For Preventing Diabetes, Brown Rice ‘Good’, White Rice ‘Bad’.

By now we all know that whole grain is more healthy than less refined grain when it comes to choosing bread or cereals.  Unrefined whole grains have more fiber and beneficial nutrients, and slow the absorption of sugars into the bloodstream – in other words, they have a lower glycemic index.

Rice is normally regarded as having a relatively high glycemic index, but brown rice  - which is also a less-refined form – has a moderate index.  Harvard researchers have compared white and brown rice for the association of their consumption with type 2 diabetes, and reported their findings in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The data analyzed came from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and the Nurses’ Health Study I and II.  More than 157,400 women and 39,700 men completed food frequency questionnaires every 4 years.

After adjusting for age and other lifestyle and nutritional risk factors, eating 5 or more servings a week of white rice was significantly linked to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes compared with eating less than one serving a month.  On the other hand, eating 2 or more servings of brown rice was significantly less likely to be linked with a risk of type 2 diabetes than eating less than a serving per month.  In other words, white rice has a higher risk and brown rice has a protective effect on the occurrence of diabetes.

The researchers used the findings to calculate that replacing 50 grams of white rice (about 1/3 of a serving) with the same amount of brown rice was linked to a 16% lower risk of type 2 diabetes.  (The same replacement with whole grains was linked to a 36% lower risk.)

We can agree with the researchers that substitution of whole grains, including brown rice, for white rice can lower the risk of type 2 diabetes.  It’s a step worth taking.