My friend and I were texting each other the other night and I was so deep into the conversation (I have a severe problem of this!) that I didn't realize my rice was burning on the stove. As funny as it is to burn rice she was not surprised by me at all. She just laughed and asked if the rice that I was cooking was some sort of "special" rice because it took about an hour to make. After what I learned later today I did actually consider rice "special".

Recently I started an organic only diet, promising myself that I would get back down to the weight that I used to be. Because I'm new with this dieting thing and don't really know all the ins and outs of the proper ways of dieting I couldn't think of any food besides vegetables that would be considered "diet" food. Trying to be creative and all I decided to go with whatever food came to me first.

Rice.

Ok, so, I headed to Whole Foods Market to pick out some rice. For starters, I decided to first go with organic rice because if I'm going to do this "diet" thing, then I may as well jump all the way in, right? I began searching around for many different ways to make rice all to find out that there are millions of ways. And check this out, there are also millions of different types of rice too. Kid you not!

So, I'm in the rice aisle, torn between the only two kinds that I knew of, brown or white, and all while shopping I actually became fixated with this whole rice idea and wanted to learn more. Mainly because.....well, I was bored!

Rice is one of the most important foods in the world, supplying as much as half of the daily calories for half of the world's population. No wonder that in Asian countries, such as Thailand, rice is so highly valued that the translation of the word "to eat" literally means "to eat rice." No kidding!

When I asked various women who were also shopping on the rice aisle to name the types of rice they were familiar with, they all were only able to recall maybe one or two. Yet, in actuality there is an abundance of different types of rice; over 8,000 varieties.

Oftentimes, rice is categorized by its size as being either short grain, medium grain or long grain. Short grain, which has the highest starch content, makes the stickiest rice, while long grain is lighter and tends to remain separate when cooked. The qualities of medium grain fall between the other two types. Although all varieties of rice are available throughout the year, I decided on the brown rice because it is the healthiest of all the varieties.

The difference between brown rice and white rice is not just color! A whole grain of rice has several layers. Only the outermost layer, the hull, is removed to produce what we call brown rice. This process is the least damaging to the nutritional value of the rice and avoids the unnecessary loss of nutrients that occurs with further processing. If brown rice is further milled to remove the bran and most of the germ layer, the result is a whiter rice, but also a rice that has lost many more nutrients. At this point, however, the rice is still unpolished, and it takes polishing to produce the white rice we are used to seeing. Polishing removes the aleurone layer of the grain. The aleurone layer is a layer filled with health-supportive, essential fats. Because these fats, once exposed to air by the refining process, are highly susceptible to oxidation, this layer is removed to extend the shelf life of the product. The resulting white rice is simply a refined starch that is largely bereft of its original nutrients.

Brown rice is qualified as an excellent source of manganese, and a good source of the minerals selenium and magnesium. The complete milling and polishing that converts brown rice into white rice destroys 67% of the vitamin B3, 80% of the vitamin B1, 90% of the vitamin B6, half of the manganese, half of the phosphorus, 60% of the iron, and all of the dietary fiber and essential fatty acids. By law in the United States, fully milled and polished white rice must be "enriched" with vitamins B1, B3, and iron. But the form of these nutrients when added back into the processed rice is not the same as in the original unprocessed version, and at least 11 lost nutrients are not replaced in any form even with rice "enrichment."

So, this is what I learned from my rice hunting trip to Whole Foods today. When I arrived home, I went to my bookshelf to find out more about brown rice and it's health benefits. Additional information I picked up while reading from the American Heart Journal is that women who eat whole grains weigh less. Almost everyone should have at least 6 servings of whole grains daily. Brown rice is also rich in fiber; you know, the kind of "roughage" we need. Many foods rich in fiber are also rich in supernutrients, vitamins and minerals. But phytates, found in bran in oats for example, can inhibit the absorption of iron needed for energy and preventing low moods.

Eating brown rice also lowers cholesterol. A 3-year prospective study of over 200 postmenopausal women with CVD (Cardiovascular Disease), published in the American Heart Journal, shows that those eating at least 6 servings of whole grains each week experienced both:

* Slowed progression of atherosclerosis, the build-up of plaque that narrows the vessels through which blood flows, and
* Less progression in stenosis, the narrowing of the diameter of arterial passageways.

So, back to my story about the first day of my rice diet. I decided to boil the brown rice because it seemed the easiest and most effortless. I left the rice on the stove too long... blah blah blah!.... Anyway, I'd burned the rice so bad that the smell literally lingered and adhered to the walls. The burned smell was so bad that even after two days when my ex-boyfriend came by to hang out he couldn't help himself asking me if I had a chimney or something! How embarrassing!