Is Brown Rice Healthier Than White Rice? Here's What the Experts Say

Is brown rice healthier than white rice? Central to everything from stuffed peppers and grain bowls to paella, rice is a bona fide mealtime staple. Choosing which rice to prepare often hinges on the recipe, but for many home cooks, gleaning the most nutrients is also paramount. We asked rice experts and a registered dietitian to boil down the differences between brown and white rice—and share how other varieties measure up.

Is Brown Rice Healthier Than White Rice?

The answer may be more nuanced than you think.

"Brown rice and white rice deliver different nutrients and health benefits, so it is more of a question of what an eater is looking to get from their rice-eating occasions," says Cameron Jacobs, CAE, VP, domestic promotion, USA Rice, a nonprofit organization that represents the U.S. rice industry.

How you enjoy this staple also figures into the fuller picture. "Rather than focus entirely on what type of rice contains the most nutrients, think about how you enjoy rice," says Jennifer Bruning, MS, RDN, LDN. "Rarely does a person sit down and eat plain rice—usually it's part of a mixed dish, often paired with vegetables, meats, and lentils and beans," she says.

Rice Explained

According to USA Rice, there are over 120,000 varieties of rice worldwide, categorized by degree of milling, kernel size, starch content, and flavor. 

Milling

Rice is classified by the following degrees of milling, which plays a critical role in processing: 

Rough rice: Also called paddy rice, rough rice is harvested in the husk and is unprocessed and inedible.

Whole grain: This 100-percent whole grain variety (e.g., brown rice) is milled with the husk removed. "Whole grain (brown) rice is the entire seed of a plant, including the bran, germ, and endosperm," Jacobs says.

White rice: The endosperm of the kernel, white rice (e.g., enriched rice), is milled and polished to remove the husk, bran, and germ layers. "Specific to the U.S., most of the white rice is enriched with nutrients that were already present in brown rice but likely lost in the milling process," Jacobs says.

Kernel Size

Rice falls into three categories: long-grain, medium-grain, and short-grain, each perfect for certain dishes. One kernel size isn't necessarily healthier than another. "The differences would be so slight that you could choose any of these and receive very similar nutrition," says Bruning.

Nutritional Benefits of Brown Rice

A cholesterol-free complex carbohydrate, brown rice is a nutritional powerhouse. "Brown rice is a more nutritious choice than white rice," says Caroline Sluyter, program director of the Oldways Whole Grains Council, a nonprofit nutrition education organization. "It contains almost three times as much fiber as white rice and significantly higher levels of most other nutrients, including iron and B vitamins."

Brown rice is rich in antioxidants, protein, and healthy fats, Jacobs says. Fiber, plus magnesium, potassium, and folate, helps support gut health and control blood sugar levels. Research shows that eating whole-grain rice may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers, and may aid in weight maintenance, Jacobs says..

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Nutritional Benefits of White Rice

"White rice is a staple for half the world's population, so it certainly is not without its own benefits," Jacobs says. In South Asian and Southeast Asian countries, for example, it anchors everything from sushi to curry dishes. 

Comparing whole grain to refined grain nutrients, Bruning says, "In the case of rice, the differences are not as stark as you might imagine." Enriched rice shifts the landscape. There are fortified forms of white rice where iron or folate may be higher than in brown rice, she says.

"By adding back thiamine, niacin, iron, and folic acid, the white rice nutritional profile is similar to that of whole grain brown rice and affordably delivers essential vitamins and minerals," Jacobs says. As a complex carbohydrate, he notes, white rice helps sustain energy; as a source of resistant starch, it promotes fullness.

Fiber and Digestion

"During the polishing process, white rice loses about two-thirds of the original fiber along with large proportions of almost every other nutrient naturally present in brown rice,” Sluyter says. "That missing fiber makes white rice easier to digest, which accounts for its higher glycemic index."

Still, the glycemic index (GL) doesn't measure a food's overall nutritional value. "Glycemic index isn't the best measure of how healthy a food is or a true measure of impact on blood sugar when the food is eaten," Bruning notes. "That being said, higher fiber types of rice will typically have higher fiber and fat, which helps to slow absorption and raise blood sugar more slowly."

Nutrition in Other Types of Rice

Specialty varieties like red aromatic and black japonica widen the options. "They are a great way to add color, drama, and interest to your plate," Sluyer says. And there's a nutritional upside: "Colored rice like black, purple, and red rice has increased levels of antioxidants like anthocyanins, the same type of antioxidants found in blueberries," Jacobs says.

"Wild rice is not technically a rice at all, but the seed of an aquatic grass originally grown by indigenous tribes around the Great Lakes region of the U.S.," Sluyter says. It has about twice the fiber and protein of brown and colored rices, with more zinc and potassium.

Arsenic in Rice

Arsenic is absorbed by most plant foods; brown rice has a higher concentration than white. Scientists are monitoring the levels, says Sluyter, but the FDA has not found any scientific basis for recommending that adults adjust rice consumption levels.

If you are interested in limiting your exposure, parboiling can help. "Parboiling your rice can remove up to 54 percent of unwanted heavy metals, like arsenic, from your rice,” Sluyter suggests. Cover it with water, boil for five minutes, drain, and rinse prior to cooking it.