rice: brown or red?

What is better to eat, brown rice or red rice? A panelist asked us during the thesis defence of the other group of BSc students from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

With this question, it becomes obvious that it is much much easier to convey results from research work when put into context of the consumers. This was why the second group of BSc students that I helped out had an easier time wiggling out of their presentation… in contrast to the first group, which had a rough time defending their work.

But before answering the question, some things have to be clarified first. The colours brown and red refer to the pericarp colour. The pericarp is one of the materials that cover the rice grain when it first comes in from the field. When the grain is dehulled and milled, the pericarp should have been removed to reveal the white grains we know as rice.

In contrast, the more popularly known brown rice found in the groceries is rice that has not been milled. Only the golden brown hull has been removed. The bran layer (containing lipids that give the grains a richer flavour, and minerals that increase the nutritional value of the grain) remains intact.

What does rice have to do with dietary diseases? Rice is the central food item on tables in most of Asia. As the lifestyles of humans become more and more sedentary, people eat more and more calories than they can burn. And since the main energy source of most people is rice, scientists are now attempting to lessen the amount of calories rice can pass on to the eaters.

With this in mind, the second group of PUP BSc students looked at some aspect of the evolution of rice… again, another REVOLUTIONARY study. The students delved into why domesticated rice is what it is now. They looked at wild rice varieties and noted that these ancestors have red or brown pericarp (they still exist in the wild, hence the use of the present tense). The group’s results showed that brown-pericarped rice grains are easier to mill to white rice.

This ease of milling implies that it took the Neolithic humans less time to manually process the grains for consumption. These grains are assumedly easier to digest too… essential to the largely nomadic humans 5,000 years ago. That is why brown rice plants were domesticated.

But the pressures of domestication has caused for the easily-digested starch to be present. And with the increasing number of cases of diabetes, scientists want to develop varieties with hard-to-digest starch. That is why they are beginning to take interest in red rice.

The question remains: Which is better, red or brown rice? The answer really lies upon the consumer. If a consumer is an active person, like a farmer or an athlete, he needs to get more energy from the same amount of food as a typical sedentary office worker. Thus, he would be more interested in eating the brown-pericarped rice (the domesticated rice). On the other hand, the office worker does not need as much energy; thus, he may prefer consuming the red rice instead.

This subjectivity of the science of food quality is both its beauty and its challenge. Being able to streamline your diet depending on your lifestyle is a beauty. Designing rice varieties for specialty consumers is a tough task… it’s a challenge.