The Rice Diet, around since 1939, is a short-term eating plan that’s low in calories, fat, salt, and protein, but high in carbs. It regained popularity in 2006 after Kitty Gurkin Rosati, a registered dietitian who specializes in the prevention of obesity, heart disease, and other chronic diseases, republished his program in her book, “The Rice Diet Solution.” Originally created to help treat high blood pressure and kidney disease, it’s now tried by some for quick weight loss. Despite its name, this diet isn’t all about rice; the Rice Diet now includes a variety of whole foods. The plan promises to help you shed pounds and “cleanse and detox” your body while keeping you satisfied with nutrient-dense meals and controlled portions.
What is the Rice Diet?
The rice diet is a high-complex carb, low-fat, and low-sodium diet. According to the official book, the diet works by focusing on limiting salt and foods high in sodium. This will help your body de-bloat and shed excess water weight. In combination with eating low-sodium foods, the diet also limits saturated fats. Instead, it uses high-fiber foods to fill you up and carbs like fruit, vegetables, grains, and beans, as the main source of nutrition. It also limits almost all dairy from your diet. The rice diet plan also follows a calorie allowance if you’re looking to lose weight. Initially, it recommends starting at a lower calorie level and then building up to around 1,200 to 1,500 calories per day if you’re not exercising.
How the Rice Diet Works
The Rice Diet is a low-fat, low-salt diet. Because sodium is an appetite stimulant, cutting back curbs your hunger. You’ll also fill up on high-fiber foods, so you’ll feel satisfied with fewer calories, say the authors.
The Rice Diet Solution features weekly meal plans, plus suggested recipes that take time to prep and cook. Because the plan limits fat and sodium, you’ll cook with no or very little salt. They’re usually cooked with a small amount of extra-virgin olive oil.
Phases of the Rice Diet
If you follow the diet plan presented in the book, you go through three phrases that teach portion control and how to balance food so you can have the freedom to eat whatever you want in moderation. In Rosati’s accompanying book “The Rice Diet Cookbook,” she outlines how the first phase involves eating grains and fruits for one day of the week and adding foods like vegetables and beans for the rest of the days.
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- Phase 1 (Detox Mode): You’ll eat 800 calories a day. On the first day, you’ll stick with starches, such as rice, bread, pasta, or potatoes, and fruit. Over the next six days, you can add beans, vegetables, and non-fat milk. You’ll get 300-500 milligrams of sodium per day. The goal of phase 1 is to detox the body of water weight, excess sodium, pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals. For the first day, you’ll eat grains and fruit, followed by adding vegetables, beans, and organic milk for the other six days.
- Phase 2 (Weight Loss Mode): You’ll average about 1,000 calories and 300-500 milligrams of sodium each day. You’ll eat fruit and starches for one day, followed by five days of fruit, starches, beans, vegetables, and non-fat milk. On the seventh day, you’ll add fish, dairy, eggs, or lean meat.
- Phase 3 (Maintenance Mode): This phase is the same as phase 1, but you’ll add 200 more calories per week until you reach your goal weight. You can also add tofu, cheese, nuts, seeds, olives, and olive oil. Sodium is increased to 500-1,000 milligrams per day.
Instead of counting calories, the Rice Diet breaks down its meals into portions. For example, one starch is 1/2 cup cooked grains, pasta, or starchy vegetables, and one fruit is 1 medium-sized whole fruit or 1 cup of fruit.
Foods to Eat
You’ll fill up on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nonfat or low-fat dairy, low-sodium beans, and lean protein. You can eat any whole grain, fruit, or vegetable, as long as they don’t have added fat or sodium. As you continue the plan, you’ll keep eating starches, fruits, and vegetables daily, and add in dairy, eggs, fish, tofu, and lean meat. Because the diet’s low in salt and fat, you’ll season your food with herbs, vinegar, lemon, lime, and no-salt-added condiments.
For beverages, you can have water, seltzer, herbal tea, unsweetened fruit juices, and unsalted vegetable juices. You can also drink milk - skim and low-fat soy and grain milks are recommended.
Foods to Avoid
The plan also recommends you skip alcohol, coffee, and caffeinated sodas.
Because processed and packaged foods are often high in sodium and fat, they typically don’t fit into the Rice Diet. But the book recommends some items, such as certain cereals, crackers, and no-salt-added canned soups.
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Sample Meal
During the detox phase, you might have 2/3 cups of brown rice plus one cup each of berries and melon for dinner.
