Instant whole grain brown rice still med-GI?

[Slyder190]

90 second Uncle Ben's whole grain brown rice?

 

[Nonbonjour]

B...U...M...P

I wanna know, too.

 

[Mr.X]

90 second Uncle Ben's whole grain brown rice?

Once the brown rice is processed and made 'instant', most of the gums, shell and fiber are gone (note I said most, not all). Thus, the GI of the product goes up, and it's not the same as regular whole brown rice.

 

[Cynical Simian]

Looking at the ingredients/description on the website, the difference seems to be that the "instant" rice is precooked. However, like the previous post mentioned, companies do some shady stuff that lets them claim that a more processed product is still "whole grain". Even if nothing is removed, the grains are likely cut up more to increase surface area, which would marginally raise the GI. Assuming that parts of the grain haven't been removed, this difference would be minimal and certainly not something to worry about given that you're eating it with protein/fats, which will slow digestion and reduce the insulin response anyway.

 

[Lifterforlife]

Looking at the ingredients/description on the website, the difference seems to be that the "instant" rice is precooked. However, like the previous post mentioned, companies do some shady stuff that lets them claim that a more processed product is still "whole grain". Even if nothing is removed, the grains are likely cut up more to increase surface area, which would marginally raise the GI. Assuming that parts of the grain haven't been removed, this difference would be minimal and certainly not something to worry about given that you're eating it with protein/fats, which will slow digestion and reduce the insulin response anyway.

This is so true, most folks take the GI scale to heart on everything they eat. Understanding that this will change with a "blend" of foods is important. Glycemic load is actually much more important. To elaborate a bit more...

GI tests aren't based on typical portion sizes of foods. Instead, researchers use a standard measure of 50 grams of carbohydrates of the foods that they are testing. For example, a carrot contains only 4-6 grams of available carbs, so you'd need to eat about 10 carrots to consume 50 grams of carbohydrates -- and it's unlikely that anybody eats that many carrots at one meal. But many people avoid carrots and other nutritious high-GI foods such as beets and squash because of their higher GI values. This is where the glycemic load measurement proves more useful.

The GL takes portion size into account and gives a more accurate picture of the glycemic value of foods. If you know the GI of a particular food, you can calculate the glycemic load by using the following formula: multiply the GI by the amount of carbohydrate in the food and divide that number by 100. Ex: A teaspoon of jam with a GI of 51 and a carb count of 5 grams would be (51 x 5 grams carb) / 100 = 2.5.

This is not to discount the quality of foods, as I am sure all know that processed is always bad.

 

[Slyder190]

Okay soooo, good brands? I'm asking so if I don't see the name at the supermarket, I can check out some health food stores or go on line. K for any good brand names thrown my way.

 

[Cynical Simian]

I'm not sure about instant rice, if that's what you're looking for, which is necessarily going to be more processed to reduce the cooking time.

Bob's Red Mill is a good whole grains brand that has a lot of stuff in addition to rice. Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and other natural foods stores would also be good places to look.

 

[Lifterforlife]

Many grocery stores carry a plain brown rice, like Riceland for instance. Intact, hull, bran, everything. Instant anything as mentioned above is usually processed in some way for convenience.