For those of you who follow me, you know I LOVE taking pictures, especially pictures of my dinner! Without fail, whenever my dinner includes white rice, my followers leave comments and questions like:
- “Why not brown rice?”
- “Isn’t white rice bad for you?
I forget that before I got deeper into nutrition and strength training, I knew little about the white rice vs. brown rice debate and would force myself to eat brown rice because it was ” healthier”.
After a decade of working in the health and fitness industry, I sometimes assume that my clients and people in my community know what I know. Oftentimes, they don’t. Throughout the next several weeks, I’m going answer the most asked questions I get from everyday people and dispel some myths that run rampant within the industry…
MOST ASKED QUESTION #1: White Rice vs. Brown Rice. Which should I eat?!
Before I answer, spend some time answering a few basic questions focused on helping you find the best answer for YOU.
1. Are you active?
If you are not super active and walking or yoga is your exercise of choice I suggest keeping your carbs to that of the non starchy varieties found in vegetables and fruit!
2. Do you strength train and if so what are your goals?
If you are strength training and conditioning and your goal is to get stronger then I suggest you add some starchy carbohydrates to your more active days. It’s really that simple.
Now that we’ve squared that away YOU can actually answer the WHITE RICE vs. BROWN RICE debate yourself!
3. Which do YOU like better!?
MOST ASKED QUESTION #1 ANSWER: You should eat whichever type of rice makes you feel good and whichever you like! I am not of the one size fits all eating mindset. What works for Joey may not work for Julie.
Quite frankly I think white rice tastes better. I usually eat the majority of my carbs at night because I have found it helps me to sleep. The perfect dinner that gets me ready for bed? A meal consisting of protein, veggies and carbs along with some fat. But again, this is ME. I can’t tell you what is going to work best for you, you need to experiment and see what feels and works for YOU!
Bring some awareness back to your eating. Think about how food and food combinations make you feel.
Do they make you tired+ bloated?
Do they leave you clear headed and energized?
I eat a variety of carb sources that support my training goals of increasing strength and improving body composition. My top carbohydrate sources that I eat on a regular basis are a wide variety of vegetable and fruits, white rice, assorted rice bread/ wraps+ sweet potatoes.
I want to emphasize the variety aspect of that statement. Throughout my own experience the elimination game can become a slippery slope, especially for those of us with a slower digestion. It is not always in your best interest to have so many things on the OH I CAN’T EAT THAT LIST! I prefer to encourage some middle ground.
Bottom line:
Your body gives you all the answers, you just have to get back to listening.
