While most adults may know the significance of adding enough grains to their daily food consumption, there’s still a plethora of differences in a sea of choices. According to the USDA, “any food made from wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, barley, or another cereal grain” falls into the grains category, but the makeup and nutritional content of each vary significantly.
No one is arguing over the popularity of rice as a standard grain option, with about 509.87 million metric tons of rice consumed in 2021, via Statista. But how other grains measure against the ubiquitous staple proves to be quite interesting. Quinoa has garnered mass attention over the years due to its superfood generation of all essential amino acids, per The New York Times. Then there’s couscous, which looks and even feels like rice but its general makeup may suggest otherwise. So what’s the deal? Are rice and couscous similar or more different than you assume?
Rice is a grain grown from “semi-aquatic grass” and harvested after being heavily irrigated, then drained, and dried out over a period of time, per USA Rice. According to The Washington Post, couscous doesn’t grow from the ground but instead is formed by hand from semolina wheat and water into minuscule beads and then steamed in a small amount of water until fluffy. There are different types of couscous, and Food Fun Travel explains that Israeli couscous is typically larger in size than the mass-produced couscous you’re familiar with.
