Rice: Nutrient-Rich Global Staple

Rice serves as the predominant staple globally, acting as the main source of sustenance for over a billion people across various countries. In addition to meeting energy needs through calories, rice addresses the fundamental requirements for proteins, vitamins, and assorted nutrients. In a 100-gram serving, rice consists of carbohydrates (77.8g), proteins (6.8g), fiber (1.4g), fats (0.6g), providing an energy content of 344 Kcal.

An examination of the vitamin and mineral composition per 100 grams reveals calcium (24mg), phosphorus (94mg), iron (0.8mg), potassium (5mg), thiamine (0.07mg), riboflavin (0.03mg), and niacin (1.6mg).

Significantly, brown rice showcases a higher content of dietary fiber compared to white rice, totaling 1.6g per 100g. The processing of white rice involves the elimination of the bran or seed coat, which contains the majority of the fiber.

It is imperative to acknowledge that the concentrated reservoir of nutrients and minerals is found in the outer layers of rice, particularly in the husk and germs.
Rice: Nutrient-Rich Global Staple

Rice: Major source of carbohydrate in Asian countries

Rice contributes to the major dietary energy for body. It is a main carbohydrate source in many Asian countries. It provides 23 per cent more calories of energy than that provided by wheat and maize crops. It is usually consumed as a whole grain after cooking, and in a regular Asian diet, can contribute for 40 to 80per cent of the total calorie intake.

Rice provides the bulk of daily calories for many companion animals and humans. Over 2 billion people in Asia alone derive of their energy needs from rice, which contains 80% carbohydrates, 7–8% protein, 3% fat, and 3% fibre.

Available carbohydrates, mainly starch, are higher in milled rice than in brown rice. Carbohydrate foods are important vehicles carrying proteins, micronutrients and other food components.

Rice is a great source of complex carbohydrates. Starch is the most common form of carbohydrates in foods, made up of long chains of glucose known as amylose and amylopectin. Amylose and amylopectin have different properties that may contribute to both the texture and digestibility of rice.

Carbohydrates are broken down to glucose, most of which is used as energy for exercise and as essential fuel for the brain slow starch digestion (with low glycemic index), attributed to a high proportion of amylase and the size and structure of the starch granules.

Foods with a high glycemic index have been associated with increased risk of type-2 diabetes, because they are rapidly digested and can cause dramatic increase in blood sugar levels. GI is a widely accepted measure of the effect of carbohydrate foods including rice on human health.

In Asian population (Chinese and Japanese), the higher consumption of white rice is associated with a significantly increased risk of type II diabetes.
Rice: Major source of carbohydrate in Asian countries

Carbohydrates content in rice

As a food material rice is nutritious and easily digestible. In comparison with other grains it is poor in nitrogenous material and fat, and correspondingly rich in non-nitrogenous substances or carbohydrates.

Cleaned rice contains 79% carbohydrate. Carbohydrate of rice is predominantly starch, with small portions of pentosans, hemicelluloses and sugars. As in most starches, both of the major components (amylase and amylopectin) occur generally in rice starch.

Sugars comprise some 0.3 to 0.5% of white rice and about 0.6 to 1.4%b of brown rice. Reducing sugars (maltose) increase and non-reducing sugars (sucrose) decrease during storage. The degradation of carbohydrates to CO2 is usually very small, but it may become significant at moisture more than 14%.

The changes of free carbohydrate content are greatly influenced by temperature. Maillard’s browning reaction between free carbohydrates and free amino acids may play a significant role in CO2 formation.

Fiber is a carbohydrate and is also a carbohydrate blocker. In other words, it slows down the absorption of digestible carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates content in rice

Rice in Human Nutrition

Rice in Human Nutrition
Rice provides 40-70% of the total calorie needs in Asia, making it the number one food staple crop in the region.

Despite the progress made, and estimated more than 800 million people of the world still suffer from malnutrition, particularly micronutrient deficiency related malnutrition.

Staple crops, including rice, are therefore being targeted as an alternative long term sustainable delivery mechanism of dietary micronutrients for humans.

However, efforts to increase the micronutrient content of staple grains will have to be coupled with the satisfactory agronomic performances of yield increases, pest resistance, and tolerance to other environmental stresses.

In this context, genetic engineering is being used in innovate ways as an effective too to facilitate and accelerate the progress towards achieving these multi-faceted goals of nutritional and economic benefits of rice to farmers.

Nutritional improvement of the rice plant includes loading and harvesting rice grains with higher than normal levels of micronutrients such as iron, zinc, provitamin A and lysine.

Such improved rice by conventional an excellent opportunity to reduce malnutrition, particularly micronutrient deficiency related malnutrition in humans.
Rice in Human Nutrition

Rice and Nutrition

Rice and Nutrition
Rice may well be the most ancient of food grains, and next to whet, it is the grain grown in largest quantity throughout the world today.

It may be the major as aspect of a diet, or incorporated into the man dish, side dish, or dessert and is commonly used in the preparation of ready to eat breakfast cereals.

Rice is especially important to persons with wheat allergies and is commonly eaten as a first food by infants, as it offers the least cereal allergy.

Rice may be eaten as the whole grain, or polished shedding the bran. Generally, rice is polished during milling in order to remove the brown hull, which also removes some of the protein, vitamins and minerals. (The once-prevalent deadly disease beri-beri resulted from eating polished rice (thiamin removed in the milling process) as a staple food.)

Today, most white rice is enriched with vitamins and minerals, to add back nutrients lost in milling.

Unpolished, whole rice is more subject to flavor deterioration and insect infestation than polished, white rice.

The primary place of origin of rice is Southeast Asia, where an average of more than 200 pounds per person a year are eaten.

China, India, Japan and Vietnam are some of the major rice consuming countries.

Warmer climates with abundant water are ideal for rice growth. Larger crops are now being cultivated in California and the southern United States and a number of varieties of rice are now commonly available.

Sweet rice is more glutinous than other varieties and is used mostly for dessert such as rice pudding.

Long and short grain brown rice are also commonly available, with many varieties providing different flavors.

Besides just being boiled to be eaten with vegetables, tofu, fish and so on, rice an be popped and used as a breakfast cereal cream of rice, another breakfast cereal, is made form ground rice.
Rice and Nutrition