Rice is a food staple for large numbers of people around the world, especially throughout Asia. During milling the bran and hull are removed from brown rice to produce white rice. This process reduces potassium and phosphorus content since the bran is where these nutrients are concentrated, which can be a great choice for limiting these nutrients in a kidney diet. However, it also takes away the dietary fiber and other nutrients. White rice is enriched to give back some B vitamins.
Types of Rice
Wild rice, brown rice and white rice are available with white being the most popular. Look for long grain rice if you desire intact rice grains after cooking or select short or medium grain rice for sticky rice dishes like desserts or risotto. There are many varieties of rice such as jasmine, basmati and Calrose. Each variety has different characteristics and flavors. If you are tired of ‘the same old rice’ try different varieties to experience new flavors.
Food and Products
Popular rice dishes include crispy or puffed rice cereal, cream of rice, rice porridge, or congee for breakfast and rice pudding for dessert. Steamed rice is the way rice is most frequently served, but stir-fried rice runs a close second. Rice products include rice flour used to make rice milk and many varieties of rice noodles. Rice crackers and rice cakes are tasty rice snacks. These are great gluten-free options.
To prepare rice, boil it in an equal amount of water or use an electric rice cooker. Save leftover rice for next-day stir-fry or dessert recipes.
Nutrients
In addition, rice is naturally low in sodium and rich in carbohydrate. One cup of cooked white rice contains approximately 200 calories, 4 g protein, 44 g carbohydrate, and 2 mg sodium, 55 mg potassium and 68 mg phosphorus. In comparison, a cup of brown rice has 84 mg potassium and 163 mg phosphorus. A cup of wild rice has 165 mg potassium and 135 mg phosphorus. Brown rice is not striped of the bran and hull so it does have natural vitamins, minerals and fiber. It is higher in phosphorus and potassium, but we now know our body only absorbs 40-60% of these nutrients from natural sources like brown rice.
Recipes
If you enjoy trivia go to Freerice to answer questions and support rice donations through the World Food Program to help end hunger.
DaVita.com offers many rice-based recipes. Here are some of my favorites:
- Arroz Con Leche
- Chicken Wild Rice Soup
- Cranberry and Roasted Garlic Risotto
- Dirty Rice
- Elegant and Easy Lemon Rice with Vegetables
- Rice and Chile Salad with Creamy Vinaigrette Dressing
- Rice Pilaf
- Shrimp Fried Rice
- Vegetarian Egg Fried Rice
Reference:
Joshi S, McMacken M, Kalantar-Zadeh K. Plant-Based Diets for Kidney Disease: A Guide for Clinicians. Am J Kidney Dis. 2021 Feb;77(2):287-296. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33075387/. Accessed July 20, 2026.
Picard K. Potassium Additives and Bioavailability: Are We Missing Something in Hyperkalemia Management? J Ren Nutr. 2019 Jul;29(4):350-353. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30579674/. Accessed July 20, 2026.
