A couple of us would like to better understand the health implications
of brown vs. white and instant vs. non-instant rice. This leads to
several related questions around two central issues:

Which is healthier, instant brown rice or non-instant white rice?
Which has a lower glycemic index? What are the other differences in
health of the two? Is instant rice less healthy in any way than
non-instant rice?

We understand that brown rice is in some way less processed than white
rice. There is something about the milling and/or some other type of
processing that I forget the word for right now that is different and
leaves more of the whole kernel in tact in brown rice. Much nutrition
literature points to advantages of brown rice over white rice for this
reason. Since white rice "has more done to it" in some sense (more is
removed to make it), why is it that it is white rice not brown rice
that is a staple of many cultures diets including old cultures and
developing economies where (for both) extra effort seems less likely.
We would expect those cultures to eat the more "raw" form by default.
Is removing less stuff to create brown rice somehow actually harder
than making white rice?

You may be interested to know that the glycemic index is not the same
for all types of white rice, even.  Basmati rice is better than
jasmine rice and sticky rice.  If I can find my glycemic index book,
I'll try to check on instant brown rice for you.

This is a free comment.

Check out this thread for the difference between white and brown rice
and how they are processed:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=519548

The relative nutritional value of white vs. brown rice is not
influenced by which is "instant".  That just indicates that the rice
(whichever one) has been parboiled, reducing the cooking time for you.

The higher nutritional value mentioned in this website

http://magazines.ivillage.com/goodhousekeeping/recipes/editor/qas/0,,284589_291569,00.html
 
results from the fact that brown rice still has the "bran" that
includes these nutrients, whereby I (just my opinion) would think that
some of these have been lost in the parboiling, but when you boil rice
at home, you pour off the water, so any nutrients lost that way would
also be lost when you strained off the water after having boiled
non-instant brown rice for twenty minutes.

In parboiled rice, the paddy is boiled with its husk on. This causes
the nutrients to be absorbed into the rice grain itself. When the rice
is boiled later, the nutrients cannot be removed.

This is NOT a suburban myth: People have died from SDS, coming from
China (and not knowing the difference), who thought that they could
eat white rice as a staple instead of the rice they're used to eating.
Do NOT eat white rice. You'll get more nutrition from paper.
Answer: Instant brown rice from Wild Oats, Trader Joes or a store that
doesn't sell anything with hydrogenated oil in any of thier products.