Wild rice is not rice. It is the seed of an aquatic grass in the genus Zizania, a relative of true rice (Oryza) that sits in the same plant tribe. Three of the four species are native to North America and one to China. For the Ojibwe, who call the northern species, Zizania palustris, manoomin, it is a sacred food, tied to their migration story and gathered by canoe every late summer.
Where it grows matters. Hand-harvested lake rice is gathered by two people in a canoe, one poling and one knocking the ripe grains into the boat with sticks, and the grains that fall seed next year’s bed. Most wild rice sold today is cultivated in flooded paddies, mainly in California and Minnesota, and University of Wyoming Extension notes that many people find the paddy kind tastes noticeably different. None of the studies below compares lake rice with paddy rice.
The numbers on this page are for dry grain. A ¼ cup (40 g) of dry wild rice has 143 calories, 5.9 g of protein and 2.5 g of fiber, and it swells to roughly ¾ to 1 cup when cooked. Almost all the health research on wild rice itself is in rats and mice, and the only trial in people tested the blood sugar response in 8 adults.
Health benefits of wild rice
The top findings from 15 studies, strongest evidence first
What the stars mean
- Strong. Several randomized trials, pooled in a meta-analysis, point the same way, or regulators (FDA or EFSA) have approved the claim.
- Moderate. Good randomized trials support it, but there are fewer of them, or their results vary.
- Limited. Small, short or single trials, or mixed results. Promising, but it needs confirmation.
Population and lab studies get no stars: they show a link or a mechanism, not proof.
How we rate evidence →- ★Low glycemic index in a small testIn 8 healthy adults, 67 g of wild rice had a low glycemic index of 53.72 (how fast a food raises blood sugar). It was not a trial in people with diabetes.
- Population studyWhole grains linked to less heart diseaseA 22% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and 17% lower risk of death from any cause went with 90 g more whole grains a day. This covers whole grains as a group, not wild rice alone.
- Population studyLinked to lower risk of early deathPeople who ate the most fiber and whole grains had 15 to 30% lower risks of early death, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. This covers whole grains as a group, not wild rice alone.
All 15 studies, strongest evidence first
In 8 healthy adults, wild rice had a low glycemic index of 53.72
Small test in 8 healthy adults who ate 67 g of wild rice, with 50 g of glucose as the comparison. The same paper fed high-fat-diet rats, and replacing 50% of the refined rice and flour with wild rice improved their insulin resistance. The Chinese-language abstract does not name the species, and it is not a trial in people with diabetes.
Eating 90 g more whole grains a day went with a 22% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 17% lower risk of dying from any cause
Meta-analysis of 45 studies of whole grains as a group, not wild rice alone, though the FDA counts wild rice as a whole grain. The relative risks per 90 g a day were 0.78 for cardiovascular disease and 0.83 for death from any cause. Whole grain bread and cereals were linked to lower risk, while white rice and total rice showed little link.
People who ate the most fiber and whole grains had 15 to 30% lower risks of early death, heart disease and type 2 diabetes
Series of reviews of 185 prospective studies (just under 135 million person-years) and 58 trials with 4,635 adults, with whole grains pooled as a group. The largest drop in risk came at 25 to 29 g of fiber a day, and the certainty of the evidence for whole grains was graded low to moderate.
Mice fed wild rice for 24 weeks had 61 to 71% smaller artery plaques than control mice
Study in mice bred to develop atherosclerosis, not in people. The diet drew about 60% of its energy from carbohydrate (wild rice, white rice or a commercial source). Plasma cholesterol fell 15% in males and 40% in females, fecal cholesterol rose by up to 34%, and antioxidant enzymes did not increase.
Mice on a high-fat diet with northern wild rice instead of white rice had lower blood sugar, cholesterol, triglycerides and inflammation markers
Mouse study over 12 weeks, with 26% of the diet by weight as white rice, wild rice or half of each. Wild rice also raised fecal Lactobacillus gasseri and propionic acid, and the half-and-half diet worked less well than wild rice alone. The abstract gives no sizes for the differences, and mice are not people.
In mice on a high-fat diet, Chinese wild rice reversed 90 of 117 changes in gut bacteria
Mouse study of Zizania latifolia, the Asian species, not the North American grain. Wild rice also lowered body weight, liver fat and low-grade inflammation and improved insulin resistance, while the richness and diversity of gut bacteria dropped. The authors suggest it may act like a probiotic, but this is untested in people.
Rats on a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet with wild rice as the carbohydrate had lower triglycerides and total cholesterol
Study in rats, not people, using Chinese wild rice (Zizania latifolia) to replace white rice and processed wheat starch. Wild rice also kept HDL cholesterol from falling and raised the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase in blood and liver. The abstract gives no sizes for the differences.
Rats given wild rice in place of refined carbohydrate resisted the insulin resistance caused by a high-fat diet
Eight-week study in rats, not people, with Chinese wild rice (Zizania latifolia). Wild rice lowered liver triglycerides and free fatty acids and raised the hormone adiponectin. The abstract gives no sizes for the differences.
