Rice as the main componet in your Diet, is good?

[bud01]

I have not traveled to China but from watching films, Rice seems to be almost the main meal, how suitable is Rice as almost the main componet of your Diet.

So for example, if I was to drop my intake of meat and start to consume more rice, as a westerner how would this affect me.

Is it acurate to say that china of today or indeed the past, consumed mostly standard rice, and lived well with out problems of health.

Can I live on rice only and see any benifit in my being, and health.

Is a Rice only diet possible for a human being.

Have I misunderstood the chinese cultre, the dependancy on Rice.

Tell me about Rice and China.

[renzhe]

Rice is a filler.

Chinese people eat many other things beside rice.

Who told you about this "rice only" diet? That might get you seriously ill after a while.

[xiaotao]

I thought about the Chinese diet before. Why they can eat so much starchy foods, all in one meal. People in China exercise a lot more. I haven't seen too many obese people in China. They think American are fat. To the Chinese, rice is the tradition, it's #1. I strongly don't believe eating so much rice is good for anyone. A diet high in carbohydrates cause silent inflammation in the body. Chinese folks get diabetes too. I think some just don't know they have it in China. My Chinese friend's family has a history of type 2 diabetes, They were not happy to cut back on their rice.

I think if you are young and get a good amount of exercise, it won't hurt to eat what the Chinese typically eat. If you are middle aged, that's another story.

[xiaocai]

So how much is too much? Back in university most of my school mates would have "二两饭" for an ordinary meal, which basically means 饭 cooked out of 100g of rice. I don't think 200g of starch would be too much for any healthy individual, since most of it will just be broken down to glucose and burnt as the primary energy source for most organs, and bear in mind rice is not pure starch after all. I'm not sure about the connection between carbohydrates and inflammatory response, but I think it should be the one least associated with cardiovascular events among the three major energy sources (carbs, fat and proteins).

[abcdefg]

I haven't come across brown rice in China, though I have not made a diligent search. Does it really exist here? If so, what name does it go by? Maybe I have just been overlooking it in the markets and grocery stores.

[skylee]

In HK you can use the terms 紅米 or 糙米. It is often cooked together with regular white rice. I know one family here who eat 紅米 everyday.

There are also restaurants that sell 十穀飯 (ten-grain rice)

[abcdefg]

Thanks, Skylee, that's good to know. Now that I know what words to try to use I'll see if I can scout some up here on the mainland. I eat it a lot back in the US and kind of miss it here. Also it's nutritionally superior to ordinary white rice.

[catmachine]

I need to intake sufficient rice every day or i'll feel feeble, sometimes even lazy to think. Because rice contains a lot of sugar, which is the main supply of energy (including energy for brain).

But "live on rice only"? Haha~ of course you cant do that. Other kinds of food are also necessary, like meat and vegetables. The matter is the proportion in the diet. If you need to, you can go ask a doctor for reasonable advice.

[trien27]

In HK you can use the terms 紅米 or 糙米. It is often cooked together with regular white rice. I know one family here who eat 紅米 everyday.

Over here, there's also 玄米, which is purplish when cooked even though it looks black when uncooked. 玄 = black / dark.

Rice is the staple food in Southern China, while those foods made of flour, like noodles and buns, etc... were used as the staple food in Northern China.

"紅米" or "糙米" = "brown rice"

Xiao long bao = famous for being small steamed buns from Shanghai.

I used to have 4 meals a day but no snacks: cereal for breakfast, lunch = vegetables with other foods, meal after school = soup or some small meal, dinner = anything. The only snack I really had back then was candy. On weekends, I would have fried rice or noodles, buns, dimsum, oatmeal, etc...

Contrary to popular belief: Not all Chinese have 3 meals of rice a day for the whole year.

I need to intake sufficient rice every day or i'll feel feeble, sometimes even lazy to think. Because rice contains a lot of sugar, which is the main supply of energy (including energy for brain).

