White rice associated with 17% higher risk of diabetes, 5 servings per week vs less than 1 per month

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Tuesday, June 14, 2016 9:15 am Email this article

People eating 5 or more servings of white rice per week had a 17% greater risk of type 2 diabetes compared to those eating less than one serving per month after adjusting for age, lifestyle and dietary risk factors according to a 2010 analysis by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Replacing one-third serving of white rice with brown rice per day lowers type 2 diabetes risk 16%

“We estimated that replacing [one-third serving] of white rice with the same amount of brown rice was associated with a 16% lower risk of type 2 diabetes, whereas the same replacement with whole grains as a group was associated with a 36% lower diabetes risk,” the authors of the paper noted.

Subjects

The study looked at diet, lifestyle practices, and disease status among 39,765 men in The Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986–2006) and 157,463 women in the Nurses’ Health Study I (1984–2006) and II (1991–2005) who were 26- to 87-years-old.

Conclusion: Eat whole grains rather than refined grains

“Substitution of whole grains, including brown rice, for white rice may lower risk of type 2 diabetes,” the authors of the paper concluded.

“These data support the recommendation that most carbohydrate intake should come from whole grains rather than refined grains to help prevent type 2 diabetes.”

Reference

Sun Q, Spiegelman D, van Dam RM, Holmes MD, Malik VS, Willett WC, and Hu FB. White rice, brown rice, and risk of type 2 diabetes in US men and women. Arch Intern Med, 2010 Jun 14; 170(11): 961-969.

Author’s Contact Info

Qi Sun, ScD, MD
Department of Nutrition
Harvard School of Public Health
665 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115 USA
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