brown rice, heaty, children

Hi Mr Richard Seah

I'm confused by the different advice on children eating brown rice and don't know who is correct. I know you are very knowledgeable on brown rice and I hope you can englighten me.

I wish to know whether very young children (below 5 years old) can eat brown rice every day and whether it is too heaty or too rich for them. I've been told that children can only eat brown rice 3 times a week as the nutrients are too rich for children. Is this true?

My children have been taking brown rice every day for the past 3 years and I'm anxious to know whether it is all right.

Thanks for your advice.

- Iris Tan

Dear Iris,

YES, brown rice is okay for children.

For very young babies, eg less than 2 years old, cook rice very soft and pass through a sieve to remove the most "rough" part. But for older children, normal brown rice is okay, same as what adults eat.

"Heaty"

Yes brown rice more heaty compared with white rice. But why don't you ask whether white rice is "too cooling"? This is another way of looking at it.

Brown rice is NATURAL FOOD yet people ask all sorts of questions - Is it ok? Is it too heaty? Can children eat? Can they eat everyday? etc etc.

White rice is UNNATURAL FOOD but people don't ask any questions, they just eat!

Same thing, some children eat instant noodles / MacDonalds / Coca Cola, etc everyday but people don't question whether or not it is ok, just let them eat.

Also, whether or not a food is "heaty" depends on WHOLE DIET / LIFESTYLE, not on one item.

Eg, if you eat plenty of deep fried foods, chilli, etc then even if you eat white rice you will be heaty.

Or, if you eat plenty of salads, fruit juices etc, then even if you eat brown rice, you will be cool.

Similarly, if you don't get enough sleep, you will be heaty. But in this case what should you do? Should you stop taking brown rice? Of course not! You should sleep more!

Results

Finally, look at the results...

If your children have been taking brown rice for three years, how are they? Are they healthy? Or are they always sick?

If they are healthy, you should continue what you have been doing - don't listen to others. Maybe their children more sickly than yours.

If your children are not healthy, then you should try to find out what is wrong. In this case you have to look at many factors in the diet and lifestyle, not just brown rice.

I hope I have answered your questions.

The best guideline I can give to you is this: NATURAL WAY is always better than UNNATURAL WAY!

Hi Richard

Thanks a lot for your informative e-mail.

Honestly, I didn't know that white rice is unnatural food. I thought that white rice is inferior to brown rice because it lacks nutrients. Is there any other reason why white rice is considered as unnatural food? I hope you can enlighten me because I'm sure many people are unaware of it.

Also, I'm only taking the polished brown rice (brown colour) and not the unpolished brown rice {red colour} Does the polished brown rice have any nutrients?

Thanks.

- Iris

Dear Iris,

I will answer your second question first because I used to make the same mistake!

"Brown" rice and "Red" rice are both unpolished. They have different colour because they are different species, that's all, like Chinese, Malay, Indian, Europeans all different colour but all humans.

There is even black rice - eg pulot hitam, which is black glutinuous rice - and other types. There is also natural "white" rice that appears white but is also unpolished.

Polishing rice

Rice has a shell (husk) which cannot be eaten.

Rice also has a skin - actually 7 layers of skin - which contains most of the fibre, vitamins, minerals, etc.

At the tip, there is the "germ" the part that starts growing. This is rich in protein and good quality natural oils.

Brown rice or unpolished rice only has the shell removed. Everything else is there. The two words - brown / unpolished - are different words meaning the same thing.

White rice has the shell and the skin removed. Also the germ is removed. That's why white rice has one small corner missing.

That's why we say it is unnatural. Only the starch is left. Most of the fibre, vitamins, minerals, protein, oil, etc is gone. Not 100% gone but 90+ % gone.

There is also semi-polished rice. With some types of red rice, you can see that it is not totally red, some parts red some parts white. This means part of the skin has been removed.

Rice for tropical climates

Natural rice comes in many colours. World wide there are a few thousand types of rice. Long, medium, short, light brown, dark brown, black, red, etc, as well as "normal" rice, glutinuous rice (sticky rice), fragrant rice, etc etc.

Usually for people in Singapore, we recommend long grain or medium grain rice (any colour) as well as sweet brown rice - this is unpolished glutinuous rice, which the Chinese call chook bee or lor mai.

Some people get stomach upset when they eat glutinuous rice, but if they eat the unpolished version, they do not experience any problems.

Sweet brown rice actually good for children because it has a higher protein content and children need more protein. You can mix with regular brown rice, 50/50 or 25/75 or 75/25... up to you.

We also recommend mixing rice with other grains such as barley, China barley (the two are different, but both are good) and millet. If you go to natural foods store or better supermarkets, you will see these other grains.

Mixing is good because other grains have different nutrition and different effects on the body. Eg rice good for lungs and intestines, barley good for liver and gall bladder, millet good for stomach, spleen, pancreas.

So if you eat a mixture, you nourish all the organs.

Also, it is more interesting this way, not the same rice everyday!

Eg millet cook like porridge is very delicious. Can add pumpkin, or sweet potato or other vegetables.

Cooking grains

All grains can be cooked same way. So whether rice or rice + something else, use same amount of water.

Best to cook with fire, not electric rice cooker. Worst is microwave.

To cook with fire, use 1x rice with 2x water, eg 1 cup rice with 2 cups water, 2 cups rice with 4 cups water, etc.

Bring to boil without cover. Add pinch of sea salt. Cover. Lower fire and cook over small fire for 45 minutes. Leave to rest about 10 minutes or longer before serving.

If it turns out too hard, too soft, too burnt, not cooked, etc adjust water, fire and cooking time accordingly. It should taste delicious.

If taste lousy, either you've cooked wrongly or the grains are not fresh. Eg millet is very fragrant and delicious. But if kept for too long time, it tastes horrible!