With so many options of healthy and super food wild rice is probably the less popular because many people have been starting to forget how wonderful health benefits of wild rice are. Don’t mistaken wild rice to be one of the those many varieties of rice mostly consumed by Asian people because wild rice is actually not rice at all but more like seeds of some kinds of edible grass which originally cultivated in Great Lakes and some other parts in America and only one variety is growing in Asia. Aside from its popularity is better known in America, wild rice is also best known as Indian rice. Compared to the original rice variety, wild rice contains more nutrition with longer shape and color that similar to brown rice with better flavor.
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Interesting Facts of Wild Rice
For you who are not familiar yet with wild rice some interesting facts below might open your eyes that probably wild rice is super food that you have been looking for to be put on your daily diet:
- Though the color is similar to brown rice, wild rice contains twice as much protein.
- It is an excellent food for you who are currently in gluten free diet because wild rice is gluten free.
- Unlike other types of rice, wild rice contains zero sodium.
- The nutty flavor makes wild rice has better flavor compared to other type of rice.
- Compared to other types of rice, wild rice contains less calories.
- For diabetic person, wild rice is considered to be friendly food.
- When it comes to antioxidant, wild rice contains 30 times more antioxidant than all rice varieties.
- Wild rice is not all about carbohydrate but the fiber content is also high.
Nutrition Facts of Wild Rice
Well, for you who are so strict with your diet surely finding out more about the nutrition facts is more important than the interesting facts of wild rice.
| Wild Rice (Cooked)
Serving Size: 1 Cup (164 gr) |
|
| General Information | Value – DV% |
| Calories | 166 – 8% |
| Total Carbohydrate | 35 gr – 12% |
| – Dietary Fiber | 3 gr – 12% |
| – Sugar | 1.2 gr – |
| Protein | 6.5 gr – 13% |
| Water | 121 gr |
| Vitamins | |
| Vitamin A | 4.9 IU |
| Vitamin E | 0.4 mg – 2% |
| Vitamin K | 0.8 mcg – 1% |
| Thiamin | 0.1 mg – 6% |
| Riboflavin | 0.1 mg – 8% |
| Niacin | 2.1 mg – 11% |
| Vitamin B6 | 0.2 mg – 11% |
| Folate | 42.6 mcg – 11% |
| Panthothenic Acid | 0.3 mg – 3% |
| Choline | 16.7 mg |
| Minerals | |
| Calcium | 4.9 mg |
| Iron | 1 mg – 5% |
| Magnesium | 52.5 mg – 13% |
| Phosphorus | 134 mg – 13% |
| Potassium | 166 mg – 5% |
| Sodium | 4.9 mg – |
| Zinc | 2.2 mg – 15% |
| Copper | 0.2 mg – 10% |
| Manganese | 0.5 mg – 23% |
| Selenium | 1.3 mcg – 2% |
| Fats and Fatty Acids | |
| Total Fat | 0.6 gr – 1% |
| – Saturated Fat | 0.1 gr |
| – Monosaturated Fat | 0.1 gr |
| – Polyunsaturated Fat | 0.3 gr |
| Omega 3 Fatty Acid | 156 mg |
| Omega 6 Fatty Acid | 195 mg |
Speaking of the health benefit of wild rice the list is quite impressive because aside from its less popular status wild rice has a lot of wonderful properties that are beneficial for human health.
- Super Food for Heart Health
When it comes to heart health some people are taking this matter seriously especially those who have been diagnosed with certain heart conditions. Foods they consume has significant role in making sure the condition of their heart is at its best. Avoiding sodium is one of the things they could do and since wild rice contains zero sodium makes this type of food a super food for heart health because you could control your blood pressure much easier without sodium in your blood stream.
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- Natural Solution to Control Cholesterol
The reason why those with high cholesterol level should put wild rice in their daily diet is because wild rice is so rich of fiber. Though fiber is one of the compounds that cannot be absorbed by the body but it has prominent role in making sure some excessive properties inside the intestine will be washed out thoroughly, including LDL or bad cholesterol will be bind by fiber and eliminated completely in order to optimize the function of HDL or good cholesterol.
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- Good for Digestion System
The health benefits of wild rice is it’s good for digestion. The impressive amount of dietary fiber found in wild rice is the reason why this food is good for your digestion system. It is because fiber will ease up all the process inside the digestive system by eliminating all the unnecessary properties to make sure optimal absorption of nutrition extracted from foods consumed.
