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Can Dogs Eat Rice?

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Article Summary

Many cultures have thrived by consuming a diet largely consisting of boiled rice. The dogs associated with these people are also fed rice and scraps of meat but are able to survive mostly by hunting and scavenging for food.

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Can Dogs Eat Rice?

Many cultures have thrived by consuming a diet largely consisting of boiled rice. The dogs associated with these people are also fed rice and scraps of meat but are able to survive mostly by hunting and scavenging for food.

Dogs can eat cooked white rice but it is not good for them as it is nutritionally poor.

Being cooked, the nutrients are severely damaged, losing most of their nutritional value. Brown rice, as a whole, unprocessed seed, can be sprouted to dramatically increase its nutritional content and digestibility, for both humans and their dogs.

Brown rice is soaked for 4-20 hours, in a warm environment, rinsing and changing the water every 4 hours or so. The water is then poured off and the soaked rice grains are rinsed twice daily until the seeds begin to germinate, with a little tail appearing from the pointed tip of the rice grain.

Then this germinated, sprouted rice is ready to consume and can be stored in the refrigerator, rinsing twice daily, for a few days. It can also be fermented to increase its enzyme and probiotic content, further increasing its digestibility. But this requires knowledge and skill to create a beneficial fermentation, rather than a pathogenic, toxic, detrimental one!

What Are The Nutritional Components Of Rice?

Polished White Ric

White rice has been cleaned of the most nutritious part, the hull. This enables it to be stored for longer because even insects are not attracted to eating it. But white rice has barely any nutritional value, comprising at least 80% carbohydrates. It behaves rather like bread or sugar in the digestive tract, starting in the mouth where the oral amylase converts it to sugars. 

White rice behaves a bit like sugar – it is after all, 80% carbohydrate.

As you know, sugar is one of the main causes of inflammation in the body. And inflammation is the main basic cause of virtually all chronic degenerative diseases. So join up the dots! It is particularly detrimental to carnivorous animals because it disrupts their beneficial bacterial gut flora, allowing these to be replaced by pathogenic bacteria, yeasts and fungi.

The exotoxins produced by these invaders damage the gut lining and often result in “leaky gut syndrome”, increasingly common in people and their processed food fed companions. This leaking gut then allows numerous unwanted toxins and debris to be absorbed into the blood, resulting in numerous allergies, intolerances and autoimmune diseases.

Brown Rice

Brown rice has not been so processed so retains more of its nutrients, which comprise the following, approximately:

  • Protein averages at 20-30%
  • Fats are minimal, averaging 0.5-1%
  • Carbohydrates account for about 50-60% of the nutritional value of rice
  • Fibre can be as much as 2%Vitamins and minerals comprise the remainder.

Germinated Brown Rice

Germinated brown rice however has a much better profile as the sprouting process activates the enzymes, dramatically increasing the protein content. This is further enhanced by fermenting the sprouted brown rice. The nutritional profile of this type of rice is astonishingly protein rich with approximately:

  • 80% protein,
  • 8% carbohydrates (of which 50% is fibre),
  • 6% fats and
  • the rest comprising vitamins and minerals. 

The best solution is to give your dogs germinated brown rice … but as this is difficult to prepare, then use SunWarrior protein instead

Creating this is rather labour intensive, but worth the effort to produce a pretty good protein source for your dog … and you. In fact this forms the basis of one of the top vegan protein powders for people, called SunWarrior Protein. You could of course give this clean organic fermented sprouted brown rice powder to your dog! 

The Right Rice To Feed Your Dog Is …

In conclusion, boiled white rice is a carbohydrate rich food and therefore completely inappropriate for dogs. It cannot be recommended to promote the health of your dog.

Boiled brown rice is less nutrient deficient, but is still inappropriate as a food for dogs. However sprouted, fermented organic brown rice is protein rich and therefore works well as a food source for dogs. As this is so difficult to prepare at home well, consider using SunWarrior Protein powder.

Beware of Toxicity In Non-Organic Rice

But beware, arsenic-based pesticide residues left in soil, especially after growing cotton crops, are rapidly assimilated by growing rice plants, which are frequently grown in crop rotations following cotton crops. China and North America seem to be the most contaminated.

As arsenic is a potent carcinogen, contaminated rice is not safe to eat or feed to your dog. It is essential to use only organic brown rice, preferably sprouted and fermented, to avoid toxic heavy metals and other contaminants and to improve its nutritional status.