Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

My thought is this is the old soluble, insoluble issue. White rice is just soluble fiber because the outside husk has been milled away. Therefore it is very easy to digest and one of our staples when trying to get stable.

However, once we're stable we HAVE to have SOME insoluble fiber for general health reasons.

Brown rice is white rice that hasn't been milled to have the husk removed. Since the husk is pure insoluble fiber, brown rice is a mix of soluble and insoluble. Since eating too much brown rice triggered your IBS, you could try mixing 1/3 brown with 2/3 white next time for example as a great easy way to get some of your insoluble without challenging your tummy too much.

As far as the boxed flavored rices like Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice, wild rice is actually not rice, it's another grain entirely but has always been called wild rice. It too is a mix of soluble and insoluble, but since it's mixed with long grain white rice, it's easier to digest.

The PROBLEM with the flavored rices is that almost all of them have MSG in them by some name or another. So if you're sensitive to MSG you might want to be a little careful.

Hope that made some sense!

--------------------
Laura
Keep it simple!

Edited by Heather (05/02/04 02:36 PM)

Print Remind Me Notify Moderator