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- Treats Diarrhea Naturally
Diarrhea is probably one of the common conditions that could be suffered by anyone. However, the way you treat it is important because in long term diarrhea could cause more serious conditions like dehydration. Dehydrated body could lead to much more serious health problems including fatigue, severe headache and metabolism is not functioning normally because body doesn’t get enough oxygen.
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- Eliminates Constipation Completely
The wild rice health benefits is to relive constipation. Constipation is another common condition like diarrhea and sometimes this condition occurs regularly. Some people don’t put so much effort to deal with this condition because constipation could be dealt with easily once they have consumed some medications. Well, consuming wild rice is not only offering you solution to deal with constipation in short term but wild rice is able to eliminate constipation completely so it will not come back.
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- Solution to More Serious Gastrointestinal Concern
If you don’t careful in treating constipation or diarrhea in long term condition like gastrointestinal concern could occur. Once it occurs you need more serious solution to deal with the condition. That’s why don’t ever take constipation and diarrhea for granted. If you could deal with it completely and then you should take that chance to prevent any gastrointestinal concerns and consuming wild rice in daily basis or regularly will help you preventing this condition to occur.
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- No More Cramping
Cramping is not only suffered by women during PMS but if you’re not careful with what you eat, cramping could be suffered by anyone. Once it happens you need food that is friendly for your stomach and wild rice is one of the foods that are in the top of the list. Just keep wild rice in your kitchen to be cooked whenever you need something tasty to eat and at the same time is easy for your belly.
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- Prevent Colorectal Cancer
No one will ever ready to be diagnosed with cancer, that’s why if you could find one way to prevent it and then you should take it. Wild rice which is rich of fiber, antioxidants and amino acids are good for your body and excellent combinations to prevent cancer, especially colorectal cancer. Antioxidants are excellent solution to fight free radicals which could cause the development of cancerous cells while the high content of vitamin C will control the damages caused by free radicals by accelerating the healing process.
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- Treats Gastric Ulcers
Gastric ulcers could be really uncomfortable and in long term this condition could cause more serious problems. Why don’t you start changing your diet right now? Instead of consuming regular rice, perhaps you could change it into wild rice. Besides, it is nothing to lose by changing your diet into wild rice because this type of food is actually much tastier with nutty flavor and more nutrients for your body to absorb.
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- Immunity Booster
The vitamin C contained in wild rice is relatively high and vitamin C is providing the protection you need to make sure your immunity system is working optimally. Surely you have known that vitamin C is like a super vitamin that will protect your body from viruses and bacteria and at the same time is providing solution to promote healing because it assists in the production of collagen that will contribute in repairing the damage caused by free radicals.
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- Stimulates the Production of White Blood Cells
Besides collagen, white blood cells are prominent in healing process and vitamin C has big contribution in this department. Since wild rice is so high of vitamin C and highly recommended to be consumed daily, it is a good way to make sure the optimal production of white blood cells in your body.
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- Defense Against Foreign Agents
Today is so hard to avoid foreign agents to enter your body. The effects could be varying from light infection like cold and cough up to severe conditions that will need you to do intensive treatment. The best thing you could do is making sure that your body has more protections toward those agents and consuming high dosage of vitamin C is not the solution but making sure your body has enough stock of vitamin C is the right solution. Consuming wild rice in daily basis will provide you the daily intake of vitamin C required by your body.
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- Promotes the Production of Collagen
Some of you might be thinking that collagen could be obtained only from consuming certain supplements. Well, it is true that for faster result, supplement is the solution but you have to take the side effects into consideration as well. That’s why consuming food that could promote the production of collagen in your body is the most natural way with zero side effects that could harm your body and thankfully wild rice is one of the top foods for that purpose.
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- Good for Illness Recovery
Most people just don’t realize that recovery period is as important as treatment period. Recovery is the time for you to get your energy back as well as prevent the illness to come back. What you eat and what you do is important during illness recovery and wild rice which is rich of vitamin C is good to prevent the illness to come back and other mineral compounds contained will accelerate the healing process.
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- Bone Strength Solution while Aging
When people are entering senior age, there is one thing that they cannot avoid; it is aging. However, the right eating habit and healthy lifestyle could help those people to slow down the aging process. Fortunately, consuming wild rice is one of the delicious solutions you could take to slow down the aging process because wild rice is so rich of antioxidants and unlike other type of rice are so natural since it is raised by Mother Nature herself.
