When we think of super food, we usually think of blueberries or even exotic fruits such as acai berries coming from Brazil.

Dr. Zhimin Xu of Louisiana State University Agricultural Center in Baton Rouge has new promising research on the health benefits of black rice.

He stated, “Just a spoonful of black rice bran contains more health promoting anthocyanin antioxidants than are found in a spoonful of blueberries, but with less sugar and more fiber and vitamin E antioxidants.”

Anthocyanin antioxidants are commonly found in such foods that are red, purple, or blue in color.  Such as strawberries, grapes, red onion, and more.

These antioxidants have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.

The only black rice I’m familiar with is Japonica Black rice and Chinese Black rice. We usually refer to them as purple rice. And it’s best cooked as rice pudding or other desserts.

Photo above is Lundberg’s Black Japonica rice, which is a mix of mahogany and black rice.

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Lately I’ve been on the look out to trying different types of rice, besides the usual brown and white version.

I found Lotus Foods to have a wide selection, from Kalijira rice to Cambodian Mekong Flower Rice.  But I decided to try Bhutanese rice and also China Black Forbidden rice.

Lotus Foods Bhutanese Rice is “an ancient colored-bran short-grain rice grown 8,000 feet in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. Irrigated with 1,000 year old glacier water rich in trace minerals.”

I really like this Bhutan red rice. It has a nutty taste, soft texture and reddish brown color.  It’s almost like the cousin of the brown rice, but tastier. Because it is a short grain rice, I prefer to eat it as dessert.  I’ve drizzled with honey and also tried eating it mixed with steamed kobacha (Japanese pumpkin).  The combination really brings out the nutty taste of both and not too sweet.

More about Lotus Foods: “Lotus Foods was founded with the intent and vision to support sustainable global agriculture by promoting production of traditional heirloom rice varieties, many of which may otherwise have become extinct, while enabling the small family rice farmer to earn an honorable living. Lotus Foods is the only US-based company with the unique vision and commitment to seek out small family rice farmers in developing countries and provide them a means of economic support through access to a global and sustainable marketplace economy. ”

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