The fact that rice is free of cholesterol and low in fat doesn't
particularly make it a good food; see my article at
http://www.syndicomm.com/lowfat.html for some extended thoughts on that.

If I'm not mistaken, rice husks will also contain phytates, which causes
calcium and other mineral depletion.  Which means that brown rice may be
worse for you than polished white rice.  But the polished white rice is
going to have that high-test, high-octane carb load that's going to screw
up some people's systems.

Rice is also one of the most destructive crops; planting and harvesting
rice does massive environmental damage, probably moreso than any other crop.

On the whole rice is probably not as destructive to human metabolisms as,
say, wheat.  It's still not particularly great stuff.  If I were going to
eat it at all I'd be eating very small servings of it and only on occasion.
But I'm hyperinsulinemic; maybe others could handle larger amounts.  <shrug>

Certainly there's nothing natural about rice as a human food; it's very
different in character from the foods we evolved to eat.