The high fiber in brown rice helps keep intestines scrubbed and healthy.
Brown rice is a whole grain, like cracked wheat, oatmeal, popcorn, barley and others. Eating brown rice has health benefits, and researchers continue working to find more. All grain kernels contain three parts: the outer shell, called "bran," the endosperm and the germ. Kansas State University researcher, Mary Meck Higgins, PhD, states, "The outer bran layer is full of fiber, B vitamins, 50 to 80 percent of the grain's minerals and other health-promoting plant substances called phytochemicals." Eating brown rice can help lower blood pressure, improve digestive health and manage body weight.
Lowers Blood Pressure
The American Heart Association website states that 1 in 3 adults in the United States has high blood pressure (hypertension). To combat this condition, which can cause heart disease and strokes, many patients take ACE-inhibitors. These prescription drugs relax the artery walls to increase blood flow through the heart. Rats are useful in the study of hypertension because they can develop a condition similar to it. In 2003, scientists at Tohoku Univerity and Japan's National Research Institute of Brewing, found that feeding rats rice bran lowered their blood pressure without producing the side effects that medication often generates, including dizziness, allergies and a chronic cough.
Helps Manage Body Weight
The Cleveland Clinic recommends replacing highly-refined starches with whole grains like brown rice. People need at least 6 ozs. of grain per day, and 3 ozs. should be whole grains. An ounce of whole grain is equal to one slice of bread, 1/2 cup of brown rice or a cup of cold cereal. In addition, a healthy, weight-loss diet should include two servings of fruit, 2 and 1/2 servings of vegetables, 5 and 1/2 ozs. of lean meat or beans, three servings of milk or milk substitute, and small amounts of unsaturated fats such as olive or canola oil.
Increases Digestive Health
Brown rice produces a detergent effect during travel through an intestinal tract. This process scrubs away bits of debris left behind from routine digestion, massaging and invigorating the walls of the intestines and stimulating healthy motility. It also adds bulk to digestive material, which keeps it moving along before it can form harmful substances. The Cleveland Clinic rates brown rice as one of the 35 "power foods," and second in grain power. Barley is number one. Brown rice is a good source of vitamins and minerals, including B1, B6, niacin, magnesium, selenium and zinc.
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