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In the pasta and rice aisle of the supermarket, white rice packets sit alongside brown rice. Faced with this difficult choice, and apart from taste, what is the nutritional difference between these two foods? Which should you prioritize for sports? To your plates.
By Pierre-Maxime BRANCHE. Photos: pixabay.
The difference between these two foods is quite simple: what we call white rice is rice that has been refined at the level of the outer husks. Like wheat, rice is a cereal that grows with an outer husk, a starch reserve, and a germ. For brown rice, a part of this outer husk is simply retained. This outer layer of the grain contains certain nutritional advantages: B vitamins, especially for muscle contraction, minerals, and complex carbohydrates for fiber, even if most of these are indigestible. They are made up of a cellulosic framework that cannot be broken down by our intestinal enzymes. Brown rice also contains proteins that include essential amino acids.
The other advantage, compared to white rice, is that the digestion rate of starch is slowed down. For sports, you need the slowest possible sugars. With brown rice, starch is absorbed more slowly and provides energy to the athlete for longer than that found in completely refined rice or pasta.
Better nutritional density
Generally, athletes should consume brown rice or whole-wheat pasta due to, on the one hand, their higher nutritional density compared to white rice and classic pasta, and on the other hand, the presence of fiber which improves intestinal transit. However, for the pre-effort meal, it is better to choose refined rice, i.e., white, or non-whole-wheat pasta to avoid intestinal discomfort, particularly gas formation, due to these fibers. This is the only drawback because, whether in summer or winter, athletes overconsume certain carbohydrate nutrients for energy, but also and especially micronutrients such as minerals and vitamins. It is therefore very beneficial to provide the most complex food possible, meaning one with the highest possible nutritional density.
Fewer whole foods before effort
However, in the days leading up to your objective, you should try to reduce whole foods as much as possible. It all depends on your personal acceptance of fiber. Some people feel nothing, while others have intestinal flora in the colon that quickly attacks fiber and thus creates gas. At D-5, you can still eat “whole.” At D-4, you should start introducing slightly more refined foods. The closer you get to the objective, the more you incorporate rapidly assimilable and stomach-friendly refined foods. Finally, for the last meal before effort, it is not recommended to consume whole foods.
Mix simple and complex sugars
Similarly, after effort, as a recovery and therefore rebuilding ration, it is also better to favor a mixture of both: you can consume whole foods, but you will also need to provide simple sugars in another way, because we know that a mixture of simple and complex sugars is needed for better recovery of carbohydrate reserves, especially if consumed very soon after stopping the activity. Immediately after effort, the body is so deficient in carbohydrate reserves that it is a real sponge which, within an anabolic window of 30 minutes after effort, is able to optimally synthesize the nutrients provided to it to restore its energy reserves. You can therefore provide it with immediately assimilable carbohydrates without hesitation. The ideal: either you have a bowl of brown rice and, alongside it, fast-acting carbohydrates in the form of a drink, for example; or you simply opt for a ration of refined starches.
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