered a Whole Grain?? It’s just confusing!!
Hi there. Brown rice flour is a whole grain gluten free flour. These will also help as you sift through lots of GF info: https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/06/28/food-allergies/ and http://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/gluten-free-whole-grains. ~Amy
Isn’t whole-grain full of gluten? Are we supposed to avoid gluten?
Hi Lorrie. Nope, we aren’t a gluten free blog. The Leakes enjoy a wide variety of whole grains. Some, like brown rice, are gluten free. ~Amy
Important to note that all “whole wheat” is not really what it sounds like… It’s usually unbleached flour with germ and bran added back to it, but other nutrients still depleted. Once grain is ground it must be baked very quickly to retain nutrients. Grinding your own wheat is not as big a deal as it sounds work wise…
There is one very good reason they are both being enriched with folate an those super high levels. I agree nature does do it right but since they enriched folate in flour ect. the amount of babies born with neural tube defects (Spinabifida) has gone down significantly. Yes, you can find it in nature but as a whole this has been a large population health improvement. SO you can’t bash enriching completely (yes, I am a food scientist and proud)
Although that is true, I think pregnant women would be getting all the folic acid they need if they were eating more healthy. Scientists started adding large amounts of folate because they realized these women were only eating out of boxes or packages. If they were eating a balanced diet rich in whole foods, they wouldn’t need to have any enriched food. Adding the folate is a solution, yes, and it has saved many lives and babies, but it doesn’t address the real problem.
I’ve been playing around with subbing almond flour in recipes that call for white flour. Some work better than others, but I am curious now if almond flour is really better for me.
I just wanted to share the biggest bummer of my week. Rice has arsenic in it! I guess rice from the south is worse because of the pesticides that used to be used. Baby rice cereal has 15 times the arsenic that is allowed in our drinking water. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/09/19/161403235/fda-weighs-federal-standard-to-limit-exposure-to-arsenic-in-rice
There is a movement to have better regulations on our rice products. I hope it works. I was horrified that mybaby’s first food contained carcinogens.
Hi Teresa. I’m not sure if you saw the suggestions that came along with this report. One was to have a varied diet. It suggested rice cereal no more than one time a day. You could consider oatmeal cereal instead – my kids ate that and preferred it over the rice. When preparing the rice, one report said that if you 1. rinse the rice before cooking it and 2. cook it in more water (6 to 1 ratio) and drain the excess water that you can reduce the arsenic by 30%. In addition, my understanding is that the FDA is doing a study to determine if, in fact, the levels uncovered are dangerous, but, I thought I heard that could be another year or so before it’s completed. Best of luck to you…hope this helps a little. Jill
I know that you are suppose to store Whole Wheat Flour in the fridge or freezer, is this also true for Brown Rice? What about Whole Wheat Pasta?
Hi Alana. I don’t store pasta or rice in the freezer, just my flours. Jill
Brown rice contains some oils which will eventually go rancid. Some people keep it in the fridge for that reason. However, it takes maybe a year for this to occur, and you will know if it goes bad. The main reason for cold storage of flours is to prevent grain moths from hatching, but whole wheat can also eventually go rancid at room temperature due to oils in the bran layer.
Thank you for posting this. I had read an article in Mother Earth News about the differences in whole wheat vs processed, and it totally changed the way I thought about flour. Also the diminishing nutritional values in the mass produced grains and veggies as we push up production.
@TJ, thank you for sharing the einkorn wheat. I learned a bit about it and when I get a little extra money, I’m going to treat myself. I was very surprised to learn that people with mild allergies don’t necessarily react to it. My mom is sensitive, and I can’t wait to try this with her!
So I made Lisa’s easy Whole Wheat Bread in the bread machine and my family said it was ok, but NOT for sandwichs….now what do I do?
Did you check it during the kneading process to make sure it looked okay (not too sticky) before it baked?
In defense about wheat … I would never give it up. I grind and make my own daily bread and have for years and gave up all white processed at the same time. I lost 60 pounds got to a normal weight, regained my health and vigor all while eating my wheat bread every day. IMHO giving up fresh whole wheat is ridiculous. Can’t say there is a wheat belly on me!
Thank you for sharing this valuable information. I’ve found it very helpful. I always knew all “wheat” wasn’t equal at the grocery store. This article and chart(s) gives me easy to digest facts.