Basmati Rice better than Brown rice?

[Miracle Fingers]

I looked up the GI values of different types of rice and noticed:

White rice = 87
Brown rice = 76
Basmati rice = 58

So I take it that Basmati Rice is better for you than Brown rice!??

[NAP_s_king]

there is more to it than just the GI of a food that indicates whether its "better" or not...in this case, fiber content

[Miracle Fingers]

When I say 'better', I mean is less likely to be stored as fat.

So I guess Brown Rice would be better for your digestion.

[ClaytonG]

i dont know if youve seen it....but what about BROWN basmati rice???? ive seen it at the Bulk food store.....any thoughts on if this might better for you than brown alone, or basmati alone? to me, it seems like the best of both worlds

[Cardinal]

Unless you meet some fairly specific requirements, I tend to think it will not be extremely likely that your carbs will be stored directly as fat. (by de novo lipogenesis)

Rather fat oxidation will be blunted by consistently high levels of insulin. On a mildly hypercaloric diet, running say a roughly isocaloric scheme, any dietary fat ingested will likely be what gets stored.

In general, I no longer put much stock in the glycemic index. It hasn't been particularly useful for me in helping me reach my goals.

Oh about basmati =D, the stuff is great. I just ate a huge pot of it and would concur with someone wanting to make it a sizable part of their diet! My house smells like indian food now though!

[Miracle Fingers]

Originally posted by Cardinal
In general, I no longer put much stock in the glycemic index. It hasn't been particularly useful for me in helping me reach my goals.

Why?

What do you use instead?

[Cardinal]

I really wish I could be succinct. Long post.

It seems like everyone has their own reasons for liking or disliking the G.I. index. I'll gladly provide some reasons for my general disapprobation. Within the past year my views have taken a hard 180 on it all.

Disclaimer: All of this is imho and is more or less anecdotal. I can but haven't provided sound reasoning for some of these points.

Also, this won't hold true for everyone due to genetic differences in insulin sensitivity, phenotype etc. A roving fatass with diabetes won't react at all like I do to cho ingestion for example.

1) Being hypocaloric, eucaloric, or hypercaloric determines weight change. Give me adequate protein and efas and I could take my cho from dextrose. Ceteris paribus, I probably would see the same results re: weight loss/gain and muscle preservation etc.

2) GI is fairly useless if you are consuming mixed meals. Or if you are a glutton like me and ingest a metric assload of them at one sitting. I could care less about eating a cup of rice. Give me a whole pot! Glycemic load can help take this into account decently though.

3) High levels of insulin blunt lipolysis yet if/when insulin eventually comes crashing down (after a high GI spike), fat oxidation will be ramped up, hence providing balance in that sense.

4) Insulin sensitivity is a complicated issue, but highly important. There are tons of factors that influence this. For example, given a prolonged period of lowered baseline insulin such as a low cho diet, I can induce a hypoglycemic insulin coma from eating a plate of broccoli. I **** you not. Same applies to any cho source as far as I can tell. Give me a canister of dextrose after a prolonged cho overfeeding period and it may not even result in any significant crash in insulin. None of this should be particularly surprising imo. I just gave it as another example of why GI doesn't mean much to me.

5) Type of cho ingested is way more important than G.I. I prefer something readily convertible to some glucose equivalent. Fructose/galactose content of diet is important but often not taken into consideration properly looking at GI.

6) In short I just haven't found the GI to be a good practical indicator of anything for me specifically re: my bodybuilding goals.

Sometimes I think back to when I would seriously pick carbs based on G.I. I would worry about whether I would get fat eating a few corn tortillas rather than some brown rice. I could care less now!

Lots of folks will disagree with me here and I would gladly hear the other side of the coin!

-Cardinal

[supergarr]

No i agree. I stopped paying attention to the GI. I felt it was rather pointless since my meals were balanced and i always consumed a bit of fiber anyway. I believe if you eat "natural" foods and dont consume the processed junk thats out there then you will be fine. From there its just a matter of watching your calories intake as a whole on a daily basis. I still enjoy eating white rice. Matter of fact i eat basmati too (its dirt cheap).

[Miracle Fingers]

This is an interesting post. I've got one or two questions.

Originally posted by Cardinal
I really wish I could be succinct. Long post.

