Is Yellow Rice Healthy for You?
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Which Is Healthier, Yellow Rice or White Rice?

Which Is Healthier, Yellow Rice or White Rice?
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Updated on July 31, 2025
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Rice is a good source of complex carbs and an essential, accessible food for billions of people worldwide. Yellow rice is white rice with extra spices, such as saffron or turmeric, that give it its distinct yellow color and a range of additional nutrients.

While recipes vary, people add coconut milk and onions to yellow rice in addition to the spices. In many cultures, particularly in Indonesia, yellow rice is a staple of traditional cuisine. It is customary to serve healthy yellow rice, known as tumpeng, to celebrate significant holidays.

Is Yellow Rice Good for You? The Benefits Explained

According to information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on cooked yellow rice

 and cooked, unenriched white rice,

 the differences in nutrient servings are minimal. Yellow rice can be prepared many different ways, and the nutritional profile will vary slightly depending on the type of white rice you use and the ingredients you add.
All yellow rice starts as white rice. One cup (186 grams) of white rice is low-fat but provides 4.43 grams (g), or around 9 percent, of your recommended daily value (%DV), of protein.

 This provides a strong base for further flavors. In terms of vitamins, the spices in yellow rice add flavors rather than a significant amount of additional nutrients.
White rice doesn’t naturally provide vitamins B12, C, or D, but food producers enrich white rice products with additional nutrients. If you make yellow rice at home and use enriched white rice in your yellow rice recipe, you may get added nutritional benefits from yellow rice, including:

  • Fiber
  • Iron
  • Selenium
  • Thiamin
  • Niacin
  • Folate
  • Folic acid

Rice Is a Good Source of Carbs

Around 90 percent of rice’s dry weight consists of starch.

 This is a type of carbohydrate.

 Carbohydrates are an essential nutrient and your body's preferred source of energy, with the USDA recommending that 45 to 65 percent of your calories come from carbohydrates.
On a 2,000-calorie diet, that means you need 225 to 325 g of carbs a day.

 One cup of cooked yellow rice, without any added fat, contains roughly 30 g of carbohydrates and around 139 calories.

Is Yellow Rice Bad for You? Salt and Fat Content Explained

Whether it’s because of a spice mix, broth, or added salt, some versions of yellow rice may be high in sodium. Many people in the United States would benefit from limiting sodium, per the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

On average, people eat around 50 percent more sodium than guidelines recommend, per Harvard Medical School.

 High intakes of sodium are associated with high blood pressure,

 which increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, and other health problems.

Yellow rice recipes that call for coconut milk, a plant-based milk that’s high in saturated fat, add extra fat and calories to the rice.

 If you’re limiting fat or calories in your diet, these yellow rice recipes may be ones to avoid.

How to Make Yellow Rice Healthier

For most people who have healthy digestion, there’s an easy way to make yellow rice more nutritious: use brown instead of white rice. This gives you more fiber, magnesium, potassium, iron, and B vitamins than white rice for fewer calories. On the other hand, some people with digestive issues such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) will find white rice easier to digest during a flare-up.

One cup (195 g) of cooked brown medium-grain rice contains 218 calories,

 compared with 242 calories in white rice.

 Likewise, the same cup of brown rice provides 3.51 g fiber, but a similar serving of unenriched white rice doesn’t provide any fiber.

Mixing beans or peas into your rice also increases the amount of plant protein, fiber, iron, B vitamins, folate, calcium, and zinc.

 You can reduce the sodium content in your yellow rice by omitting or reducing the amount of salt you add or using low-sodium broth.

Should You Wash Rice Before Cooking It?

Whether you’re eating white rice or mixing it with saffron, turmeric, or other spices to make yellow rice, it’s best to avoid washing white rice before you cook it.

People often rinse and drain rice before cooking to remove dust, leftover bran, and other contaminants. Research has shown that washing the rice doesn’t have a significant effect on its texture.

But washing it will remove the enriched nutrients. Pre-soaking rice and draining it before cooking can also result in the loss of some nutrients. In particular, white rice may lose some phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium during various methods of pre-soaking rice, according to one study.

The Takeaway

  • Yellow rice is just white rice with added spices, such as saffron or turmeric. The nutritional profiles are essentially the same.
  • Some preparations of yellow rice may be high in sodium, which may not be suitable for those who need to reduce or moderate their sodium intake.
  • You can make yellow rice with brown rice, mix in legumes, or use a low-sodium broth to enhance its nutritional value further.
  • Before cooking white rice, avoid washing it, as this can remove the fortified nutrients.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. Philosophy and Several Kinds of Tumpeng. The Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities. 2018.
  2. Yellow rice, cooked, no added fat. U.S. Department of Agriculture. October 31, 2024.
  3. Rice, white, medium-grain, cooked, unenriched. U.S. Department of Agriculture. April 1, 2019.
  4. Cho MJ et al. Characterization of potato starch-high amylose rice starch blend as a substitute of acetylated potato starch in long-life noodle. Food Science & Biotechnology. June 20, 2024.
  5. Types of Carbohydrates. American Diabetes Association.
  6. Carbohydrates: How carbs fit into a healthy diet. Mayo Clinic. Jan. 24, 2025.
  7. Sodium Reduction in the Food Supply. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. November 1, 2024.
  8. Dietary salt and blood pressure: A complex connection. Harvard Medical School. March 1, 2024.
  9. Common High Blood Pressure Myths. American Heart Association. May 7, 2024.
  10. Health Threats from High Blood Pressure. American Heart Association. May 6, 2024.
  11. Plant-based milks have benefits for the heart and the planet. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. February 10, 2022.
  12. Brown rice versus white rice: A head-to-head comparison. Harvard Medical School. November 8, 2024.
  13. Rice, brown, medium-grain, cooked (includes foods for USDA's Food Distribution Program). U.S. Department of Agriculture. April 1, 2019.
  14. Healthy food trends - beans and legumes. MedlinePlus. May 14, 2024.
  15. Li H et al. Washing rice before cooking has no large effect on the texture of cooked rice. Food Chemistry. January 15, 2019.
  16. Menon M et al. Improved rice cooking approach to maximise arsenic removal while preserving nutrient elements. Science of the Total Environment. October 16, 2020.
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Sylvia Klinger, DBA, MS, RD, CPT, is an internationally recognized nutrition expert who is relentlessly passionate about helping people fall in love with creating and enjoying delicious, safe, and nutritious foods.

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