Family: Food
Brown unmilled rice
Grain with the bran: more manganese, selenium and zinc, and also more arsenic and cadmium.
Overview
In brown rice the bran stays, and with it both the nutrients and what accumulates alongside them. By the measurement of 446 grains, unmilled grain carries markedly more manganese, nickel, copper, selenium and zinc, and at the same time more arsenic, cadmium and chromium. On the long-term side the picture differs from white rice but is not its opposite: the meta-analysis notes that studies on brown rice conflict, and could not be pooled into a single figure.
Production method
- What milling removes
The bran stays: both the nutrients and what accumulates with them
More detail
Unmilled grain keeps its bran, and with it the manganese, nickel, copper, selenium and zinc that milled rice has markedly less of. Arsenic, cadmium and chromium stay too: in the measurement their contents in bran and in milled grain are linearly related.
Quality indicators
- State of the evidence
There is less data, and it conflicts
More detail
For brown rice the meta-analysis had three estimates against fifteen for white, and the authors call the studies conflicting. That does not mean brown rice is safer or more dangerous: it means there is not yet enough to say about it with the same confidence.
Qualitative characteristics
- What changes the amount
The same method removed 54%; the others did not work on brown rice
More detail
For brown rice, parboiling with absorption removed 54% of the inorganic arsenic and raised the margin of exposure 2.2-fold. The other three methods lowered the content for white rice only. A review warns, though: washing and cooking in excess water carry away nutrients along with the arsenic.
Health-related indicators
- Long-term risk in observational data
Studies conflict; they could not be pooled into a single figure
More detail
For brown rice the same meta-analysis had three cohort estimates and notes that the studies conflict. It gives no pooled risk figure for brown rice — and neither does the platform.
What is nearby
Common comparisons
Related categories
Sources and evidence
Sources by kind of evidence
REVIEWSystematic review2
STUDYPeer-reviewed2
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