Question: Does rice cause diabetes? Is it true that diabetics should not eat rice?

If you have diabetes, there is no single way to eat. The proportions of carbohydrate, protein and fat in your eating plan depend on your weight, blood cholesterol level, and medicinal needs. What you eat also depends on what foods you enjoy. Your doctor, along with a registered dietitian, can help you plan what’s right for you – portion sizes, types of food, and overall timing. In the past, a strictly-planned diet for diabetes prescribed specific ratios for energy nutrients: carbohydrates, protein and fat. Recently, the guidelines became more flexible to meet individual needs. Actually, a diabetic diet isn’t too different from any healthy eating pattern.

How much carbohydrate does one need? Experts advise consuming about 50 to 60 percent of one’s total daily calories from carbohydrates, mostly complex carbohydrates, and no more than 30 percent of calories from fat. Restricting total carbs to less than 130 grams per day is not recommended, according to the American Diabetes Association. Also, the National Academy of Sciences – Food and Nutrition Board recommended that diets provide 45 to 65 percent of calories from carbohydrates, with a minimum intake of 130 grams per day for adults.

However, Joslin Diabetes Center released nutrition guidelines for obese persons with diabetes in 2005. The new guidelines recommend that 40 percent of total calories come from carbohydrates, mainly from fresh vegetables, fruits and beans. Carbohydrates are the nutrients with the greatest effect on our blood glucose. And monitoring total grams of carbs you have in each meal is the key to achieving good blood glucose control.

In general, a balanced healthy diet, low in fat, with a low glycemic index, high in fiber and loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytochemicals is recommended for diabetics. Refined carbohydrate diets (sugar, white flour, white rice, etc.) are rapidly absorbed, elevating the blood sugar as well as triglycerides after meals. However, when complex carbohydrates – whole grain bread and cereals, brown rice, bran, fruits, vegetables and no refined sugar – compose most of the meal, the disadvantages of a high carbohydrate diet disappear. The body better utilizes the carbohydrate and glucose in the food.

Complex carbohydrates are absorbed more slowly in the blood and usually have a lower glycemic index than simple carbohydrates, which are absorbed rapidly and have higher glycemic index.

Glycemic index (GI) ranks carbohydrate-rich foods according to their glycemic response. Foods that raise your blood glucose level quickly have a higher GI rating than foods that raise your blood glucose level more slowly. In general, the lower the rating, the better the quality of carbohydrate. Not only do low GI foods raise your blood glucose more slowly and to a less dramatic peak than higher GI foods, but most low GI foods are all-around healthier choices. Low GI foods are usually lower in calories and fat, while also being high in fiber, nutrients and antioxidants. Choosing low GI foods more often may help you increase your levels of HDL (good cholesterol).

Rice is a complex carbohydrate, and belongs to low glycemic index foods (55 or less), with high fiber content, characteristics that help persons with diabetes lower blood glucose levels. When eaten in moderation (within the percentage level prescribed), rice is safe to eat. One need only observe portion size per meal and total calorie intake per day.

Brown rice is better than white rice. The variety of rice may be identical, but milling removes the husk from the grain and turns the brown rice to white. The white rice that most of us eat is comprised mostly of carbohydrates, with the nutrients stripped off in the milling process. Brown rice has 349 percent more fiber, 203 percent more Vitamin E, 185 percent more B6, and 219 percent more magnesium. With 19 percent more protein, brown is more balanced. It is noteworthy that brown rice has a low glycemic index, 55 as compared to white rice’s 70. The development of diabetes later in life has been linked to the overconsumption of foods with high glycemic indices.

We can therefore say that rice does not cause diabetes and that diabetics can eat rice, provided it fits into the total daily carbohydrate requirement, and eaten in moderation.

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