80 Best Gluten Free Desserts For The Holidays
For a long time, I was a supporter of eating whole grains like brown rice. It seems like the first most obvious go-to health food that people diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity run toward. It’s non-offensive, easy to find in the grocery store, and pretty widely liked as far as grains go.
But what if I told you that it might not be the best thing to eat?
What if I told you that it might be really difficult for your body to break down?
Would you panic?
I suppose not if you don’t currently eat brown rice and have stuck with the white variety, however most of us gluten-free folks looking to keep a healthier diet and ‘eat whole grains’ might find the idea rather hard to swallow.
The reason I’m sharing this idea is because it’s something that has taken me months to come to terms with. Why? Because I found out the hard way earlier this year after experiencing a lot of digestive discomfort for months that brown rice wasn’t really the friend I thought it to be.
The Rice Revelation
At the time I was seeing both an Acupuncturist as well as an Ayurvedic practitioner and both agreed that the brown rice just had to go. My acupuncturist Damini Celebre, M.Ac. kept the reasoning simple, “Any whole grain is harder to digest in the bowels, and thus the browner the food, the harder to digest.”
It turns out that in Eastern traditions of medicine, those prone to digestive issues will probably have greater difficulty digesting brown rice because of the fiber. And that’s when it was suggested that I (**dramatic pause**) switch to white basmati or jasmine rice.
Gasp!
Double gasp!!
It felt like a real blow to everything that I believed in as far as whole grains go. Every time I’d tell someone that I wanted white basmati or jasmine rice, I literally felt a simultaneous physical and emotional reaction of embarrassment, guilt and sadness. It was the ‘white’ part of things that really got to me and at moments I felt like a fraud having spent years talking up brown rice only to realize that it wasn’t helping me. And this was all before the arsenic issue came to light a couple of months ago.
After giving up gluten (and quite a few other foods because of personal sensitivities), it was a sad thing because I genuinely enjoyed brown rice as well as the lovely smell of it cooking. It’s also something that my husband loved and I think helped him voluntarily make the gluten-free transition with me. And though he is always willing to do what’s best for me, he does periodically comment that he misses the brown stuff.
Not all white rice is created equal…
Contrary to my own beliefs and thoughts about white rice, it’s all not created equal. There are different varieties like basmati and jasmine which are considered by both Chinese and Ayurvedic practitioners to be ‘better’ on an energetic level than your plain ol’ Uncle Ben’s white rice.
Even on the more ‘paleo’ side of things, folks like Mark Sisson, when faced with a choice between brown and white rice, would probably choose white. They avoid certain things within grains that they call ‘anti-nutrients’ and irritants present in the hulls of the brown rice. When the rice is milled, most of the problematic ‘anti-nutrients are removed in the process of making it white. And you can’t ignore that Asian cultures consume pretty large amounts of white rice and tend to be more healthy (so long as they don’t incorporate in a more Western diet).
As an aside — Damini does caution that if you’re on a ‘no white food’ or ‘low carb’ diet, then obviously eating white rice will be on your ‘avoid’ list.
Eat the Rice ‘Rainbow’
White rice wasn’t the end of my journey, but actually the beginning of scoping out some different types of rice. If you haven’t heard of Forbidden Rice (also known as black rice), then you should definitely give it a try. Once cooked, it turns a beautiful shade of deep purple and has a slightly sweeter taste than that of brown rice. I love it for the color because it just looks so darn appetizing and dramatic in dishes.
And I can’t forget about Wild Rice which isn’t actually a member of the rice family to begin with. It has more protein than brown rice and a lower glycemic load. I’ve often used it to thicken soups by letting it cook down completely, thus not needing to add any additional starch or thickener.
How much is too much?
There is this unfortunate tendency for most Americans (even the GF bunch) to overeat certain foods. Sadly, refined carbs tend to be at the top of the list. They’re cheap, relatively non-offensive, can take on whatever flavors surround them and, as many will attest, taste darn good (when you’re used to eating them often).
Though this conversation about starchy carbs deserves an entire article dedicated to it and it’s various nuances, I’d like to touch on this briefly because you could potentially leave this article thinking that somewhere I said it was okay to eat white rice… and a lot of it. That not what I said.
To be clear, starchy grains like rice, corn and potatoes should be consumed in small quantities mixed with a good selection of protein and fats. If you look at your dinner plate, the main section of the plate should be filled with vegetables (which does not include rice, potatoes or corn). I personally like to keep eating these starchy carbs down to a 1/2 cup at most. The exception would be if you’ve done an incredible workout and need more carbs to replenish your body, however most of us are not working out hard enough to warrant this.
