Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm losing weight fast. I never thought it would be this easy. Every meal I'm eating white rice with or without chicken and vegetables. 1 gram of white rice is 1 calorie. 100g of white rice is quite a big plate. Basically rice takes up more space on a plate, for its weight, than the equivalent for many carbs. It's also really easy to digest.
Ever wondered why so many Thai, Indian, Chinese people are thin? It's because they're eating more white rice than bread, pasta and potatoes.
1g of the healthiest bread, a sourdough, contains 3g of calories.
1g of spaghetti contains 2g of calories.
1g of potato contains only 1g of calories but potatoes are hard to digest.
But even better than the weight loss is I feel less stressed and anxious. Ever noticed a lot of Thai people seem laidback? Maybe it's the white rice. Note: Brown rice is harder to digest because it contains anti-nutrients that evolved in the rice grain to protect itself from being eaten by predators. White rice is brown rice that has had its husk, bran and germ removed.
Most athletes eat white rice as it's great fuel for physical activity.
If you put a piece of bread on a plate weighing 100g it won't fill your plate much at all. 100g of white rice will. And while 100g of pasta will fill a plate it won't digest as easily as white rice.
How is it that some Indians are able to run along pulling a rickshaw with their hands, no horse, no car, pulling people along in it? Could it be the white rice?
Some gross stereotypes of Asians there, to be honest. And Indians are some of the least healthy people in my intimate knowledge and experience; all that ghee/butter and heavy refined carbs doesn't help. It's part of the reason why so many Indians have heart problems and diabetes.
I also don't think white rice is the silver bullet either; it's the lack of refined sugar in diets that make a much bigger difference. Sugar is known to be the biggest factor when it comes to weight gain and the general obesity epidemic in the west. For so long fats were vilified, but we have since learned that the sugar industry deliberately paid for skewed research which suggested fats were to blame, when certain fats are vital to heart health, healthy joints, brain function, etc.
As for stuffing one's plate with white rice, why not use wholemeal rice as it's a lower GI food that - as you point out - takes longer to digest? Wholemeal food is healthier *because* the grain hasn't been refined, so your theory doesn't hold water there. Or even better, eat vegetables? There are many low calorie alternatives to white rice which I think are preferable. The general approach to substituting a higher calorie food to something that is lower calorie is just common sense, surely? Ultimately, we know the body cannot function without protein and fats, but it can without carbs, so I know what I'd cut out if I had to lose weight.
In case you're wondering, I'm an Indian gentleman with a fairly extensive background in fitness and nutrition...