Rice flour is a go-to gluten-free flour for many bakers.
Bakers on a gluten-free diet have a lot of choices, including coconut, almond, buckwheat, chickpea, quinoa and oat flours — and many more. Rice flour is a go-to gluten-free flour for many bakers, but it has its pluses and minuses, nutritionally. There is also a limit to what you can bake with it.
Rice is a popular grain for people on a gluten-free diet. All types of rice in their natural state are gluten-free. Therefore, you can confidently add rice flour to your gluten-free foods list.
Although all types of rice can be made into flour, you will only typically find white rice flour and brown rice flour on grocery store shelves. These are the most common types used in baking.
White rice and brown rice flours differ both nutritionally and in how they perform in baked goods. This has to do with how they are processed — or not processed.
Brown rice is a whole grain that undergoes very little change from its natural state during processing. It retains all three parts of the grain — the bran, germ, and endosperm. The bran is the outer covering that is rich in fiber.
The germ is the core of the grain that contains most of the nutrients, including B vitamins, vitamin E, healthy fats, and antioxidants, according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Finally, the endosperm provides primarily starch with a little protein and vitamins.
By Jody Braverman, CPT, FNS, RYT Updated Nov 7, 2019 Reviewed by Jill Corleone, RDN, LD