And this 1/2 cup isn’t some sort of prescription… it’s just what I do. It’s a small compliment of my meal, not the main attraction.
I also don’t eat them at every meal either. If you feel a sense of panic arise at the thought of not eating rice or some other starchy carb at every single meal, then chances are you’re probably eating them too often and in too big of quantities.
And if you’re diabetic or even pre-diabetic, then I’d suggest forgetting the idea of even having white rice. Any starchy carbs like white rice, corn or white potatoes are better off on your ‘avoid list’ for the sake of controlling blood sugar.
I’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment below…
What’s your feelings on rice?
Have you turned your back on the brown stuff?
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Hi!
I am gluten free oil free some nuts and some grains free
Even before reading your article I just know from my personal experience that I cannot eat rice because it makes me so bloated nd so full.very hard time to digest it.as you have mentioned I sometimes have to eat bite rice while travelling and I feel not so bad for eating it.Now I feel so relieved that I am not alone nor wrong l
What about eating rice syrup or starch not directly but they are mostly in GF ORGANIC ice cream yogurt soup etc? I do not eat anything when I see rice ?.rice flavour starch or syrup is it any different?
Thank you
I’m not the biggest fan of rice syrup or the starch. Too much sugar and processed STARCH which is what’s not helpful to people’s health, generally speaking because it’s missing a lot of nutrients.
This information is a bit old. Respectively, White Rice is good and it gets a bad rap from most grain advocates or fanatics, etc. Have you ever heard of the ‘The Starch Solution’? I have been through a yo-yo of different kind of eating lifestyles and diets. Dr. John McDougall has many seminars on his YouTube channel. What I like about his lifestyle food plan is that he has the scientific studies to back up everything he strongly believes in as to what is good for our health and what isn’t. For me, I don’t eat any meat, dairy or nuts (nuts on a very rare occasion).
My fat for a day’s time is at about 5% or less for the day. I eat around 85% Carbs, and then 5% Protein. I am slim, healthy and have lost about 60 lbs, as I am to my goal weight as of this week. I can thank Dr. McDougall’s program and lifestyle of eating for the weight loss, better gut and intestine health, etc. I have eaten White Jasmine Rice for many years, and have never had a problem digesting it, even when I had some moderate issues in my gut. This lifestyle (near vegan) has even mostly cleared up my Dermatitis and Psoriasis. It’s been a long struggle and a battle I was determined to conquer.
Overall, I suggest not listening to media hype, Doctors who are just in it for the money or medicinal purposes, and those who just want the attention at the moment for fad diets, and what is best to eat at the “moment”. My experiences and many others have proven that eating White Rice, Potatoes, Corn, Legumes along with a few Vegetables have proven to be a healthy lifestyle.
Hi Alex, I’m not putting white rice down in this post. If anything I’m offering a perspective on the health world’s belief that everyone should and can eat brown rice. That was the point here. Not to debate about starches. It sounds from your account that we both eat white rice rather than brown. I’ve found that with time I’m now able to consume a bit of brown rice without consequence, but I don’t push it too much. And as for your testament to a high carb diet, there’s also quite a lot of information that’s come out more recently about certain issues of focusing your diet just around white rice, potatoes, corn and beans with low protein and low fat. I’m not a medical practitioner, but there are plenty of studies to look at on PubMed these days. Fat is a really important part of the diet, but ultimately you know how you feel and I assume you’re getting regular annual labs taken to ensure that those dietary ratios aren’t creating any metabolic disturbances.
Anxious to try the wild rice. I know you use in soups but how does it do just as a side?
It is fine! You can use it in place of brown or white rice. I do!
‘Black” rice is delicious! I like to make occasional pilafs with brown, black, and white jasmine rice…add in a bit of sautéed mushrooms, and maybe cashews…yum!
great info!
Hey Jen! This is really interesting! Curious to know what you think about the preparation method we use here in our house- we cook organic short grain brown rice with some kind of bean (we have around 6 on rotation) after its been rinsed and soaked in water and a splash of rice vinegar for 6-12 hours. We cook it in a pressure cooker. This is how my dad, who is sensitive to gluten, was taught to make it when he was learning about the macrobiotic diet. Do you think that it would be easier to digest?
Soaked and sprouted grains are easier to digest, however it’s a fiber issue. Everyone is different so it’s really up to you individually to decide if you can break it down. Remember that grains digestion begins with chewing in the mouth, so make sure to chew your grains well. 🙂
We are a family of seven and I have been an advocate of brown rice even before going gluten free. However, my husband and middle daughter do not tolerate brown rice. Hubby is good with white rice and daughter is better with a mixed blend of sprouted quinoa, rice, brown rice, and black rice we get from Costco. It doesn’t hurt her tummy although rice does much of the time and quinoa does periodically. She does have some minor blood sugar issues, but seems to be pretty in tune with her body for a six year old!
