White rice has no nutritional value. The husk, which contains the vitamins and protein, has been entirely stripped, leaving only the soft kernel inside which has almost no nutrients. Thus minerals and vitamins are added back to white rice during the packaging process to make it somewhat healthy.
Opt for parboiled rice (closest to white once cooked) which is also similarly priced to white, or go wild – literally – and get what is called wild rice, which is just how rice should be. I’m also partial to black rice which can be quite more expensive for rice, but it’s really fragrant and tasty (but be careful with the water, it stains easily).
All of these have a higher protein content than white rice, lower calories, and the nutrients didn’t have to get added back in, they come from the rice itself.
I think that the emergy costs for cooking brown rice are negligible given that you should be bringing your rice to a simmer and then immediately dropping the heat down to the lowest setting. With an electric rice cooker this is even more efficient.
In my experience (maybe it’s just my cooker) rice cookers only like white rice. Other types burn a layer on the bottom which makes it a chore to clean and you get less rice. I think it has to do with how rice cookers work, shutting off when they don’t detect any more water, but non-white rice taking longer to absorb water and so being exposed to the heating element longer without the protection the water provides. I cook my non-white rice in a pan now in the same way a rice cooker would do it.
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