Rice Diet Guidelines
The guidelines for Rosati’s official rice diet plan involves eating per day:
- 1,000 calories
- 500 to 1,000 mg of sodium
- 22 g of fat
- 5.5 g of saturated fat
- 0 to 100 mg of cholesterol
Potential Benefits of the Rice Diet
How much weight can you expect to lose? Everyone is different, but during the first month, women lose 19 pounds and men lose 30 pounds, on average, claims the book.
The plan also recommends exercise, keeping a food journal, and meditation to help achieve balance and manage stress. As the book says, “it’s a physical, emotional, and spiritual program that will change the way you live.”
Overweight and obesity can set the stage for many chronic diseases. The Rice Diet can help you lose weight. The plan got its start as an inpatient way for clinics to help treat hypertension, and more recent research backs up these health benefits.
Read also: Is the Rice Diet Right for You?
- Lower Blood Pressure: The plan is low in fat and sodium, which helps reduce blood pressure. In a study of more than 17,000 Rice Diet patients, the plan helped reduce blood pressure and weight in people who were overweight and obese, says study author Lin Pao-Hwa, PhD, a professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine.
- Heart Health: Scientists are still studying the Rice Diet’s effect on the heart. But a low-sodium, low-fat diet is recommended for heart health. Lowering blood pressure can protect against cardiovascular problems, such as heart attack, stroke, and heart failure.
Potential Downsides and Precautions
“The Rice Diet is extremely strict,” says Dolores Woods, RD, nutritionist with UTHealth Houston. You’re going to cut way down on calories, salt, fat, and sugar - all at once. The food on the plan doesn’t give you enough calcium and vitamin D, so you will need supplements. Also, the plan offers much less protein than what’s recommended for healthy people. If you have a medical condition, check with your doctor before starting this diet.
Because the Rice Diet has been around for decades, researchers show that it is safe when followed correctly and done under medical supervision. “Because the diet is very strict, it has nutritional deficiency,” says Woods. It falls short in vitamin D and calcium, so you’ll need to take supplements. It’s also low in protein, which can lead to muscle loss, especially in older adults. “You may also feel dizzy or tired because you’re not getting enough calories or electrolytes,” she says.
The Rice Diet is simple to manage because you don’t need to count calories or eat very specific foods. The food in the diet is found at the grocery store. But the diet is very restrictive and isn’t doable for most people over the long term, Woods says.
“Because the Rice Diet is very strict and low in calories, pregnant women, young children, and those with a history of eating disorders shouldn’t try it,” Woods says. A low-sodium diet may also be risky for certain people, such as older adults and those who do long-distance endurance exercise. Talk to your health care provider first if you’re thinking about trying the Rice Diet.
- Nutritional Deficiencies: It falls short in vitamin D and calcium, so you’ll need to take supplements. It’s also low in protein, which can lead to muscle loss, especially in older adults.
- Side Effects: “You may also feel dizzy or tired because you’re not getting enough calories or electrolytes,” she says.
Adaptations and Considerations
You can adjust the Rice Diet to fit your dietary restrictions and preferences. If you’re vegetarian, you can have eggs for your lean protein. Beans, soy, tempeh, tofu, as well as soy- and grain-based milks are also recommended, making it suitable for vegans, too.
The Rice Diet isn’t strictly a gluten-free diet because you can eat bread, crackers, and other wheat-based foods. But it can easily become gluten-free. Rice doesn’t have gluten in it, so you’re good there. But gluten is in many products that you might not know it’s in, so if you’re going gluten-free, you’ll need to read food labels.
Low-Sodium Aspect
This plan is a very low-sodium diet. Experts recommend no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day, and the Rice Diet starts with 300-500 milligrams of sodium daily. You’ll build up to 500-1,000 milligrams of sodium.
Low-Fat Aspect
Eating a low-fat diet can help protect your heart and encourage weight loss, according to the book. This plan is low-fat, with low- or no-fat dairy and lean proteins. It advises having fatty fish, such as salmon, for healthy omega-3 fats.
Practical Aspects
Cooking and Shopping
You’ll shop and cook for most of your meals. “It’s difficult to follow the plan in restaurants,” Woods says. The recommended foods are available at any grocery store. The book contains a healthy grocery list to help you stock up on the right foods, drinks, and seasonings.
Exercise
The plan recommends regular exercise, such as walking and yoga. Because the diet is low in calories and electrolytes, use caution if you work out a lot or for long periods, says Woods. Talk to your doctor before you try the Rice Diet.
Cost and Support
Costs: None apart from the food you buy.
