Find out everything about brown rice vs quinoa - 24 Mantra Organic

In recent years, the battle between popular food grains has surmounted and paved the way for new grains to debut in mainstream food options. While rice has been around for quite a while now, quinoa has just picked up pace as a common food grain for the millions who wish to consume healthy and nutritious foods.

While rice is indeed a cereal grain which happens to be a staple item of consumption for most people, Quinoa is actually a seed which can vary in colour. The fact remains though that both, brown rice and quinoa happen to be a nutrition-rich food item with abundant antioxidants in them. Further, they are grown organically, which keeps them free of harmful chemicals and pesticides and makes them safe for consumption.

Let us explore how brown rice vs quinoa fare with each other.

Brown rice vs quinoa: Comparing Nutritional Content

Here is a breakdown of the nutritional content in one cup of quinoa as compared to brown rice

Source

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7074363/

https://www.emedihealth.com/brown-rice-health-benefits.html

A Look At Brown Rice Vs Quinoa

Calories

For the sake of claiming a winner, you may say that brown rice is the one here. However, this does not make quinoa any less good for you. Virtually, the calorie counts between the two are the same with a very tiny and negligible difference. This means that you can splurge on a bowl of either, for a low-calorie diet.

Fibre

Needless to say, fibre has an important function to perform in our system. It helps to keep you filled for longer durations and works to boost the number of good bacteria in your gut. Fibre can be very helpful to keep a bunch of diseases under check. As illustrated in the table above, you can see that again, there is next to little difference between the two in terms of their fibre content.

Micronutrients

While the mainframe nutritional elements like proteins and fibre matter a lot, we often overlook the importance of micronutrients in our food and daily diet. A close look at brown rice vs quinoa will tell you that each of them contain rich sources of several micronutrients.

While brown rice is rich in magnesium, selenium and phosphorus, they are slightly deficient in copper, zinc and calcium.

On the other hand, quinoa is rich in iron, magnesium and zinc and contain an abundant composition of calcium and potassium as well. It is clear that in the battle between brown rice vs quinoa, quinoa certainly takes the lead in terms of its micronutrient content.

Amino Acids

Did you know that our body is inefficient at producing all types of amino acids? This is why we must rely on certain food items to obtain the necessary amount of amino acids for complete nutrition.

On this front, quinoa is a clear master since it happens to be one of those few plant sources which offer complete protein nutrition with each grain. All nine essential amino acids can be found in quinoa, making it a superfood. This is why it is regarded as a proper source of nutrition for those who consume a vegetarian diet.

Brown rice is not a complete protein and thus, deficient in offering all nine amino acids to the body. This is why, between brown rice vs quinoa, you would make a healthy choice to choose quinoa.

Vitamin B

Even though quinoa and brown rice have a generous content of Vitamin B, between brown rice vs quinoa, this lead is taken by brown rice. Generally, you will find more content of niacin and other forms of Vitamin B in brown rice which provides energy to your body. Each element of Vitamin B, such as thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and pantothenic acid serve a unique function in the body. A deficiency of either one of them can cause defects in the normal functioning of the system.

A Quick Look At Brown Rice Vs Quinoa

Let us summarise the findings between brown rice and quinoa before making a definite conclusion:

• Quinoa is better for the bones
• Quinoa is richer in folates
• Brown rice is richer in Vitamin B
• Quinoa has a greater fibre content
• Quinoa is marginally better for your protein requirements

It can be somewhat tricky to really comprehend the comparison here but the conclusion below might be helpful to pick one out of the two.

Conclusion: Which Of The Two?

That is a lot of nutritional information that you just read. So much that you may have thought of consuming both brown rice and quinoa after reading each point. Well, unless you have some taste specifications or any reason not to cook either one, there is no reason why you should limit your meal consumptions only to quinoa or to brown rice.

However, speaking in a nutritional context, someone who is looking for a healthy choice of meal or aiming for weight loss may be compelled to pick one which meets their nutritional needs and offer a healthy meal choice. You should know that both quinoa and brown rice are ideal since they reduce health-related risks with their organic purity. But, between the two, quinoa certainly appears to be a winner, with all its nutritional content and close and tough competition with brown rice on the one’s which it lags behind. However, if you are bent on consuming rice only, then choosing brown rice from white rice is definitely a nutritious choice.

Try 24 Mantra Organic’s Brown Rice and Savour the taste of organic goodness.