White rice and Brown rice

Difference between white rice and Brown rice

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a staple food of over half the world's people and is grown on approximately 146 million hectares, more than 10 percent of total available land. Total world production is about 535 million tons of unmilled or rough rice (paddy). Ninety seven percent (97 percent) of the world's rice is grown by less developed countries, mostly in Asia. China and India produce about 55 percent of the total crop (IRRI, 1997).

Rice is one of the cheapest sources of food energy and protein. Most rice is consumed as white polished grain, despite the valuable food content of brown rice. These nutrients are lost when bran is removed in milling. Brown rice, once the form of rice eaten before the advent modern rice mills, has lost its appeal due to consumer preference changes for colour, nutty taste and other traits. Health-conscious people in European countries where rice is not a staple prefer brown rice. Drawbacks of brown rice are it requires more fuel for cooking than white rice, it may cause digestive disturbances and the oil in the bran tends to turn rancid and reduce storage life (Henry and Kettlewell, 1996).

ref : http://www.fao.org/inpho/content/compend/text/ch10.htm