Love it, Like it, Hate it: Rice (& Rice Alternatives)

White rice is such staple in our everyday cooking, serving as the foundation for dishes like red beans and rice, jambalaya, and shrimp creole. But white rice gives us very little nutritional benefit, and packs 200 calories and 45 carbs into every cup.  And then there’s brown rice, black rice, even red rice – but are these really any better?  In today’s Love it, Like it, Hate it, we’re Getting the Skinny with Molly on her top picks and worst bets for this southern favorite.  {Nutrition Facts below are for one cup cooked.  ORAC (total antioxidant content) is per 100 mg raw.}     LOVE IT!   Cauliflower Rice: e.g. Homemade, Whole Foods 365 Riced Cauliflower, Trader Joe’s Riced Cauliflower

• 37 calories – 37 mg sodium – 6 grams carb – 3 grams fiber – 3 grams sugar – 3 grams protein
• Cup-for-cup, riced cauliflower has about 80% fewer carbs than cooked rice
• ORAC: 870

  Banza Rice [chickpea-based]: Nearly 4x more protein and 2x more fiber than brown rice     LIKE IT!   Black rice | Purple Rice | Forbidden Rice

• 200 calories – 0 sodium – 43 grams carb – 3 grams fiber – 1 gram sugar – 6 grams protein
• ORAC: 2125

  Red rice

• 226 calories – 0 sodium – 50 grams carb – 2.6 grams fiber – 0 sugar – 5 grams protein
• ORAC: 3598

  Brown rice

• Per cup: 216 calories – 10 mg sodium – 45 grams carb – 4 grams fiber – 1 gram sugar – 5 grams protein
• ORAC: 330

    HATE IT!   White rice

• Per cup: 205 calories – 2 mg sodium – 45 grams carb – 1 gram fiber – 0 sugar – 4 grams sugar
• ORAC: <30

  Rice Mixes such as Zatarain’s Rice Pilaf (white rice with 790 mg sodium per serving) & Mahatma’s Yellow Rice (white rice with 750 mg sodium per serving)   ##    Want more from Molly?  Click here to sign up for Nutrition Bites, her weekly e-newsletter with links to her Get the Skinny TV segments here on WGNO, and her weekly column in NOLA.com|The Times-Picayune!   And you can follow Molly on Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram:  @MollyKimballRD