Wild and brown rice could supply up to eight times more of some essential nutrients than white rice
Analysis of 55 rice types sold in the UK (white, brown and wild), with a model of nutrient intake, not a trial in people. The authors found that the amount of rice, more than the type, drives the risk from inorganic arsenic.
Wild rice had more protein, fiber and essential minerals than white or brown rice
Lab comparison of Zizania palustris (whole grain, milled grain and bran) with white and brown rice. The bran had 2 to 11 times the phenolics and flavonoids and 2 to 7 times the antioxidant activity of the rice samples. Wild rice also had more lysine and over 87% unsaturated fatty acids; these are measurements of the grain, not of health effects.
Cooking wild rice cut its total phenolics by 17 to 23%
Lab test of commercial wild rice (Zizania palustris) with simulated digestion. Digestion released up to 22.61% of the phenolics, and antioxidant activity fell a further 5.53% and 9.34% by two tests compared with cooked rice. Free phenolics outnumbered bound ones, and this is not a study in people.
North American wild rice held about twice the γ-oryzanol of brown rice, 1,352 against 688 µg per gram
Lab analysis of wild rice (Zizania palustris) grown in North America, compared with regular brown rice. Twenty-three γ-oryzanol compounds were found, and wild rice had steryl caffeates and cinnamates that brown rice largely lacked. It measured composition, not health effects.
Brown rice had significantly more inorganic arsenic than white or wild rice
Tests of 55 rice types sold in the UK. Of the 28 samples above the EU limit of 0.1 mg/kg for rice used in infant food, the average was 0.13 mg/kg, and the authors advise infants under 1 year to eat at most 20 g a day of those rice types. The abstract does not give a figure for wild rice alone.
Commercial wild rice flakes had more mercury than the average cereal in the EU
Lab analysis of wild rice flakes. Mercury was 3.67 to 12.20 µg per 100 g against 0.27 to 1.90 µg in EU cereals, yet intakes of aluminum, cadmium, tin and mercury from a 100 g portion stayed under 33% of the FAO/WHO limits. The flakes were also a notable source of B vitamins, magnesium, manganese and zinc.
Manoomin from the Great Lakes region held PFAS at levels below 2 ng/g
A Tribally driven study that measured PFAS, long-lasting industrial chemicals, in the roots, stalks and seeds of manoomin and in nearby sediment and water. Four PFAS were found in the plant, and the authors judge them unlikely to pose a risk for human consumption at this time. It is a first look at one region.
Who should be careful with wild rice
Most people can eat wild rice freely. Take a little care if one of these applies:
- Celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. Plain wild rice is gluten-free, but some boxed long-grain and wild rice blends contain wheat, and seasoning packets can too. Check the label for a gluten-free mark.
- Arsenic and mercury. In UK tests of 55 rice types, brown rice had more inorganic arsenic than white or wild rice, and an analysis of wild rice flakes found more mercury than the average EU cereal but under a third of the FAO/WHO limits. This is a small concern for adults who vary their grains; for babies, the FDA has set a 100 ppb action level for inorganic arsenic in infant rice cereal.
How to choose, store and eat wild rice
- Lake or paddy: in Minnesota a package with any cultivated rice must say “paddy” or “cultivated”, and 100% hand-harvested rice may say “hand harvested”.
- Black, brown or blond: the more bran is left on, the longer it cooks, at about 45, 30 and 20 minutes.
- Simmered: 1 cup of rinsed dry rice in 3 cups of water for 45 to 60 minutes makes 3 to 4 cups, and in a lab test cooking cut total phenolics by 17 to 23%.
Keep cooked wild rice in the fridge for two to three days, or freeze it in small batches for up to several months. Freshly harvested “green” rice changes fast: in a 1982 test, unprocessed rice lasted 10 to 14 days at 70°F (21°C) but stayed acceptable for 7 weeks at 41°F (5°C).
Sources
- Is wild rice gluten-free?. Celiac.com. 2022.
- Take a walk on the wild side of rice. University of Wyoming Extension. Reviewed 2024.
- Minnesota Statutes section 30.49, wild rice labeling. Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes.
- Menon M, Sarkar B, Hufton J, et al. Do arsenic levels in rice pose a health risk to the UK population? Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2020.
- Menon M, Smith A, Fennell J. Essential nutrient element profiles in rice types: a risk-benefit assessment including inorganic arsenic. Br J Nutr. 2022.
- Sumczynski D, Koubová E, Šenkárová L, Orsavová J. Rice flakes produced from commercial wild rice: chemical compositions, vitamin B compounds, mineral and trace element contents and their dietary intake evaluation. Food Chem. 2018.
- Supporting document for action level for inorganic arsenic in rice cereals for infants. US Food and Drug Administration.
- Panchbhaya AA, Herrera-Balandrano DD, Too B, Beta T. Influence of simulated gastrointestinal digestion on phenolic composition, bioaccessibility, and antioxidant properties of commercial wild rice. Molecules. 2026.
