Why parboiled rice or brown rice is good?
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| Paddy farm |
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| Paddy getting ready for harvesting |
Rice is one of the best grains used throughout the world for centuries. Paddy is pressure steamed and then dried in its natural husk. Later the husk is removed by milling it. That is the way parboiled or brown rice is made out of paddy. While pressure steaming, a portion of the vitamins and minerals in the bran enters inside the soft rice. Some rice millers keep the bran. This bran is used to produce rice bran oil cattle feed, and certain vitamins. Higher the bran content, more the vitamins it contain and better the rice will be.
Research has shown that people who take plain bran-free rice ( white rice) has got higher risk of diabetis , and people who use parboiled rice has better chance of preventing diabetes. Same is the case with cancer . According to Dr.Thomas Varghese, Cancer Research Centre in Kerala "five white things are responsible for the increasing cancer in Kerala . They are white rice, sugar, salt, Milk and Maida"
Look at the picture below. Avoid No.5. which is white rice, the bran is removed at the rice mills to make rice bran oil and some other vitamins. It is mainly starch only.
So next time you buy rice ask the shop keeper that you want the rice with full bran, and not the polished one which is merely starch. You hold the key to your health. Your requirement and demand should drive the market and not the seller's.
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| Milled rice different varieties. #1US style parboiled brown ,# 2 is red cargo rice with full bran # 3 is wild rice with full bran (# 2 &3 is rice with full bran) , # 4 Palakadan Matta parboiled brown #5 Basmati raw rice (white rice) the starch only rice ( avoid it). #3 Is Wild rice, most expensive rice. The best rice is one with full bran. Bran contains vitamins and minerals. Now brown basmati with bran is available |
