Comment by ghshephard
9 years ago
" But the truth is folks get much more sugar from supposedly "healthy" items in the form of fruit juice and concentrates. "
Or, if you are here in Asia/Singapore, where T2 diabetes is starting to become a big issue- the 3-5 servings of white rice people eat each day is a front page issue on the newspapers.
I tend to be somewhat suspicious of any 'traditional' basic food getting too much bad press. Rice, bread, pasta. White rice tends to get some bad press here as well, along with white bread. Rice itself probably isn't a big deal. It is probably on par with the bread/pasta eaten in the states and Europe as far as health is concerned. There is healthier rice (brown and unpolished) and healthier bread, but we tend to eat the opposite.
But it tends to be a bigger problem if folks are also overweight - and folks aren't doing it by eating rice or bread alone. Large portions and simply eating too much and so on, adding in fast food and convenience food and all of the snacks. And it is a huge problem if you develop T2 diabetes because of the blood sugar spike.
A lot of people say that the real issue is blood sugar spike, how fast it happens, and what the glycemic index of the food you are eating is.
I always wonder about the whole glycemic index theory. Lot of counterintuitive data here: http://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/glycem...
For example, where Glucose=100, Banana cake, made with sugar=47, but Banana cake, made without sugar=55, and Brown rice, average=68.
Or, Chickpeas=10, but Chickpeas canned in Brine=42.
White rice, of course, is the worst of all of these at 73. Worse than Apple Juice (41), Orange Juice (50), and even Coca Cola (63)
I agree. I survived a few years of war when food shortage was a real thing. And all we had to eat was white pasta and rice. Occasionally we would get meat/fish cans and similar and a bit of vegetable oil. Sugar was non-existent, you could have bought it on the local market for what is equivalent of $40. So it was there for special occasions only and not your daily poison. And guess what, we were all healthy, people with up to moderate blood sugar issues had no problems at all, back to their healthy selves. I was fit and healthy and feeling great. After that, the food came in and I gained 60 pounds in time span of few years. :)
I think eating a few bowls of rice per day (usually combined with a lot of veggies and some meat) is something that has been done in Asia for a long time, why would it be related to a recent increase in diabetes?
Asia, like most of humanity, was on the verge of starvation until recently.
There is more than one kind of rice and some are more healthy than others. White rice used to be reserved for the rich, now it's mainstream all-day food for all, but it is rather poor in nutrients.
Also Asia (i assume you mean ready Asia) does know other foods than rice, think various noodles, soups, etc.
As opposed to what other kinds of rice? As far as I know, brown rice is not any worse or better for you, despite popular belief. It's like the difference between HFCS and table sugar. There's a technical difference (e.g. a little more hull with brown rice, or 5% more fructose with HFCS) but it's not really significant in the context of a normal diet.
If you mean different types of wild rice, okay, maybe. But I don't think wild rice was ever a staple in Asia. At least, not in the past few millennia.
Diabetes is likely rising for the same reason it's rising in every other wealthy region.
What is an alternative? I eat a fair bit of rice as well.
Whole rice is not as much a problem as polished white rice. You could eat unpolished rice, like brown rice, red rice, etc., depending on what's available locally, that have all the fiber and other nutrients intact. This will also help fill your stomach with lesser quantity than polished white rice because of the fiber that's in them. If you have access to other grains, like quinoa, millets, amaranth, you could use them since they're somewhat close to rice in how you can use them (tangentially, this not a great idea for regular consumption if these items are imported from distant countries, since they'd have environmental and social impacts as well).
Rice, in general, has a pretty high glycemic index. From: http://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/glycem...
Glycemic index of Brown Rice is 68, White Rice is 73, Coca Cola, in comparison, is only 63.
But, what makes white rice so really horrible, is not just the glycemic index, but the glycemic load - the net-impact on blood sugar. It's off the charts huge for a typical 150 gram serving of white rice at 43, (compared to just 16 for a coca cola).
Kind of mind blowing, that if you are worried about blood sugar, you are better off drinking 2 cans of 250 ml coke, instead of one 150 gram bowl of white rice.
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