Are you sure? White rice contains starch, not sugar, but does have carbohydrates! The carbs are what's giving you energy, it's not sugar. Since sugar is a carb, most people jump to the wrong conclusion and think it's made of sugar and so incorrectly suggests that diabetics shouldn't eat rice!!! I don't know where you learned what you said, but carbohydrates are what gives you energy, not necessarily sugar. But without sugar, you might feel hungry faster than you should. Having a little sugar in the diet doesn't hurt.

Edited February 19, 2010 at 05:49 AM by trien27

[catmachine]

trien27 : White rice contains starch, not sugar...

Starch belongs to what we called 糖類, which is what i said "sugar".

[clevermae]

i live in a place where rice is also the staple. ordinary rice is fattening, when you eat too much of it. yeah, brown rice is healthier, but it is much more expensive.

[flameproof]

I haven't come across brown rice in China,

I saw it in Metro and Wal-Mart. With 'brown' I mean unpolished, with the shell. Not to be confused with brown, or red rice which is polished. Unpolished rice need about double the cooking time. Taste is a bit stronger then white rice.

In the 'old' days I remember that the restaurant used to sell white rice, and the outer shell of the rice corn was used to fire the oven. Doing it the other way round would be more healthy though.

BTW, you can pop up boring white rice with a bay leave and a slice of fresh ginger in the rice cooker. Try it!

[abcdefg]

BTW, you can pop up boring white rice with a bay leave and a slice of fresh ginger in the rice cooker. Try it!

Thanks. The unpolished rice is what I meant too. I hate going to Wal-Mart or Metro, but maybe I will still do it one of these days.

I haven't tried to buy bay leaf here in China. The dictionary says it's 月桂叶 = yuèguìyè. Do you know if that works in real life and whether it's grown here or is another imported item?

[Outofin]

Just got a very interesting booklet from the clinic, Everybody Cooks Rice. I mostly eat white rice. Just add rice and water to rice cooker. Sometime I eat fried rice. Fried rice is only a byproduct of white rice. You make white rice first and then cook them with other stuff.

But as I learned from the book, people from many cultures cook rice, and in different ways. They put many things and spices into rice!

[Kenny同志]

ordinary rice is fattening

I've eaten rice for almost twenty four years yet I am thin.

Edited March 4, 2010 at 07:45 AM by kenny2006woo

[imron]

Perhaps you're just not eating enough

[Lu]

ordinary rice is fattening

I've eaten rice for almost twenty four years yet I am thin.

I eat candy and chocolate every day and I too am thin. That doesn't really change that candy and chocolate are fattening.

[Caidanbi]

Rice is very healthy. However, if that's all you were eating, you would have a lot of health problems. Rice, like any other grain, is generally used as filler to complement the other foods you are eating.

Also, someone mentioned that rice has starch, not sugar. This is true, but you need to understand the way your body processes it, it treats the starch more like a sugar than anything else. I have hypoglycemia, so I can't eat sugar. I can have complex carbs (like in whole grains, including rice), but I have to watch how much of them I eat, because my body processes it more quickly than other foods, and the effect is sometimes the same as eating sugar, it makes me very sick. That's why some people think diabetics shouldn't eat it. But in small amounts they should, as long as it's not too refined ^-^

[xiaocai]

I haven't tried to buy bay leaf here in China. The dictionary says it's 月桂叶 = yuèguìyè. Do you know if that works in real life and whether it's grown here or is another imported item?

I think it is called 香叶 when used for cooking.

[kjspring]

Actually China has one of the highest rise in obesity in the world. Meat and other foods are becoming cheaper while diseases that once kept the life expectancy low are almost gone. Noodles are more popular in North China while rice is popular in the South. I eat rice everyday in USA and when I was in China I expected to continue eating my rice but actually at restaurants rice would only be served at the end when you are about to finish eating.

If you eat only rice you will die. You will go blind as natural rice has very low levels of Beta carotene. It also lacks B-12 which is only found in meats, eggs and dairy. Without B-12 you will become anemic. Eat many different types of foods. Dont be a panda.