- Meilinger JH, Marth EH, Lindsay RC, Lund DB. Microflora and flavor of wild rice fermented under different conditions. J Food Prot. 1982.
History of wild rice
Wild rice grew in the lakes of the Great Lakes region long before anyone farmed it. Archaeologists dated wild rice seeds and charcoal at the Big Rice site in Minnesota’s Superior National Forest to about 2,050 years ago. The Ojibwe say their ancestors followed a vision to a place “where the food floats on water”, and found it in the wild rice around Lake Superior. They reached present-day Minnesota in the 1600s after a migration that lasted many centuries.
The Ojibwe word manoomin is often translated as “good grain”. Families moved to a lake with a promising stand in autumn, and the harvest came in late August and early September, called the wild rice moon. Two people worked a canoe, and the grain that fell into the water lodged in the mud and grew into the next year’s stand. The rice was then parched over a fire, danced on to loosen the hulls, and fanned in birch bark trays so the wind carried the hulls away. Elders watched the lakes, opened and closed them to ricing, and left some grain to reseed.
The anthropologist Albert Jenks noted in 1901 that wild rice mattered in the fur-trade era because it stored well, and the region would have been nearly out of reach without it. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, white entrepreneurs began to market it as a gourmet food, and farmers were growing it in paddies by the late 1960s. One account credits the Godward brothers, who flooded an acre north of Brainerd, Minnesota, in 1951, as the first to cultivate it officially. Minnesota named wild rice its state grain in 1977, and in 1939 it had already banned mechanical harvesting of natural stands.
Asia has its own wild rice, Zizania latifolia. Its grain was once an important food in ancient China, but it is now rare in the wild and is grown for its stems, which swell because a smut fungus infects them. That species, not the North American grain, is the one in several of the studies above.
Today the plant is sensitive to altered water levels, pollution, invasive species and a warming climate. Many Ojibwe and other Native people continue to protect wild rice beds and teach ricing, parching and finishing at camps. In 2018 the White Earth Nation recognized in its law that manoomin has the right to exist and flourish.
Sources
- Milgroom J. Wild rice and the Ojibwe. MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society. 2020.
- Wild rice. Wikipedia.
- Lorenz K. Wild rice: the Indian’s staple and the white man’s delicacy. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 1981.
- Surendiran G, Alsaif M, Kapourchali FR, Moghadasian MH. Nutritional constituents and health benefits of wild rice (Zizania spp.). Nutr Rev. 2014.
Frequently asked questions about wild rice
Is wild rice good for you?
For most people, yes, though the evidence is thin. Dry wild rice has 14.7 g of protein and 6.2 g of fiber per 100 g, and ¼ cup (40 g) gives 23% of the daily value for copper and for manganese. Large cohorts link 90 g a day of whole grains to a 22% lower risk of cardiovascular disease, but that is a link, it covers whole grains as a group, and almost all research on wild rice itself is in rats and mice.
Is wild rice really rice?
No. Wild rice is the seed of aquatic grasses in the genus Zizania, while white and brown rice come from Oryza. The two sit in the same plant tribe, which is why they look alike. Of the four Zizania species, three are native to North America and one to China.
Is wild rice healthier than brown or white rice?
On nutrients it looks stronger, but no trial compares them in people. A lab comparison found more protein, fiber and essential minerals in wild rice than in white or brown rice, and a UK analysis of 55 rice types found that wild or brown rice could supply up to eight times more of some nutrients than white rice. Brown rice also had more inorganic arsenic than white or wild rice.
How much protein is in wild rice?
Dry wild rice has 14.7 g of protein per 100 g, or 5.9 g in ¼ cup (40 g), which is 17% of its calories. This site scores its protein 84 out of 100 for completeness, with lysine as the limiting amino acid, though one lab comparison found more lysine than in white or brown rice. Cooked wild rice has less protein per 100 g because it holds water.
Is wild rice gluten-free?
Yes, plain wild rice is gluten-free. The risk is in packaged products: Celiac.com notes that some long-grain and wild rice blends contain wheat, and seasoning packets can too. If you have celiac disease, check the label for a gluten-free mark.
How do you cook wild rice?
Rinse it, then simmer 1 cup of rice in 3 cups of water, covered, for 45 to 60 minutes, until many kernels burst open. One cup of dry rice makes 3 to 4 cups cooked. Black wild rice, with most of its bran, takes about 45 minutes, brown about 30 and blond about 20.
Does wild rice have arsenic?
It can have some, but less than brown rice. In UK tests of 55 rice types, brown rice had significantly more inorganic arsenic than white or wild rice, and the authors say the amount eaten matters more than the type. The FDA’s 100 ppb action level covers infant rice cereal, and the abstract gives no figure for wild rice alone.
Is wild rice good for people with diabetes?
It may fit, but the evidence is thin. In 8 healthy adults, 67 g of wild rice gave a glycemic index of 53.72, which the authors call low. In rats on a high-fat diet, wild rice in place of refined carbohydrate lowered insulin resistance, but no trial has tested it in people with diabetes. Ask your care team about portions.