Love It, Like It, Hate It: Rice (& rice alternatives)
White rice is such staple in our everyday cooking, serving as the foundation for dishes like red beans and rice, jambalaya, and shrimp creole. But white rice gives us very little nutritional benefit, and packs 200 calories and 45 carbs into every cup.
And then there’s brown rice, black rice, even red rice – but are these really any better? In today’s Love it, Like it, Hate it, we’re Getting the Skinny with Molly on her top picks and worst bets for this southern favorite.
{Nutrition Facts below are for one cup cooked. ORAC (total antioxidant content) is per 100 mg raw.}
LOVE IT!
Cauliflower Rice: e.g. Homemade, Whole Foods 365 Riced Cauliflower, Trader Joe’s Riced Cauliflower
37 calories – 37 mg sodium – 6 grams carb – 3 grams fiber – 3 grams sugar – 3 grams protein
Cup-for-cup, riced cauliflower has about 80% fewer carbs than cooked rice
ORAC: 870
Banza Rice [chickpea-based]: Nearly 4x more protein and 2x more fiber than brown rice
LIKE IT!
Black rice | Purple Rice | Forbidden Rice
200 calories – 0 sodium – 43 grams carb – 3 grams fiber – 1 gram sugar – 6 grams protein
ORAC: 2125
Red rice
226 calories – 0 sodium – 50 grams carb – 2.6 grams fiber – 0 sugar – 5 grams protein
ORAC: 3598
Brown rice
Per cup: 216 calories – 10 mg sodium – 45 grams carb – 4 grams fiber – 1 gram sugar – 5 grams protein
ORAC: 330
HATE IT!
White rice
Per cup: 205 calories – 2 mg sodium – 45 grams carb – 1 gram fiber – 0 sugar – 4 grams sugar
ORAC: <30
Rice Mixes such as Zatarain’s Rice Pilaf (white rice with 790 mg sodium per serving) & Mahatma’s Yellow Rice (white rice with 750 mg sodium per serving)
To catch the full segment on WGNO.com, click here.