Like you, I was a ‘brown Rice Gal’ for YEARs, both before & after going off Gluten (4 years now) …. & do love quinoa, (which I would usually mix with amaranth & add a Tbsp of Teff for more nutrition) … and the rice rainbow … now have been mostly off grains since Feb (suggestion from Gluten Free RN, who suggests ‘Paleo’ for best healing …)
My son-in likes white rice better, my 8 year old granddaughter reacts to white rice like she does gluten, but is OK with brown …
Also like you, I begin filling my plate with veggies, add some wild fish, pastured (or wild) meat, and OCCASIONALLY a scoop of quinoa or rice. I’ve also gotten the sprouted rice blend from Costco, & that seems good. I get OG veggies from a CSA share, Farmers Mkt & my garden, & have been having a big ‘mess of greens’ simmered in Bone Broth all 3 meals, add in a big green (& rainbow) salad for lunch & dinner.
Simple, but as one of our Market farmers, who eats about the same says, it’s BEAUTIFUL to see that plate filled with colour! & tastes good, too
Do you eat your forbidden rice by itself as a grain? or do you combine it with a white rice in order to remove some bran quantity and have it easier to digest, like the white rice?
thanks. .
When I eat forbidden rice, I eat it as is. It doesn’t bother me. If it bothers you, try mixing it as you have asked. We all are different and our systems can tolerate different things.
yes i would love to see a sensible reading on alot of the products. Most of them say modified food starch which sometimes i have to watch cause it hurts my stomach, also they need to do there labeling better.
Hello Jennifer,
A friend of mine sent me this link because I was sharing with her how after doing a detox and returning brown rice, quinoa back in to my diet, I had horrific digestive distress. Even soaking them still gives me problems…so I’m nervous to even have brown rice flour etc…thinking of it I also noticed when I ate wild rice my intestines felt like glass was running through it!
What’s your thoughts on the flours to use?
Thank you for this insight…its not all in my head 🙂
Kim
Hi Kim, You’ve got a good friend to have sent you this post! Definitely thank her 🙂
If you’re finding grains to bother you (you may just have more awareness of it now), I’d suggest sticking with coconut or other nut based flours. Have you tried eating legumes? Did you have the same reaction to them too?
We’d all love to think that we should be able to eat anything we want, but as you probably already know, that’s not reality for many of us. Not everyone can tolerate grains.
I do eat white jasmine and brown rice in each meal, the reason if I don’t have any carb I get hungry easily, I have a fast metabolism I have to eat every three hours, what is your suggestion what other carb can I use so I could have a variety. I would like to eat rice only once a day.
Beth, I’m curious… how much fat do you eat in your diet? I’m also confused because aside from meat, there are carbs in most things. Do you eat a lot of vegetables? It kind of sounds from your brief description that you might not be eating enough of the right foods, but obviously I’m only saying this based off 2 sentences.
My understanding of the forbidden rice/black rice from Costco is that it is grown in China. I read in the newspaper that they are poisoning their people with pollution. So the package waits until I resolve this issue.
Nan, I totally share your concern. However there are rice companies that grow forbidden rice in other countries. I would NOT eat rice or anything for that matter from China considering how toxic their environment is. Thanks for sharing this thought… you are not alone in thinking it.
For carbs, you could try one or more of the following: roasted beets, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, etc. My holistic doctor said your carb portion should only be as much as would fit in your cupped hand. So, about one-half cup is about right. Great sharing of information.
My family has always eaten white Basmati rice. Last year, I started mixing it up with little brown Basmati, which was okay. About 12 days back, we switched to the regular brown rice we get in most US grocery stores. My stomach has been upset since, bloating, etc. Since I intentionally avoided any type of beans during this period….I finally realized that the culprit here is the brown rice. That is when I started doing research on the subject and found your blog.Thank you.
Have you ever tried soaking rice for 8 hours then strain and rince, to remove anti-vitamins, and also optional add some acid (like lemon juice) while its soaking to help start breaking it down.
Hi Bryce,
This isn’t an issue of anti-nutrients… it’s about the fiber. After too much digestive distress, I’m ok not eating brown rice. Perhaps someone else can try this if they want. Is there any data or reference you can point us to about lemon juice breaking down the fiber?
Yes, rice seems to be a big part of my digestive issues. It is binding and I tend to have a problem with that, but in addition, it was causing major upset with my system. This I find out after 5 years of experiencing major problems. So far I have tried this for 4 days and so far so good.