Support: This is a diet you can do on your own, so there are no in-person meetings.
Does the Rice Diet Work?
This 1,200-calorie, whole-food diet, including exercise, tips to lower stress levels, and advice for making healthy lifestyle changes, will help you lose weight.
But following a strict and low-calorie diet like this one is going to be hard. It would be a real challenge to stay on the plan at social events or when eating out. Plus, there’s a risk for nutritional deficiencies.
Restricting protein to less than half the recommended amount may lead to loss of muscle mass and won’t help keep you feeling full.
And while the plan claims to detoxify your body, there is no evidence that detox diets actually remove toxins from the body.
Is It Good for Certain Conditions?
The Rice Diet is a low-calorie, low-protein, low-fat, low-sodium plan, and it can work for anyone with heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or type 2 diabetes.
But be sure to talk to your doctor before starting the diet.
The Broader View: Rice-Based Diets and Health
The rice diet started as a way to help treat heart disease and hypertension. The plan limits sodium, which can help lower blood pressure. And it’s a low-fat diet, which could help you lower high cholesterol.
Rice and Sleep Quality
Previously, we found that a Japanese diet was associated with psychological status, and a combination of rice and miso was related to mental and physical health. We hypothesized that the intake of a rice-based diet affected mental and physical health and aimed to investigate the consequences of a dietary intervention with rice. We conducted a randomized, open-label, parallel-group clinical trial that included 60 participants, who were randomly assigned to receive either rice-based meals or meals with other cereals for three daily meals over 2 months. The participants were surveyed for psychological status and biochemical changes. Sleep quality index scores showed significant improvement after the rice-based intervention. Additionally, blood oxidative stress levels were reduced in the rice-diet group compared with the no-rice-diet group.
Rice Diet and Mental Health
In our previous study, we investigated the association between the intake of a rice-centered diet and brain health [3]. In that study, the intake of traditional Japanese foods such as miso (soybean paste), natto (fermented soybean), and green tea was related to improved depression status, quality of sleep, and degree of impulsiveness. Since that study was etiological, the causal relationships were unclear. Therefore, in the present study, an intervention was conducted using meal instructions concerning staple foods to elucidate whether the intake of a rice-centered diet contributes to brain health. Additionally, to assess the biochemical mechanisms underlying the relationship between these foods and brain health, changes in plasma metabolite levels were determined. The present study provides evidence of the effect of rice or foods consumed with rice on brain health and the underlying biochemical mechanisms.
Rice Fasting: A Different Approach
Rice-fasting detoxifies body and mind; boosts metabolism; improves brain function; improves immunity; slows down aging; reduces chances of cancer, heart disease and diabetes and brings peace of mind. It balances your energy system; sharpens your senses; makes your skin glow and brings happiness.
What is Rice Fasting?
Fasting is abstaining from all or some kinds of foods and drinks. In this case you abstain from all foods and drinks except water and brown rice. Brown-rice fasting gives similar general fasting benefits as juice-fasting, fruit fasting, or water fasting, and it has its own specific advantages. It is mild because you are still eating carbs making you less hungry, and it’s more grounding and warming than a fruit, juice or water fast. And most importantly, rice, especially brown basmati rice, is considered to be the ‘perfect’ food, as it is believed to have the perfect balance between yin and yang energies which is important for restoring balance in your organs and energy systems.
The brown-rice fast that I talk about is the Ohsawa #7 diet. This requires 10 consecutive days of eating brown rice only and drinking just water. There are several versions varying from very strict to more mild regarding the amount of rice and water, adding different types of grains or using additional balancing ingredients. For me the strictest version (#7; 3 meals per day) is easiest to follow and feels most effective.
Origins of Rice Fasting
Rice fasting in particular gained its fame when George Ohsawa brought his philosophy of Macrobiotics to the West. Ohsawa (1893-1966) was a Japanese philosopher and doctor who lost his mother, brothers and sister to tuberculosis and was diagnosed with this disease himself at age 16. He cured himself and spent the rest of his life spreading his wisdom into the world. It was not just a diet; it was a lifestyle, a philosophy that would bring lasting health and happiness to all. The core of Ohsawa’s teachings is that macrobiotic principles are a means to achieve happiness through health and nutrition. This is a very deep shift in perception and holistic living, and it encompasses everything from how you cook to the freshness and purity of the foods you consume to the attitude with which you eat them. Happiness experienced through balance at the physical level can help lead to the experience of true happiness, that of the Self, is what he believed. The rice diet refers to his most strict diet and its called #7. In its simplest form, Ohsawa Diet #7 consists of only brown rice and water. Like all of Ohsawa’s principles, this was not a “new” concept in the 1960s-it had been practiced in many cultures going back at least 5,000 years. Its general intention is to give the mind a break from stimulation and the digestive system a dose of simplicity in order to balance the being. Ohsawa described this balancing in terms of yin and yang, but whatever terms may be used by others-from ancient Hindus to modern dieticians-the underlying principles remain the same.
