White Rice Tops My List of Favorite Crohn's-Friendly Foods

In childhood, I absolutely hated it. It reminded me of eating chalk.

As a Crohn's patient, however, I adore rice. I should quickly add that I mean white rice, not the brown or wild variety. The darker rice has proven much harder for me to digest than its white cousin.

I discovered rice a zillion hospitalizations ago. After one of several Crohn's small bowel resections, I had made it past decaffeinated coffee, broth and grits and was waiting for my first more substantial food. The aide brought me a baked chicken breast and a gargantuan serving of white rice.

According to a fact sheet on the home page of the USA Rice Federation, more than half the world's population relies on the same food for energy as I do. It provides fiber to make you feel full and contains antioxidant phytonutrients, as well as plenty of vitamins. Rice actually adds more than 15 essential nutrients to the diet.

Each serving provides 2.5 grams of protein that's relatively easy to digest. Half a cup contains slightly more than 100 calories, roughly the same as those in a piece of toast or a glass of milk.

When I'm not in a flare and can eat fairly normally for a patient who has lost half her small intestine, I zap instant rice in the microwave and let it cuddle on a plate next to fish, chicken or beef.

Rice is the first thing I ask for when coming off a liquid diet. It's easy to fix. It's dense, so a little goes a long way. And my gut just plain tolerates it. I would not go so far, however, as to speculate that it actually wards off a flare. I don't for a minute believe any food or anything else consistently does that.

Not all white rice has to be boring. I often load it with reduced-sodium soy sauce. I also munch on rice cakes when it's time to snack. Like many people with Crohn's disease, I'm also lactose intolerant, so I've learned to make a tempting rice pudding using soy milk, egg substitute, sugar and some almond flavoring.