Nutritional balance of rice milk

This article offers descriptive data regarding the nutritional balance of (standard) rice milk. These data were collected for a research on milk and milk alternatives in New Zealand between 2007 and 2008 (Perezgonzalez, 2008¹).

Rice milk is made from rice and water. The average rice milk (in this sample) is low in protein, high in carbohydrate and sugar, low in fat and saturated fat, low in fiber, and within maximum recommended limits for sodium.

On average, rice milk has a nutritional balance of BNI 42.17s, being particularly unbalanced towards excess of sugar.

Illustration 1: Nutrition information (rice milk)

BNI	42.17s	0.00

Food, 100ml	2008	Ideal
Protein	0.6	2.7
Carbohydrate	10.6	7.4
Sugar	4.0	< 1.3
Fat	1.0	1.5
Saturated fat	0.1	< 0.6
Fiber	0.0	0.8
Sodium	0.051	< 0.054
Kcal	53.8	53.8
kJul	225.1	225.1

Illustration 2: Nutritional profile (rice milk)

80%		*
75%		*
70%		*
65%		*
60%		*
55%		*
50%		*
45%		*
40%		*
35%		*
30%		*
25%		*
20%		*
15%		*	*
10%		*	*
5%	*	*	*
mid	p	c	f	fb
max		s	sf		na
5%		*			*
10%		*
15%		*
20%		*
25%		*
30%		*

ideal % = grey cells; actual % = asterisk (*)

International standards

Rice milk appears as somehow unbalanced according to international Recommended Dietary Intakes (RDIs), although less so according to U.S. and Canada's standards, which allow for a higher content of sugars and fat.

Illustration 3: Nutritional balance across different RDIs (rice milk)

Rice milk	average	42.17	42.17	20.31	42.17	40.17

Product 100ml	Company	BNI	WHO	US/CAN	AUS/NZ	UK
Vitasoy rice milk protein enriched	Vitasoy	25.25	25.25	5.06	25.14	23.14
Vitasoy rice milk calcium enriched	Vitasoy	37.70	37.70	16.01	37.42	35.42
Get Natural rice milk	So Natural	38.17	34.94	28.17	38.17	32.94
Rice Dream vanilla enriched	Imagine Foods	55.10	55.10	25.67	55.10	53.10
Rice Dream original enriched	Imagine Foods	57.85	57.85	27.85	57.85	55.85
(Source: Perezgonzalez, 2008¹)

Correlations between indexes tend to be high and positive (and significant at the 0.10 cut-off point, which seems appropriate given the small sample size), except for the US/CAN index. However, the sample size is too small as for drawing much inference from it.