Lately I’ve been seeing a rice alternative called RightRice circulating the internet. It’s made of lentils and chickpeas and supposedly has less carbs than actual rice. Well, the burning question is, is RightRice Healthy? Is it really better than white or brown rice? Let’s breakdown the ingredients and see for ourselves.

Sunflower Oil

First, let’s talk about one of the ingredients in RightRice- sunflower oil. If you’ve read my content before then you probably know how much I dislike processed vegetable oils. They have an extremely high omega 6 to omega 3 ratio, contributing to high amounts of inflammation in the body. You can read more about this omega imbalance in processed oils here.

When shopping at the grocery store I avoid bad oils at all costs. It’s so important to read ingredient labels because these oils often sneak their way into “health” snacks… So, just going off this ingredient, no, RightRice is NOT healthy. But, let’s breakdown the other ingredients as well.

Lentil Flour, Chickpea Flour, and Pea Fiber

Lentils, chickpeas, and pea fiber are a complete form of plant protein (when combined), which is essentially the purpose of eating RightRice. It is marketed to have 6g more of protein than white rice and 40% less net carbs. While I believe these sources are fine in moderation, I do think it can be hard on the digestive system to eat these ingredients regularly.

Personally, when I was vegan, I ate chickpeas or lentils in almost every dinner I made. It was hard to find any other plant-based sources with high amounts of protein, even if it wasn’t complete. After years of feeling awful, I came to realize that my body does not do well digesting legumes. They were a huge part of my issues with bloating and gas. Pay attention to your body when eating these types of foods. Do you get sluggish, bloated, or gassy after eating them? Maybe you’re not digesting them well. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to these foods. Do what feels good for YOU and YOUR body!

Conclusion

I tend to believe that any food in its whole form is better than a processed product, whether it contains more protein and less carbs or not. Whole foods are whole foods and nothing beats that. If you want more protein simply balance your meal out with a piece of wild-caught salmon and top it off with a healthy fat like extra virgin olive oil. If you want to eat less carbs eat more protein and healthy fats! You don’t have to choose these processed alternatives to eat a certain way.

Think about this- rice gets grown in a field, RightRice gets processed in a factory. Which do you think we were intended to eat?

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