Rice (brown)

Anticancer. Anti-inflammatory. Cardiovascular health. While brown rice per se hasn’t been well studied, like many other whole grains it is rich in fiber and lignans, which have received plenty of scientific attention. In population-based studies, those who consumed high levels of whole grains had a decreased risk of insulin resistance, a precursor of type 2 diabetes. Lignans are converted into enterolactone in the body, and enterolactone is believed to lower the risk of breast cancer and heart disease. In addition, women who ate larger quantities of the kind of insoluble fiber found in brown rice suffered significantly fewer gallstones, perhaps because fiber decreases the amount of bile, produced by the gallbladder, required for digestion.