It seems like everyone has their own reasons for liking or disliking the G.I. index. I'll gladly provide some reasons for my general disapprobation. Within the past year my views have taken a hard 180 on it all.

Disclaimer: All of this is imho and is more or less anecdotal. I can but haven't provided sound reasoning for some of these points.

Also, this won't hold true for everyone due to genetic differences in insulin sensitivity, phenotype etc. A roving fatass with diabetes won't react at all like I do to cho ingestion for example.

1) Being hypocaloric, eucaloric, or hypercaloric determines weight change. Give me adequate protein and efas and I could take my cho from dextrose. Ceteris paribus, I probably would see the same results re: weight loss/gain and muscle preservation etc.

What do the terms hypo-, eu and hypercaloric mean?
Up until now, I've always believed that a calorie deficit cause weight loss.

Also what is cho?

2) GI is fairly useless if you are consuming mixed meals. Or if you are a glutton like me and ingest a metric assload of them at one sitting. I could care less about eating a cup of rice. Give me a whole pot! Glycemic load can help take this into account decently though.

Is it not better to have 6 small meals throughout the day rather than a few large meals? Or is three okay, so long as you have a calorie deficit?

3) High levels of insulin blunt lipolysis yet if/when insulin eventually comes crashing down (after a high GI spike), fat oxidation will be ramped up, hence providing balance in that sense.

I never thought of it that way.
But you'll sure be hungry when insulin levels come crashing down.

Also isn't it best not to spike insulin too often anyway (Diabeties etc.)?

Doesn't high insulin levels also cause fat storage? Or is that only if your calorie intake exceeds your calorie requirement?

Are you saying that if you're in a calorie deficit, then high insulin would just blunt lipolysis?

4) Insulin sensitivity is a complicated issue, but highly important. There are tons of factors that influence this. For example, given a prolonged period of lowered baseline insulin such as a low cho diet, I can induce a hypoglycemic insulin coma from eating a plate of broccoli. I **** you not. Same applies to any cho source as far as I can tell. Give me a canister of dextrose after a prolonged cho overfeeding period and it may not even result in any significant crash in insulin. None of this should be particularly surprising imo. I just gave it as another example of why GI doesn't mean much to me.

5) Type of cho ingested is way more important than G.I. I prefer something readily convertible to some glucose equivalent. Fructose/galactose content of diet is important but often not taken into consideration properly looking at GI.

6) In short I just haven't found the GI to be a good practical indicator of anything for me specifically re: my bodybuilding goals.

Sometimes I think back to when I would seriously pick carbs based on G.I. I would worry about whether I would get fat eating a few corn tortillas rather than some brown rice. I could care less now!

Lots of folks will disagree with me here and I would gladly hear the other side of the coin!

-Cardinal

[Cardinal]

What do the terms hypo-, eu and hypercaloric mean?
Up until now, I've always believed that a calorie deficit cause weight loss.

Also what is cho?

Hypocaloric - below maintenance
Eucaloric - eating at maintenance calories
Hypercaloric- eating above maintenance.

So I wholeheartedly agree, energy balance determines weight loss/gain.

CHO - is a standard abbreviation in most nutritional literature for carbohydrate. Just easier to write cho than spell it all out.

Is it not better to have 6 small meals throughout the day rather than a few large meals? Or is three okay, so long as you have a calorie deficit?

This is debatable. I would say it is a matter of personal preference more than anything else. Whatever makes it easier for you to stick with your diet will likely work best in the end. There are definite advantages to either approach. I tend to think it is a reasonably good idea to keep enough meals in there to get adequate protein/maintain nitrogen balance. This can be accomplished with 3 but may be a bit easier with more. My personal preference is for many meals along with many more snacks (I am always hungry).

I never thought of it that way.
But you'll sure be hungry when insulin levels come crashing down.

You hit on a big point here. Hunger can be darn tough to deal with when insulin comes crashing down. Definitely that could lead to unneeded overeating.

Also isn't it best not to spike insulin too often anyway (Diabeties etc.)?

It is definitely a good idea not to have a long term rollercoster when it comes to insulin swings. I definitely advocate maintaining relatively stable insulin for health reasons (and general mental clarity etc).

I just don't see the GI index as helping me achieve those stable levels. Hence why I gave the broccoli and dextrose examples, showing why a low GI substance can induce crazy insulin swings but a very high GI substance may not. Multitudinous other examples are possible.

