Brown rice glycemic index: GI, load and what it means

One India-tested entry sits in the University of Sydney database for plain brown rice: a 2017 test of unpolished Bapatla grain, pressure cooked and measured in 12 people, which returned a GI of 58. The 2017 study that produced the entry describes the grain as parboiled brown rice. On the database's scale, the low line is drawn at 55 and the high line at 70, which puts 58 in the medium band, just above the low edge.

Tests elsewhere ran wider: the database's eleven other plain-brown-rice entries spread from 51 to 95 and average 69, which is why the India-tested 58 is the number this page works with. Two gaps are worth naming. The database lists no GI for brown basmati, so no tested figure exists for the basmati grain specifically. And white rice has no one GI to quote either: India-tested white basmati is 50, the low band, while sona masoori and kolam, also tested in India, land in the high band above brown rice. The brown rice vs white rice page takes that comparison apart.

In a GI test, volunteers eat a portion of the food holding 50 g of available carbohydrate, their blood glucose is followed for two hours, and the response is scored against a reference food. Because of that design, a glycemic index is never a per-100 g figure: 100 g of raw brown rice holds 74.8 g of carbohydrate, far more than the 50 g the test fixes on.

Read the number as a label for the food as tested — plain grain, that portion, those twelve people — rather than a promise about any particular meal, and not as a measure of how fast the grain digests. Meal composition, portion size and the cook's choices all sit between the tested number and your plate.

Glycemic load puts the GI together with the portion: GI times the carbohydrate in one serving, divided by 100. One katori of cooked brown rice is made from about 40 g of raw grain, and that katori carries about 30 g of carbohydrate, 1.8 g of fibre and 142 kcal. Its glycemic load comes to about 17 — the GI of 58 times 30, divided by 100.

The load is the number that respects how people actually eat: it moves with the katori, so a doubled portion doubles the load. That is why the portion, not the GI alone, is the dial you control at the table. The full per-100 g picture behind these figures is on the brown rice nutrition per 100g page.

The table sets brown rice beside IFCT 2017's raw milled (white) rice, per 100 g of raw grain. Energy nearly ties — 354 against 357 kcal — and carbohydrate runs close too, at 74.8 g. Fibre is where the two part ways: 4.43 g for brown against 2.81 g, with white's figure only about 63 percent of brown's. Protein sits at 9.16 g against 7.94 g. Red rice, for a second whole-grain view, brings 3.74 g of fibre and 7.81 g of protein (IFCT's nearest entry for it is parboiled milled rice, so those numbers are indicative).

The mineral shelf tells the same story: magnesium 93.91 mg against 19.3 mg, zinc 1.68 mg against 1.21 mg, iron 1.02 mg, calcium 10.93 mg, potassium 199 mg beside sodium 3.64 mg, and folate 11.51 mcg. The ICMR-NIN dietary guidelines note that dietary fibre delays the absorption of carbohydrates and fats and increases satiety.

Per 100 g raw, edible portion. Composition: IFCT 2017 (ICMR-NIN). GI: University of Sydney GI database. — means not reported. These are average values for the food; the label on a pack gives the values for that product.

A rice's GI is not carved into the grain. A 2023 review in Foods names four things that move it: variety, nutrient composition, processing and accompanying factors. In a 2017 Sri Lankan study of red and white basmati varieties, polishing at 10 or 100 percent did not change the GI. And a small 2015 study found that cooked white rice, cooled for 24 hours and reheated, carried more resistant starch — 0.64 g rising to 1.65 g per 100 g — and gave a lower glycemic response than fresh rice in a crossover test on 15 healthy adults.

That last finding is about cooled white rice, not brown, and it makes the wider point: how a rice is cooked and eaten moves its blood-glucose story. For the shelf of Indian rices with their GI values, see low GI rice in India.

A GI number labels the grain as tested; the plate is decided by the portion and the company the rice keeps. The working pattern: a measured katori of brown rice under dal and sabzi — the cereal-pulse pairing the guidelines suggest at a 3:1 ratio — cooked plainly with the 1:2 water ratio for 30 to 40 minutes, and washed well but not repeatedly.

For the cooking, the step-by-step method is on how to cook brown rice; for the dishes, brown rice khichdi and the brown rice recipes roundup. If diabetes is the reason you are reading, the katori size and the meal plan belong to your doctor or dietitian — the GI is a supporting number, not a stand-in for that conversation. For the grain beyond the GI, the brown rice guide has the rest.

Does brown rice increase blood sugar?

It does, as any carbohydrate food does: IFCT 2017 lists 74.8 g of carbohydrate per 100 g of raw brown rice, and one katori carries about 30 g. The India-tested GI of 58 sits in the medium band, and the guidelines say dietary fibre delays carbohydrate absorption, and brown rice has 4.43 g per 100 g. How far glucose rises depends on the katori size and the rest of the meal.

Which brown rice is best?

There is no best variety on the GI shelf: the only India-tested number, 58, comes from a parboiled, unpolished Bapatla grain, and brown basmati has no tested figure at all. So pick by the grain, not the label — bran on, katori measured, nothing sweetened over the bowl.

Is brown basmati rice good for diabetics?

No brown basmati GI is listed, so the number to lean on is plain brown rice's India-tested 58, the medium band. Across the 2022 BMJ Open meta-analysis's cohort studies, the top brown-rice eaters had an 11 percent lower type 2 diabetes risk and the top white-rice eaters a 16 percent higher one. Keep the katori measured, and set the plan with your doctor or dietitian.

Is there a glycemic index per 100 g of brown rice?

No. The test behind a GI feeds a portion holding 50 g of available carbohydrate, so it is not a per-100 g figure. What the 100 g column gives is composition — 74.8 g of carbohydrate, 4.43 g of fibre and 354 kcal — with the GI of 58 riding on top of those numbers, not per gram.

How brown rice is made?

Brown rice is rice with its bran layer left on. Polish the bran away and the same grain becomes white rice. For GI readers there is a twist: a 2017 Sri Lankan study found that polishing basmati varieties to 10 or 100 percent did not move their GI.

Why brown rice is better than white?

On GI alone the answer is not clean, because white rice has no single GI and India-tested white basmati scores 50, below brown rice's 58. Brown rice's case rests on composition instead: 4.43 g of fibre per 100 g against 2.81 g, and several times the magnesium. A 2022 BMJ Open meta-analysis also linked higher brown rice intake with a lower type 2 diabetes risk across its cohort studies.