6 Health Benefits of Different Types of Rice

Rice can fill the stomach and is the staple food for Chinese people. In fact, besides being filling, rice has many other health benefits, such as aiding digestion and nourishing the kidneys. The following introduces six types of rice with different health benefits.

Bama Red Brown Rice

1. The most nourishing is japonica rice

The common rice used daily for cooking is also known as japonica rice or polished rice. It is semi-transparent and oval or elliptical, with a high milling rate, low grain expansion, but high stickiness. As a daily staple, japonica rice contains essential nutrients for the human body, such as starch, protein, fat, vitamin B1, niacin, vitamin C, and calcium and iron, providing the necessary nutrition and calories.

Cooking japonica rice into porridge for health and longevity has a history of 2000 years in China. The congee oil on the top layer of the porridge can replenish fluids and essence, greatly benefiting the nourishment of the body's yin fluids and kidney essence, making it most suitable for patients, postpartum women, and the elderly. Japonica rice has the effects of strengthening the spleen and stomach, toning the middle qi, nourishing yin and promoting body fluids, relieving vexation and thirst, and stopping diarrhea. It can be used for conditions such as weak spleen and stomach, vexation and thirst, malnutrition, and post-illness weakness. However, diabetics should be careful not to eat too much.

2. The most digestion-friendly is brown rice

Brown rice is the "light yellow rice" that has had the coarse bran hull removed during the milling process, retaining the germ and inner bran. The protein, fat, and vitamin content in brown rice is higher than in white rice.

The coarse fiber molecules in the bran layer help with gastrointestinal motility and are effective for digestive tract diseases such as stomach problems, constipation, and hemorrhoids. Brown rice is more nutritious than white rice, can lower cholesterol, and reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Brown rice is suitable for the general population, but due to its coarse texture and dense nature, it takes longer to cook. It is recommended to wash it, soak it in cold water overnight before cooking, and then cook it in a pressure cooker for more than half an hour.

Black Rice and Jujube Cake

3. The most kidney-nourishing is black rice

Black rice is rich in nutrition, containing protein, fat, B vitamins, calcium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, and other substances, with a nutritional value higher than ordinary rice. It can significantly increase the content of human blood pigment and hemoglobin, is beneficial for the health of the cardiovascular system, promotes bone and brain development in children, and can aid recovery for postpartum women and the weak, making it an ideal nutritional health food.

Black rice has the effects of nourishing yin and kidneys, replenishing qi and strengthening the body, strengthening the spleen and whetting the appetite, nourishing the liver and improving eyesight, and nourishing essence and securing astringency. It is a great tonic for anti-aging, beauty, disease prevention, and body strengthening. Regular consumption of black rice has a good tonic effect on chronic patients, people in recovery, and young children. Because black rice is not easy to cook thoroughly, it should be soaked overnight before cooking. It is not suitable for young children and the elderly with weak digestive functions.

4. The most detoxifying is glutinous rice

Glutinous rice, also called Jiangmi, is often used to make snacks because of its fragrant, sticky, and smooth texture, and is loved by everyone. Glutinous rice contains nutrients such as protein, fat, carbohydrates, calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin B2, and a large amount of starch.

Sea Cucumber and Millet Porridge

5. The most beauty-enhancing is Job's tears

Job's tears is also known as Job's tears seed, coix seed. The nutritional value of Job's tears is very high, known as the "king of world gramineous plants." Job's tears seed is rich in nutrients, containing coixenolide, coixol, sterols, various amino acids such as arginine, and nutritional components such as vitamin B1 and carbohydrates. It has the effects of promoting urination to drain dampness, strengthening the spleen to stop diarrhea, and clearing heat and detoxifying.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that Job's tears is sweet and light in taste, slightly cold in nature, and enters the spleen, stomach, and lung meridians. It has therapeutic and preventive effects on symptoms such as spleen deficiency and diarrhea, muscle soreness and heaviness, and joint pain.

6. The most stomach-nourishing is millet

Millet is also called Liangmi, Sumi, or Suguo. It is rich in nutrients such as protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamin B2, niacin, and calcium, phosphorus, iron. Because millet is very easily digested and absorbed by the human body, it is called "health rice" by nutrition experts.

Millet has the effects of strengthening the spleen and harmonizing the middle, benefiting kidney qi, clearing deficient heat, promoting urination, and treating vexation and thirst. It is a good nutritional and recuperative food for treating weakness of the spleen and stomach, general debility, damage to essence and blood, postpartum deficiency, and loss of appetite. Because millet is slightly cool in nature, people with qi stagnation, a constitution that is slightly deficient and cold, or those with clear and long urination should not eat too much of it.