[Sca-cooks] Partly OP: Brown vs. white rice?

[Tara Sersen Boroson]

Ok, health-foodie me has been wondering something for a while.  Today, 
white rice is completely ubiquitous and brown rice is so far an 
exception that some small grocery stores don't even carry it.  How long 
this has been true?  When did folks start processing the bran off of 
rice, and when/where did it become so common that brown rice became the 
exception instead of the rule?  What would be an appropriate rice to use 
for period applications - brown or white, long or short grain?  Also, in 
terms of modern usage, we hear plenty about how healthy Asian cultures 
are because they eat so much whole grain.  Yet, every Indian, Thai, 
Chinese and Japanese restaurant I know of serves white rice.  I've only 
ever found one restaurant that offered brown rice as an alternative, 
despite health magazines assurances that it is available for the 
asking.  Asian grocers also carry only or very predominantly white 
rice.  So, what is the truth there?  Is it an Americanization to serve 
so much white rice in these Asian restaurants, or are the people touting 
the "whole grain" theory of Asian cooking attributing this incorrectly?

Thank you!
-Magdalena

-- 
Tara Sersen Boroson

I recently learned that in an average lifetime a person walks about sixty-five thousand miles. That's two and half times around the world. I wonder where your steps will take you. I wonder how you'll use the rest of the miles you're given.  - Fred Rogers