Doesn't high insulin levels also cause fat storage? Or is that only if your calorie intake exceeds your calorie requirement?

Are you saying that if you're in a calorie deficit, then high insulin would just blunt lipolysis?

If you are somewhat 'normal' physiologically (genetically average) and are making other efforts at positive nutrient partitioning, I think it would be tough to gain adipose via inducing an insulin spike eating sub-maintenance calories. Different story in a hypercaloric state where insulin is undoubtedly a major player.

In a caloric deficit, high insulin will of course do a lot more than just blunt lipolysis. For example, it serves as an anti-catabolic agent.

In general insulin is one of the few hormones that we have such direct control over which is very cool and one of the reasons everyone seems to concentrate on it so much.

Your general hormonal milieu (genetics, where you are relative to your bodyfat setpoint etc) determines quite a bit about what results you may obtain from any given effort in bodybuilding. Just another good thing to keep in mind. So in general I just learn a heck of a lot more when I don't really consider GI as a big factor.

Edit: One more quick thing as this may help answer part of your query. When in a caloric deficit, generally decreased baseline levels of insulin can be beneficial (at least initially). Lowered glycogen levels will signal a lower cellular energy state overall. Reduced glycogen levels also encourage fat oxidation.

Your body will eventually screw you over in a effort to stay alive eventually. That is why it is a good idea to step back an take a look at the larger picture pretty frequently. As you get leaner it will be much tougher to further reduce bodyfat, whatever your efforts maybe. Its just a survival mechanism. Always keep that in perspective when thinking about hormonal manipulations etc.

-Cardinal

[Cardinal]

Oh and how the heck do you keep basmati rice from sticking together when cooking it?

I thought a rice cooker was literally idiot proof as long as you dumped enough water in, but I think I just proved that notion wrong.

[aztecwolf161]

when your rice is done cooking let it steam (i know its hard cause you want to eat) in the rice cooker for another 15-20 minutes so it can suck up more moisture. usually this will keep it from sticking to the bottom, also are you rinsing and soaking the rice first, that will also help

[Cardinal]

Thanks wolf!

I am currently taking none of those steps and will do so next time I fix a pot. Coolness. Your are so right. I want to dig in the minute it is done. I'll do my best to wait a few minutes!

Especially the rinsing and soaking idea. I'll try soaking it overnight before I cook it.

[supergarr]

hehe, i put some butter in it when it boils and it gets moist and doesnt stick.

[Peaka]

Originally posted by ClaytonG
i dont know if youve seen it....but what about BROWN basmati rice???? ive seen it at the Bulk food store.....any thoughts on if this might better for you than brown alone, or basmati alone? to me, it seems like the best of both worlds

i thought so too! but i found out that brown basmati rice has a GI of 85 needless to say i chucked the rest of it out heh

[snrygo]

i thought so too! but i found out that brown basmati rice has a GI of 85 needless to say i chucked the rest of it out heh

montignac. com/en/ig_recherche.php

take out the space in between the . and the com and go there and use the search bar to find brown basmati ull find that it has a GI of 45

[markG95]

montignac. com/en/ig_recherche.php

take out the space in between the . and the com and go there and use the search bar to find brown basmati ull find that it has a GI of 45

you're about 6 years late bro hahaha

[TheFeels]

you're about 6 years late bro hahaha

you're about 3 years late bro hahaha

[SimoneB]

I looked up the GI values of different types of rice and noticed:

White rice = 87
Brown rice = 76
Basmati rice = 58

So I take it that Basmati Rice is better for you than Brown rice!??

Yes it is

[LaurieSchnelle]

Depends who you ask. I dont pay attention to GI either. I have found that brown rice does nothing for me but White does make a noticable difference. I eat Jasmine and sushi rice.. Rinse sushi rice first and Rice cookers are made from God. lol I'll never boil again

[germaine07]

Depends who you ask. I dont pay attention to GI either. I have found that brown rice does nothing for me but White does make a noticable difference. I eat Jasmine and sushi rice.. Rinse sushi rice first and Rice cookers are made from God. lol I'll never boil again

You're replying to a post from 02-27-2004.

[WonderPug]

I didn't know rice had been invented by 2004.