Benefits of Rice Fasting
The benefits are endless. In short, a rice-fast will boost your metabolism; your immune system; enhances your brain; detoxify your body; reduces tumors; reduces the risk of developing heart diseases and diabetes type 2; slow down aging and will make you look better. It will balance your energy systems, and sharpen your senses.
- Promotes Detoxification: Toxins from for instance processed foods are stored in fat cells in the body. For long-term energy, fat deposits are burnt and the toxins within the fat cells are released. These toxins are then removed from the body with the help of the liver, kidneys and other organs, leaving your body free of accumulated toxins;
- Boosts Your Metabolism: When your digestive system is weak, your ability to burn fat and metabolize food is affected. When you fast, your digestive system gets time to rest. When you start eating again, your digestive system receives a boost and functions again with increased metabolism. Other effect of increased metabolism: it slows down the process of aging and it supports healthy bowel movement;
- Improves Brain Function: When you fast, your brain goes into survival mode, leading to increased ability to focus on the tasks at hand. Fasting has also been associated with a reduction in oxidative stress, reduced insulin resistance and blood sugar levels, as well as reduced inflammation, all of which are good for the health of the brain. Fasting also promotes the production of certain brain hormones that help brain cell repair related to for instance Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s, and low levels of these brain hormones are related to depression and several brain problems;
- Improves the Immune System: By fasting you give your digestive track the time it needs to repair itself. Did you ever see a sick animal eat? No, its a natural instinct to not stress the digestive system and instead save energy to battle the infection. Research shows that already a 3 day fast can lead to the regeneration of the entire immune system and new white blood cells which have a stronger ability to fight disease;
- Rejuvenates the Skin and Whitens the Eyes: Cell repair will be boosted; toxins will be eliminated and inflammation will be reduced resulting in a more smooth and radiant skin and whiter brighter eyes;
- Improves Insulin Sensitivity: Which is beneficial for not developing diabetes type 2;
- May Reduce the Growth of Tumors and Cancer: Cancer is a disease that is characterised by the uncontrolled cellular growth which is positively influenced by fasting. Fasting reduces likeliness of tumors to grow and by the detoxification process of fasting, cells will be free of toxins and therefor less likely to develop uncontrolled cellular growth;
- Reduces the Risk of Developing Heart-Disease: When fasting, the body burns cholesterol to provide energy to the body. High cholesterol is an important factor in developing diabetes and it contributes to high blood pressure which are both risky for the heart;
- Balances Your Energy Systems: Perfect health and happiness exist when yin and yang energies are in perfect balance. All dis-eases mean misbalanced energies. Restoring your energy systems will eliminate disease and bring back healthy energy into your system.
- Sharpens the Senses: Last but not least, when restraining from food, your senses will not get the stimulation they are used to. Rice-fasting is not just a cleanse to your body; it is also a cleanse for your senses and your mind. When our senses get overstimulated, they become dull. We for instance need more sugar, more salt, more fat to reach a certain level of satisfaction in our taste buds. We need louder music to dance, brighter colours, faster movies. Fasting feels like a ‘reset’ button for your senses.
Once you start eating different tastes again, tastes are perceived much stronger which can result in an almost high-like experience, and your senses need much less stimulants to reach a similar level of satisfaction as before the fast. Personally, this sense-strengthening, the balancing of energies as well as the stillness that the simplicity of fasting brings into the mind are the main reasons for engaging in this Ohsawa #7 rice-fast.
Recipes
French Toast
This recipe can even be made ahead of time and reheated for busy mornings.
Ingredients
- 1 cup non-dairy milk
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 2 tbsp. flour
- 1 tbsp. sugar
- 1 tbsp. nutritional yeast
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
- 6-8 slices of bread
Directions
Mix all ingredients except the bread together. Dip bread in the mixture and heat on a skillet.
Savory Rice
This recipe can be cooked and used for many servings throughout the week.
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown rice, cooked
- 4 tbsp. onions, chopped
- 2 tbsp. parsley, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 tsp. paprika
Directions
Heat the garlic and onion with the rice, then sprinkle with the parsley and paprika while still warm.