Calories in White Rice

White rice, as opposed to brown rice, is that form of this grain, that is with its husk removed and polished. While brown rice is often said to be the healthier of the two, white rice enjoys continued popularity with people, as the shelf life of rice of this color is much more than that of brown rice. And let's face it, it tastes a lot better. But as the voices are growing stronger to highlight the lack of fiber and the comparative unhealthiness of this form of rice, people can't help but ask a few questions about the nutritional value of white rice.

Counting Calories in White Rice

Now having a cup of plain, boiled white rice (a 186 g cup, to be precise), will add about 242 calories to your daily intake. Now with a little simple math, you'll know exactly how much your white rice bowl weighs, in grams as well as in calories. Also, as long you're doing some weight watching, it is also important to add all the extra calories that come from adding yogurt or anything else to your white rice.

So although white rice doesn't score too high on your calorie warning meter, you will surely find a better lower-calorie substitute if you're on a weight loss diet.

But then again, calories only tell one side of the story. Just telling you the number of calories your bowl of white rice would be doing its positive points injustice. What positives am I talking about? Well for starters, white rice is fairly low on saturated fats-the aforementioned 186 g cup adds only about 0.1 g of saturated fat. The polyunsaturated and monounsaturated components too add only about 0.1 g of fat each. Moreover, boiled white rice has no cholesterol and no sodium, which is again a very important argument in favor of white rice. Thirdly, it also contains a healthy 4.4 g of proteins.

But the most telling nutrient in white rice is, you guessed it - carbohydrates. It adds the highest amount of calories in white rice. The 186 g cup adds about 53.2 g of carbohydrates to your daily intake, of which 0.6 g comes under the dietary fiber category. White rice also stands to add quite a lot of iron to your daily diet (up to 15% of required daily intake) depending on the type of rice you're eating.

On the flip side again, white rice has no vitamins to talk about and no other nutrients either for that matter. But some countries have this law where the producers of polished white rice have to make it compulsory to enrich the rice with said vitamins to make it healthier.

These white rice nutrition facts can be contrasted with those of brown rice, which have a significantly higher amount of fiber, Vitamin B1 and B3 and magnesium.

So as you can see, the health benefits from white rice are seemingly quite thin as compared to its brown counterpart. So while white rice is 'healthy' in the sense that white rice calories aren't too high and the sodium and cholesterol content is almost minimal, it is also true that brown rice has more vitamins and minerals which your body needs.