I approached the Chipotle counter to grab a burrito for my son. His order is simple, carnitas and rice. My young man is certainly consistent with his tastes.

Here comes the query – brown or white rice? I’m guessing you think you know my answer. Brown rice is the easy choice, right? Everyone knows it’s the healthier selection. Not so fast.

Y’all know the theme of this blog. We challenge conventional wisdom at every turn. We won’t be right all the time, and we will change course as frequently as we need to.

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” -Lao Tzu

Now that a brilliant philosopher has offered us permission, we can challenge some good ol’ fashion rice dogma. Brown rice is better for you because it has the bran and the germ intact and hence has more fiber. Do we need the fiber in brown rice? From butterbeliever.com:

Many people eat way, way too much fiber, which can lead to serious digestive disorders, and even colon cancer…So, everyone choking down their Fiber-One cereals and psyllium husks really aren’t doing themselves any favors at all…Healthy people don’t need tons of fiber, and they generally don’t need to go out of their way looking for it.

You might determine that your diet does in fact need more fiber. You get about 3 extra grams per cup by eating brown rice. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come without a cost. The fiber in brown rice comes from the bran, which…well, you can decide how to digest (see?) this.

Yeah, so, that other thing that the rice bran has to bestow upon our righteously-healthy-whole-grain-eating selves?  Phytic acid! Yes. The primary anti-nutrient we traditional foodies work so hard to negate by soaking, sprouting, or fermenting our grains.

Phytic acid stores phosphorus in plants. This phosphorus isn’t bioavailable to most omnivores (humans included). Because of the shape of the molecule, it tends to bind with other important minerals, like calcium, iron, manganese and zinc, leaving less of these for our bodies. So while brown does have more vitamins and minerals than white, our bodies can’t use them particularly well.

Granted, brown rice is less processed and refined than white rice. That doesn’t make white rice bad; it’s just a fact. I consistently and proudly trumpet eating food in its most original form, but in this case, it may not be an important consideration.

It’s always my aim to provide you with options. Rice is a food that I suggest in moderation in whichever form you choose (crispies not included). You could do a hell of a lot worse than a pile of brown rice and veggies, that’s for sure. If you decide to down a couple of pieces of fresh, raw tuna and white rice tightly wrapped in seaweed, I won’t be mad at’cha. In either event, make sure you have a spork nearby to scoop the last few morsels.

Kap