On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 10:59:30 GMT, Michael Plant wrote:

Hey,

This is fascinating. Just look at all those nasty fats we get from brown
rice -- between three and four times as much as from white rice. And five
times as much sodium. Wow. You get some nice benefit in the mineral and
metal department, but not across the board. Thanks, Crymad. I'm off to share
this information with those who would have me eat this chewy muck. (For
chewing practice, I can eat raw carrots and apples, which I actually like.)

Be careful about the comparison when the facts might not be entirely
accurate. Especially when the fats listed aren't that nasty.

There are no such beasts as "Monosaturated" and "polysaturated" fats,
except in typographic errors (and there are, actually, a lot of them on the
web). There are saturated fats, mono-UN-saturated fats, and
poly-UN-saturated fats.

(BTW: The software referenced actually lets you list "monounsaturated" and
"polyunsaturated" fatty acids - at least in the most recent demo version).

MonoUNsaturated fat lowers LDL and raises HDL It comes from olives, nuts,
and avocados.

PolyUNsaturated fat Lowers LDL and raises HDL. It comes from corn,
soybeans, some vegetable oils and fish.

Now, Saturated fats raise both LDL and HDL, so it's a mixed bag if you're
eating a lot of red meat and dairy.

In case you've forgotten, low-density lipoproteins (LDL) carry cholesterol
from the liver to the rest of the body. High-density lipoproteins (HDL)
carry cholesterol from the blood back to the liver, which processes the
cholesterol for elimination from the body.

So take another look at the comparison and notice that while brown rice
gives the consumer 2.25 times as much saturated (bad) fat, it also gives
the consumer 3.67 times as much monounsaturated fat and 4 times as much
polyunsaturated fat.

--
Derek

"The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shorline of wonder." --
Ralph W. Sockman