White rice use is diminishing among Asians in the U.S. and abroad. (Photo by Carol Tang/CNS)

White rice evokes powerful childhood memories for Andrew Chun. Now a freshman at Yale, Chun is still nostalgic for its presence at family dinners during his trips home. But in the last two years, the fundamental dish has been replaced.

“My mom started giving me this purple bean rice,” said Chun, who was born in South Korea and moved to the U.S. at age 2. “I don’t know why she switched.”

The new arrival on the Chuns’ table is black glutinous rice, a short grain rice that looks more dark purple than black. It’s stickier when cooked, tastes sweeter and nuttier, and is chewier than white rice. A spoonful packs more antioxidants than the same amount of blueberries, according to Zhimin Xu, associate professor at the Food Science Department at Louisiana State University. Now Chun’s entire family, including his uncles and aunts, eat black glutinous rice with their meals.

Chun, however, remains dubious. “White rice is definitely better.”

With the influx of new food options, more Asians abroad and in the U.S. are switching to healthier options like black or brown rice, abandoning a cultural diet that has been defined by white rice for centuries. Shipments of white long grain rice, which has the largest market share among all rice types in the U.S., decreased 14 percent from 2006 to 2010, according to the USA Rice Federation, a nonprofit that produces research on the American rice industry. In those same years, brown rice shipments increased 41 percent. Brown rice sales in the U.S. went up $56 million, a surge of 89 percent from 2006 to 2010, according to the Federation’s annual report.

College student Nishi Dsouza’s parents, who are from Bangalore, India, recently stopped eating white rice because of health concerns. Her father has high blood sugar levels and is at risk for developing diabetes. White rice contributed to his condition, said Dsouza, an international health major at Georgetown University.

Eating five or more servings of white rice per week increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes, according to a 2010 study by the Harvard School of Public Health. Substituting 50 grams of white rice, one-third of a daily serving, with brown rice helps lower the risk of Type 2 diabetes by 16 percent, the study reported.

“I almost never eat white rice now,” said Dsouza. But her dietary change has nothing to do with health. “I think I ate rice too much when I was young,” she said. “Now I just can’t stand the taste any more.”

The transition away from white rice is also happening in Asia. Consumer spending on rice in Japan is expected to decrease 7 percent next year, according to Mintel. JFC International, a large distributor of Asian food that specializes in rice, now offers brown and organic rice.

Alisa Freedman, an academic who spends several months a year in Japan, has noticed more restaurants in Tokyo offering brown rice, including the small shops that sell onigiri, or Japanese rice balls. Freedman, an associate professor of Japanese studies at the University of Oregon, says that the younger generation in Japan is eating more meat than they used to.

Asian diets as a whole, like in the United States, are shifting toward one that incorporates foods from multiple regions. What was once a strictly monocultural diet is now multicultural.

“If you take a slice of everyday life in Tokyo today and look at what people are consuming, almost no one today in Japan eats an exclusively Japanese diet,” said Theodore C. Bestor, chair of the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University and writer on Japanese food culture.

“If you stand on a street corner in Tokyo and look around,” Bestor continues, “you will see a Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, Starbucks, an Italian restaurant and maybe a Japanese noodle shop. A lot of the changes are influences from Europe and North America.”

White rice has a rich Asian cultural history. Its importance is portrayed in artwork throughout Asia. In Japan, white rice is tied to religious ceremonies, given as an offering at the Shinto altars. Some believe it will never be phased out of the Asian diet.

“Rice is life and blood,” said Nicholas Mujah, secretary general of the Sarawak Dayak Iban Association, an activist organization for the agricultural community in Malaysia. “White rice will remain a staple in Asia as wheat to the West.”

His family’s rejection of white rice has not made Chun feel any less attached to his Asian heritage. He is on the board of the Asian American Students Alliance at Yale. Nor has it diminished his own affinity for the original cultural staple. His favorite dish is still a rice soup. And, from time to time, he might eat the rice the school serves in the dining hall.

But it doesn’t suit his taste. “It’s not made with an authentic rice cooker,” he said.

Email: ct2519@columbia.edu