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- Natural Treatment for Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis could be suffered by anyone, including you. Thought there are a lot of modern medication today to treat osteoporosis but nothing could compare the natural treatment. What you eat is important to make sure this condition is not getting worse and if you could find one solution that could treat osteoporosis naturally is even better. Wild rice is well known to be having some healing properties that could treat osteoporosis naturally especially the minerals compounds found in this type of rice.
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- Weight Loss Super Food
One thing to emphasize, wild rice is not rice. That’s why unlike regular type of rice, the carbohydrate contained in wild rice is not going to cause weight gain but instead the fiber contained in wild rice will assist you to control your weight. The dietary fiber found in wild rice will make you feel full longer so you could control the calories intake in your body and at the same time optimizing the function of your digestion system so only those required by your body will be absorbed and the rest will be eliminated completely.
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- Natural Anti-Aging
It is a common knowledge that all foods that are rich of antioxidants will become powerful anti-aging. Wild rice is no exception. The best thing of wild rice compared to any other foods that are also rich of antioxidants is you could consume it regularly in daily basis without afraid of gaining weight as long as you consume it in moderate amount. Many Asians are consuming rice regularly and they have better body shape than most Americans and wild rice contains more nutrients than any rice variety in this world.
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- Prevent Macular Degeneration
One of the super powers that any food which rich of antioxidant has is being able to prevent macular degeneration conditions. During senior age sometime is so difficult to deal with this condition but by starting healthy lifestyle as early as possible could prevent this condition to occur. By consuming wild rice regularly you could say good bye to eye problem and bone fracture when you’re getting old.
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- Friendly Food for Diabetes Patient
Though there are some studies have been conducted to prove that wild rice is actually having significant effect in treating diabetes patient still more studies are still required. However now, diabetes patient could consume wild rice with some piece of mind without worrying about the spike of blood sugar level.
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- Super Food for Those in Gluten Free Diet
Gluten free diet is not only a celebrity trend but has been proven to have a lot of health benefits. People in gluten free diet sometimes find it difficult to fulfill some nutrients daily intake but now they don’t need to worry anymore because consuming wild rice is more than enough to provide the nutrients daily intake required by body in daily basis. That’s why wild rice is considered to be one of those super foods for gluten free diet follower.
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- Excellent Replacements of Animal Protein for Vegetarian
Just like those who are doing gluten free diet sometimes finding the right food is not easy. It also applies to vegetarian who find it a challenge to fulfill the daily protein intake. Well, wild rice is actually rich of certain types of protein which are essential for human body, that’s why wild rice is actually an excellent replacement of animal protein for vegetarian. Besides, it is quite safe to be consumed in daily basis.
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- Recommended Food for Pregnant Women
Why wild rice is recommended for pregnant women? It is because wild rice contains relatively high amount folic acid or folate. Folate is essential to the development of fetus especially in the first three semesters. Folate has big contribution in the development of brain, nerve system as well as some body parts. That’s why important for pregnant women to consume food that are rich of folate and wild rice is in the top of the list.
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- Reduces the Risk of Neural Tube Defects
The deficiency of folate during fetus development will increase the risk of neural tube defects. Since wild rice is so rich of folic acid, pregnant mother don’t need to worry about the deficiency of this essential compound. Besides that there are a lot of nutrients like vitamins and minerals that will promote the production of red blood cells that are prominent for fetus development to reduce the risk of baby born with birth defects.
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Consideration and Cautions of Wild Rice
Surprisingly there is no such considerations or cautions you should aware of wild rice as long as you consume it in moderate amount, but perhaps some points below could be considered as the downturn of wild rice.
- Compared to regular rice variety, wild rice is not easy to find in marketplace.
- Due to how wild rice is cultivated (mostly by hands manually) the price offered in marketplace is quite high compared to regular rice variety.
- Wild rice is not available in all seasons because of the longer harvesting process.
- You need longer time to cook wild rice, aproximally around 1 hour until wild rice is ready to serve.
- Too much wild rice is probably no good for your digestion.
In other words, you don’t need to worry much about nitric toxic found in regular variety of white rice since wild rice is not part of the variety. The word ‘wild’ comes from how the wild rice is actually cultivated because every year wild rice is not planted but grows naturally. When the wild rice is harvested, some seeds or grains fall to the muddy soil and those grains will grow being the next generation of wild rice which will be ready to be harvested in the following year. So, wild rice is not raised by human but taken care by the Mother Nature herself.