How many teaspoons of sugar in brown rice?

Brown rice is whole-grain rice with only the inedible outer husk removed. The bran layer, which gives it its colour and chewier texture, stays on the grain along with the germ. It takes longer to cook than white rice, because water has to pass through the bran.

Dr Unwin’s chart “White, brown or green foods?” places brown rice directly below white rice, at the same 150g boiled portion. It prints a glycaemic load of 20 for the bowl, with the teaspoon figure shown here. The chart does not print a glycaemic index for either rice, and it does not name a variety.

Brown rice is often described as slow-release. In the GI tables, values for brown rice vary widely with variety and cooking method, and some brown rices are listed close to white rice. The chart gives one value for each and does not describe the rice that was tested.

The bran and germ of brown rice contain fibre, vitamins and minerals that milling removes from white rice. None of those is part of a glycaemic load, and the figure on this page describes the blood glucose response only.

Rice sold as “wholegrain” in the UK is brown rice. Parboiled or “easy cook” brown rice has been partly cooked in its husk before milling, which changes its texture and cooking time; the chart does not say whether its rice was parboiled.

The white rice page covers the other half of the chart’s pairing.