This is an image of a 35 year old mama of 2 kids who is eating almost everyday rice. Many people here in the Netherlands and maybe in other European countries say that you will gain weight or get fat when you eat white rice. They say if you want to lose weight, you should stop eating white rice and just eat lots of veggies, fruit and instead of rice you could eat quinoa.But what about people is Asia and Africa? Rice is their primary food source and they eat (at least in Indonesia) almost every day.

What about sushi?

Who doesn't love sushi? Sushi is also made with rice. Look at the people in China and Japan, they are quite slim. I don't say the word skinny because I don't like that word. Why I don't like that word? Because if you say someone is skinny, it means to me that you are saying that person has Anorexia and should gain weight. I also don't like it when people say I am skinny. I am not skinny, I am slim. The right word is slim. Slim is a nice word.

Back to rice

Rice consists of carbs and carbs are a bad thing especially if you want to lose weight, that's what they say here in Europe and probably also in America. But don't we all need carbs? The thing is, there is good carbs and bad carbs. People often think that eating white rice is the same as eating a pizza or potato chips.

It's not the same!

Rice is good carbs but pizza and potato chips are bad carbs. Look what's on top of the pizza: lot's of cheese and sausages. The potato chips are baked in oil. White rice is cooked in a rice cooker. (Of course you wash it first.) Then they say, if you want to eat rice, you should eat brown rice instead. What's actually the difference? Brown rice is white rice covered with the bran. They say the hull/bran makes it healthy because it contains many minerals. But I read an article that says that brown rice contains more arsenic because with white rice they remove the hull/bran. Brown rice vs White rice. So more arsenic in brown rice.

So how come Asians (NOT ALL) are in general slim even if they eat rice? (vs Americans e.g.)

1. Asians don't eat so much ice cream, chocolate or candies.

In Indonesia for example, it was hard to find good chocolate. If you buy chocolate, they will melt in your hands before you consume it. So it's not really interesting to eat chocolate or ice cream. Candies in Asia aren't sold as much as in Western countries. Here in Holland you have enough candy shops and they even sell candies in shops where they don't even sell food.

2. Small portions

In Asian countries the portions are much smaller than for example in America. If you buy ice cream for example, they are sold in very small containers.

3. No pizza's and potato chips

They do sell potato chips in Asia, but in tiny bags. I remember I wanted to buy a large potato chips bag in Singapore. I just couldn't find one. They were all sold in very small bags and they don't really taste that good. Probably because good potatoes aren't coming from Asia. It was also not that easy to find potato chips. They have Pizza Hut in Indonesia, but Indonesian's don't eat so often pizza. The size of the pizza's in Pizza Hut in Indonesia are also smaller compared to the pizza's here in the Netherlands.

4. Meat

In Asia meat is quite expensive, at least in Indonesia. So they eat more chicken, eggs, soy products and fish. On their plate they have more rice than meat, if they eat meat.

5. No computers/No internet

In certain places in Asia, you have poverty, so they don't sit behind their screen like Western people because they just don't have a laptop or a computer.

6. Beer/Alcohol

In Asian countries people don't drink beer as much as in Europe and we all know that beer has lots of calories and make your belly big. ANother thing is that alcoholic drinks are quite expensive in Asia compared to Western countries.

Conclusion

In my opinion, rice doens't make you fat or gain weight. It is all about how big your portion is. If you eat double portion of rice, then yes you can gain weight or get fat. I think the bad carbs are the potato chips and pizza's. Another reason people gain weight is because they eat too much sweet stuff like buckets of ice cream and kilo's of chocolate bars. You can compare McDonalds in Indonesia and McDonalds in America, then you will know the answer, it's the big portions they offer in America vs small portions in Indonesia. Big and cheap portions in America will make people obese. I think if they make the portions in America much smaller, they can fight obesity.

When I traveled to Indonesia I really ate a lot of delicious food with rice. When I came back to Holland, I lost weight, because I didn't eat any candies, ice cream or chocolate ( my favourites!). To give up rice and eat just salads isn't really my thing. I love Asian food with rice and as long you don't exaggerate, you won't gain weight from eating white rice.

What is your opinions about white rice?