Parboiled rice vs White rice: nutrition per 100 g

Parboiled rice is paddy that has been soaked, steamed and dried before it is milled. The heat drives water-soluble vitamins and minerals from the bran into the starchy centre of the grain, so more of them survive when the bran is polished away. The steaming also sets the starch, which is why parboiled rice cooks into firm, separate grains that do not turn mushy. In Bengal and Odisha it is usna or ukda rice, in Tamil Nadu puzhungal arisi, and Kerala's matta and most idli rice are parboiled too.

On the basics, the two are almost the same food. Parboiled rice has 352 kcal, 7.8 g protein and 77.2 g carbohydrate per 100 g of raw grain; raw white rice has 356 kcal, 7.9 g protein and 78.2 g carbohydrate. Fibre is the one macro that moves, from 2.8 g to 3.7 g, about 1.3 times as much. That is helpful, but parboiled rice is still a refined grain by fibre count, and dal, sabzi and salad remain the main fibre carriers on the plate.

Thiamine shows the clearest gain. Parboiled rice has 0.17 mg per 100 g against 0.05 mg in raw milled rice, covering 9 per cent of a man's daily need instead of 3 per cent. Niacin rises from 1.69 mg to 2.51 mg, meeting 14 per cent of a man's need against 9 per cent, and vitamin B6 from 0.12 mg to 0.22 mg. These vitamins help the body turn carbohydrate into usable energy, which matters in regions where rice supplies most of the day's calories.

Minerals shift a little too. Magnesium goes from 19 mg to 27 mg, phosphorus from 96 mg to 140 mg and potassium from 108 mg to 142 mg. Iron and calcium stay low in both, 0.72 and 0.65 mg of iron and 8 and 7 mg of calcium. Raw white rice ranks last of the 14 cereals and millets for iron, and parboiling barely changes that picture. Zinc is the one mineral slightly higher in raw rice, 1.21 mg against 1.08 mg.

Parboiled rice has a faint earthy smell that some people love and others avoid, and it needs a little more water and time. Its firm grains hold up in fish curry rice, rasam rice and leftover pakhala, and it grinds into the soft idli batter of Tamil Nadu. Raw white rice, such as sona masuri or basmati, gives the fluffier texture preferred for pulao and curd rice. Draining excess cooking water from either rice carries away some water-soluble vitamins, so absorption cooking keeps more.