Effects of brown rice, red rice and purple rice on body weight and serum lipid in mice fed a high fat diet

Brown rice, purple rice and red rice are the basic components of macrobiotic diet. The aim of study was to examine the lower weight gain and antihyperlipidemic activities of brown rice, purple rice and red rice on mice fed high fat diet. The mice were divided into 5 groups: group 1 was normal control mice fed with normal pellet diet; group 2- hyperlipidemic control mice was fed with high fat (15 % wt/wt)/cholesterol (0.5 % wt/wt) supplemented with either corn starch (50 % wt/wt) or cooked brown rice - group 3 or cooked red rice –group 4 or cooked purple rice–group 5 (50 % wt/wt) as the main carbohydrate source for 6 weeks. The results showed that group 2 exhibited significantly increased on weight body and total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), LDL-cholesterol (LDL-c) and decreased in HDL-cholesterol (HDL-c) as compared to control group 1. Group 3, 4, 5 exhibited reduction on body weight and significantly decreased in the elevated TC, LDL-c and TG as compared to group 2. Among them, the reduction in body weight and TC and TG of group 4 was lower than other groups; the increase of HDL-c of group 5 was higher than group 3 and group 4. This is the first report identifying lower weight gain and anti-hyperlipidemic activities of cooked brown rice, cooked purple rice and cooked red rice on mice fed high fat diet. The results obtained in the present study indicate that brown rice, red rice and purple rice are health food for lower weight gain, anti-hyperlipidemic agent and prevention of heart diseases.