In its natural state, compared to unfortified white rice, brown rice is a better source of several nutrients such as riboflavin, folate, iron and magnesium. It has three times the fiber of white rice.

Brown rice is naturally better for you compared to white rice. However, because some important nutrients are stripped during the process of manufacturing white rice, many companies choose to put back what they took out. Often they overcompensate. Therefore, when you compare a package of fortified white rice to a package of brown rice, the white looks like a better choice. However brown rice has the advantage of having more fiber, which is probably a bigger health benefit than the fortified vitamins, since our diet tends to be more deficient in fiber than in the vitamins white rice is fortified with.