Brown vs White

What’s Not Right about White?
White rice. White sugar. White flour. For decades now, we have all dined, sweetened and baked with these whitened wonders. Most of us have gotten so used to thinking that they are the cleaner, more refined and therefore better options to take when cooking or baking.
     But for quite some time now, there have been barely-heard objections in health-conscious circles about how turning them white actually does not make them right!

Brown Rice vs White Rice
White rice actually starts out as brown rice, but the husk, bran and germ are removed and only the starchy core is left. Brown rice has had just the outer husk removed, which is inedible, but the bran and germ remain. In short, the main difference between the two is that milling has removed the outer husk layer of brown rice turning it white.
     The question is, does this process affect the nutritional quality of the rice? Most definitely, YES! Within the bran layer that has been stripped off to produce white rice were nutrients of vital importance in the diet, thus making white rice a loser in the nutrition game.
     Fiber is dramatically low in white rice. If you’re used to eating white rice and you shift to brown, you may notice a positive change in your ‘restroom regularity’. Shifting back to white rice after a long period on brown rice could also indicate the advantages of eating high-fiber brown rice; some people experience constipation when they return to white rice demonstrating how the digestive system clearly benefits from the high fiber content of brown rice.
     The following chart shows the nutritional differences between brown and white rice. Fiber is dramatically lower in white rice, as are the oils, most of the B vitamins, and important minerals.

	Brown Rice	White Rice
	1 cup	1 cup
Calories	232	223
Dietary Fiber	3.32 g	0.74 g
Vitamin E	1.4 mg	0.462 mg
Potassium	137 mg	57.4 mg
Phosphorus	142 mg	57.4 mg
Magnesium	72.2 mg	22.6 mg
Folacin	10 mcg	4.1 mcg
Protein	4.88 g	4.10 g
Carbohydrate	49.7 g	49.6 g
Fat	1.17 g	0.205 g
Thiamin (B1)	0.223 mg	0.176 mg
Riboflavin (B2)	0.039 mg	0.021 mg
Niacin (B3)	2.730 mg	2.050 mg
Vitamin B6	0.294 mg	0.103 mg
Selenium	26 mg	19 mg
Zinc	1.05 mg	0.841 mg

This chart clearly shows the nutritional superiority of brown rice over white. As a graphic example of how one’s health could be gravely affected simply by one’s choice of rice, take this famous historical incident. Wives of American missionaries who came to our country in the 1930s inadvertently caused the deaths of hundreds of Filipino prisoners in local jails. Thinking that what they were doing was an act of kindness and generosity, the women replaced polished white rice for natural brown rice in the prison diets, causing beri-beri and killing off the prisoners.
In addition, the US National Cancer Institute recommends 25 grams of fiber a day. As the table above indicates, a cup of brown rice adds nearly 3.5 g, while an equal amount of white rice does not even provide 1 gram. Also, components of the oils present in rice bran have been shown in numerous studies to decrease serum cholesterol, a major risk factor in heart disease.

As a special service to GreenHearts customers, we are accepting orders for organically grown, natural rice for pick-up at our store. For more information, click here.

Brown Sugar vs White Sugar
Back in 17th century Europe, manufacturers developed a laborious process through which sugar could be refined to something approximating whiteness. This whiteness, which at the time came at such a high price, caused white sugar to be considered by many people to be more worthy of consumption. In reality, however, although a cup of brown sugar has slightly more calories than white, brown sugar also contains 187 milligrams of calcium, 56 mg of phosphorous, 4.8 mg of iron, 757 mg of potassium and 97 mg of sodium, compared to only scant traces of those nutrients found in white sugar. All the good parts – the molasses, the vitamins and minerals – have been removed; there is practically nothing left but carbohydrates and calories.
     Now that the days of white sugar being considered a status symbol are long gone, the refining is now done for purely commercial reasons; it allows the sugar to last longer in the warehouse and on the supermarket shelf. Of course, to protect the end user – that’s you – merchants can simply put a “Consume Before:” stamp on the package of unrefined sugar. But that also means a risk for the merchant should the unrefined sugar expire before it gets sold. Ultimately, it’s your health that pays the highest price.

Brown Bread vs White Bread
Wheat germ is one the very few places in nature in which the entire vitamin B complex is found. A grain of wheat consists basically of the germ (a hard, nutty kernel at one end), a starchy endosperm, and three layers of protective husk called bran. Essential enzymes, vitamins and minerals, including iron, cobalt, copper, manganese and molybdenum are in the germ and husk. Whole wheat also contains traces of barium – a shortage of which could lead to cardiac disease – and vanadium, also essential to a healthy heart.
     To produce whole meal, the entire grain is ground into flour. In the process, the husk that is reduced to powder gives the flour its brown color. Technology, however, has allowed mills to separate the wheat germ from the bran and the endosperm. But the separation of the germ and husk from the endosperm are definitely not done in order to improve the nutritional quality of your bread. Removal of the germ makes it possible to keep the flour in good condition for a much longer period of time in the warehouse and on the shelf. The question is: does that protect your health more than it protects the merchant’s investment? If you think about it, the separated husk and germ is also sold separately as animal feed – thus providing the miller two things to sell instead of one.
     Keep in mind, however, that there are different types of brown bread. Whole meal and granary contain much or all of the wheat grains and these are the healthiest. Other types of brown bread can still be made from finely milled wheat where all the bran has been extracted and left out. This bread is not very different from white bread and is no better in terms of nutrient or fiber content, so don’t be fooled.
     Through the years, various chemicals have entered the picture to “improve” white flour, including benzoyl peroxide, potassium bromate, ammonium persulfate, alloxan and chlorine dioxide for bleaching. Chlorine dioxide destroys the remaining vitamin E in flour, thus causing the starch to swell; something the baker actually appreciates not knowing how and why it happens. With the vitamins and minerals removed, virtually nothing is left in white flour but raw starch, which has so little nutritive value that most bacteria won’t eat it. To address the problem, synthetic chemicals are added to “enrich” white bread. As early as 1919, the US Public Health Service announced a definite connection between over-refined flour and the diseases beri-beri and pellagra (both of which are vitamin-deficiency diseases). But why is the public still given white flour and white bread as the predominant options today? Because we prefer to buy them.