My mom bought me two other varieties of rice recently: red and black. Given that I already knew brown rice is more nutritious than white rice, I wondered if the red and black rice were even more nutritious. I started to look up the nutritional information.
Originally I started to look up multiple varieties of each “color” or rice, but it turns out that the short-grain and long-grain varieties of the same color had the same nutritional info. To simplify the data, I limited the chart to one variety of each color:
White Rice (Jasmine) | Brown Rice (short grain) | Red Cargo Rice | Black Rice | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Serving Size | 1/4 cup dry | 1/4 cup dry | 1/4 dry | 1/4 cup dry |
Calories | 160 | 170 | 175 | 170 |
Total Carb | 36g | 38g | 36g | 38g |
Fiber | .5g | 3g | 2g | 3g |
Protein | 3g | 3g | 3g | 5g |
Magnesium | no data | 20% | 32% | no data |
Iron | 2% | 2% | 4% | 6% |
Yep! Turns out the black rice is the most nutritious, then the red, then the brown, and finally the white rice. I imagine it won't be long before we start seeing the black and red varieties popping up in supermarkets and restaurants.