Rice or pasta?

Watch the video

X Watch the video on youtube

In the kitchen it is better to choose rice or pasta, which of these two foods has the best nutritional characteristics?

SEMOLINA PASTA

Power	353 Kcal
	1476 Kjoule
Edible part	100%
water	10.8 g
Carbohydrates	79.9 g
Lipids	1.4 g
Protein	10.9 g
fibers	2.7 g

RICE

Power	332 Kcal
	1389 Kjoule
Edible part	100%
water	12.0 g
Carbohydrates	80.4 g
Lipids	0.4 g
Protein	6.7 g
fibers	1.0 g

Looking at the tables above, a first comparison can be made between these two foods:

the pasta has a slightly higher calorie content, is richer in lipids, proteins and fibers while it is poorer in water and carbohydrates.

However, it should be pointed out that rice, despite having a lower protein content than pasta, has a superior chemical index * which makes it equivalent from this point of view, if not even superior to pasta.

Rice is also more digestible since rice starch is composed of smaller sized granules and is low in amylose (it only needs 1 or 2 hours of gastric activity against 3 or 4 hours of pasta). Its weight increases considerably during cooking, just think that from 1 pound of uncooked rice you get about 320 grams of cooked rice. For this reason it has a higher satiety index than pasta.

The parboiled rice as well as the wholemeal one preserves most of the vitamins contained in the grain. Finally, rice can also be used by coeliacs, since it contains little prolamine, a substance that participates in the formation of gluten.

In short, although the two foods are similar from the nutritional point of view, rice has some characteristics that make it, even if only slightly, better than pasta.

* CHEMICAL INDEX: it is given by the ratio between the quantity of a given amino acid in a gram of the protein under examination and the quantity of the same amino acid in a gram of the biological reference protein (of the egg). The higher this index, the greater the percentage of essential amino acids.

See: AMINO ACID PROFILE OF FOOD.

Pasta della Salute

Light and balanced dish, with an excellent source of fiber and omega-three, as well as precious mineral salts and vitamins: health pasta is a recipe from MypersonaltrainerTv, as always explained in detail by our Personal Cooker Alice. Follow the video: