[cybergoat]

There is nothing particularly wrong in eating white rice, if your energy expenditure is matching up to the intake.

But as societies change, manual labour is replaced by machines and people move on to physically less demanding work, diets have to adapt.

[contingencies]

Roughly...

Cup of cooked white rice: 205 calories.

Single cup of milo and milk: 100+ calories for milo, 100+ calories for milk.

So they're about the same in energy, however that is not the whole story. Firstly, the glycemic index[0] or how fast sugars are released - rice is good (low and sustained energy release) whereas Milo is bad (fast). Secondly, the overall eating habits encouraged... Milo is encouraging time-poor, less considered, more commercial/productised single-serving consumption and provides little additional nutrition, whereas rice typically accompanies and encourages more natural foods with a more complete nutritional profile (not just "massive energy hit plus incidental protein"). Obviously the environmental overheads with respect to packaging and transport are also far worse for Milo than rice.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index

[kgr]

According to the link you provided, most white rices are in the high-glycemic category. According to the "International table of glycemic index and glycemic load"[1], Jasmine Rice has a Glycemic Index of 109, which is actually higher than even pure glucose, which has an index of 100. Milo, on the other hand, depending on where you buy it and what you mix it with, has a GI of between 36 and 55.

[1] http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/76/1/5.full.pdf