Hi, I found your article most enlightening. I’ve been struggling with bloating about a year now and although i eat clean enough, I decided awhile back to try and eat even healthier. So I replaced my white pita pockets I eat at breakfast with whole grain pita pockets and I gave up eating white Jasmine or basmati rice at lunch for uncle ben’s whole grain rice. I generally eat salads for dinner. So am safe there.
But since then I’ve been experiencing terrible bloating!
Today I had the usual for lunch around 2 and I’m feeling like their is a poltergeist going on in my stomach!
So I decided to do a little research to see if whole grain rice could actually be causing my bloating and voila!
Your article has confirmed what I had thought but didn’t want to believe because after all eating whole grains as you said are supposed to be good! But you article has confirmed that I was right all along as I’ve been monitoring my levels of bloating after eating.
So thanks so much. I’ll be reverting to my white pita pocket (just half) for breakfast and my white Janine or basmati rice for lunch!!! And yes just a half cup once a day, if any. That’s the end of me and whole grain rice.
And just to let others know. Quinoa is not for everyone. I also found out the hard way that it bloats some people terrible, me included. I swear everything I eat bloats me know. Or maybe I’ve been changing up my diet so much trying to eat clean that I’m doing more harm than good!
So It’s back to the basics for me.
Once again thank you!
Hi Jennifer! I just wanted to comment on something… are you gluten-free? Most pita isn’t GF unless it’s explicitly marked. I ask because this site is geared towards those who are GF. It’s not to say that this wouldn’t still apply to those who aren’t GF, but if you are, then you should know that those may not be safe for eating.
Sincerely,
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer
No i’m not gluten free. Have to read up more on that but i’ve heard that there are some drawbacks to it in the sense that it deprives you of essential nutrients that your body needs. Again I was told this but I have to actually go do my research. But would be happy if you could enlighten me.
I’ve eaten white pita pocket before and did not get bloated or if I did it was nothing compared to what I have been going through now. But I will monitor it and if it still is, I’ll switch to gluten free bread.
I think it’s a combination of my age, I’ll be 50 next year and the changes going on in my body combined with me trying to change up my diet to eat more healthy. Just haven’t found the right combo yet but I am sure I will, I’m not giving up.
Thank you again for responding.
Jen
Hi, nice article. As a nutritional medicine practitioner I’ve been through the same experience as you describe. Listening to my own body was the healthiest decision. Thanks for sharing.
I don’t believe anybody should be eating rice, period, unless it is sprouted and eaten raw. There are 1 trillion species on the face of this planet and only one cooks their food. We human beings think we have everything figured out, yet our ego-laden intelligence causes us to overlook one simple fact: when you cook, you kill. The whole point of cooking is to kill unwanted bacteria, viruses, parasites, etc. Try sticking your hand in boiling water for 20 minutes and see how useful it is when you pull it out. We cook our food as a preventative measure for survival. In no way is that even close to being a good way to get any sort of macro/micro nutrients into your body, of any kind.
If grains are so wonderful, then why are they the food of choice that we send to poor countries by the tons? You don’t see us shipping avocados, tomatoes, and field greens to poor countries.
The food industry presents grains, corn, and other cheaply grown foods to all of us as choice foods because it has the highest profit margin and shelflife stability. And please wake up and realize that, historically, Asians ate rice because they were extremely poor and had no other choices.
Grains and corn were the industrial revolutions answer to being able to feed a population that was growing bigger than their food source, not a breakthrough discovery in nutrition. Marketing (on the manufacturers part), ignorance (on our part), and desperation of the times were the only reasons why these food have become a staple in the American and world-wide diets. These items have no place in a modern-day discussion about nutrition.
Hi Jay, I assume from your post that you’re a proponent of a raw food diet based on your discussion of cooked vs uncooked foods. Just so you are aware, a raw food diet can be incredibly difficult for many who have compromised digestive systems (like those who follow this website). So while you’re right… we don’t ship non-subsidized foods out of this country to poor nations, there can be therapeutic reasons for cooking food beyond simply killing potential pathogens. I’ve personally witnessed a friend with Colitis try a raw food diet and become incredibly sick after several months because she was so malnourished. I’m not saying that this would necessarily be the outcome for everyone, but that there may be a time and a place for certain foods that could have healing properties for someone due to individual circumstance.
Hi Jennifer, I am coming out of candida but still have leaky gut. I keep on swinging back and forths between rice and no grains. At the moment, I have wild rice mixed with a smattering of brown basmati rice once a day, and like you, definitely less than half a cup. Wild rice cooked with lots of fresh herbs smells and tastes awesome.