Replacing white rice with brown can decrease diabetes risk

Health

ani-Staff

By Samyuktha

Washington, June 15 (ANI): A new study has revealed that consuming more white rice is linked to a higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes, whereas consuming more brown rice is associated with a lower risk for the disease.

Qi Sun, M.D., Sc.D., of Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues assessed rice consumption and diabetes risk among 39,765 men and 157,463 women in three large studies: the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study and the Nurses' Health Study I and II.

After adjusting for age and other lifestyle and dietary risk factors, those who consumed five or more servings of white rice per week had a 17 percent increased risk of diabetes compared with those who consumed less than one serving per month.

In contrast, eating two or more servings of brown rice per week was associated with an 11 percent reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes than eating less than one serving per month.

Based on the results, the researchers estimated that replacing 50 grams (equivalent to one-third of a serving) of white rice per day with the same amount of brown rice would be associated with a 16 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

Replacing white rice with whole grains as a group could be associated with a risk reduction as great as 36 percent.

In general, white rice has a higher glycemic index-a measure of how much a food raises blood glucose levels compared with the same amount of glucose or white bread-than brown rice, the authors said.

"The high glycemic index of white rice consumption is likely the consequence of disrupting the physical and botanical structure of rice grains during the refining process, in which almost all the bran and some of the germ are removed.

"The other consequence of the refining process includes loss of fiber, vitamins, magnesium and other minerals, lignans, phytoestrogens and phytic acid, many of which may be protective factors for diabetes risk," they added.

The study has been reported in the June 14 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. (ANI)