Rice consumption and diabetes

You probably heard recently that white rice consumption is linked to type 2 diabetes. This has likely made some people terrified of rice, giving men afraid of commitment yet another reason to not walk down the isle. Others are just apathetic due to conflicting health news headlines. People who eat high protein or “paleo” grain-free diets feel vindicated.

The news media very often misrepresents the findings from scientific studies, often to sensationalize or over-simplify things to boost ratings. So people can’t be blamed for being cynical of what they hear in the media. What really has to be examined is the scientific evidence behind the head-lines.

Now I am not an expert by any means, but I prefer going to the source to see what is really going on. As far as I can tell, researchers found a correlation between white rice intake and type 2 diabetes; this means they are linked, but the evidence does not suggest that white rice actually causes type 2 diabetes. So it looks like what was said in the media had a lot of truth to it.

According to: BMJ. 2012; 344: e1454.

Pooled data suggest that higher white rice consumption is associated with increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes in comparison with lower intake levels
This association is stronger for Asian (Chinese and Japanese) populations than for Western populations
Overall, there was a dose-response relation between higher intake of white rice and increasing risk of diabetes

It appears the association is much stronger for east Asians than for westerners(mostly caucasian, I will assume). And east Asians eat a lot more white rice than westerners. Why white rice consumption is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in east Asians, but not as much in westerners, we do not know. I don’t even think we can rule out genetic factors. There are so many confounding factors that need to be sorted out.

White rice wasn’t found to be the cause of type 2 diabetes, but it may play a role in it somehow. This isn’t surprising considering white rice’s high glycemic value(which means it rapidly converts to sugar), and due to the fact that it is almost nothing but empty calories, since it was stripped of its husk, bran, and germ. It has little fiber, protein or minerals as a result. Brown rice, which still has the nutritious germ layer on it is much more healthful, though it tends to spoil faster than white rice due to the oily germ. Keep this in mind when buying brown rice.

Better yet, you can try eating other, more nutritious grains instead of rice, like rye, barley, amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa or millet. Quinoa and amaranth are loaded with protein, fiber and important minerals. This is not surprising, considering that quinoa, and amaranth are in the same family as spinach. This, in turn means that quinoa and amaranth aren’t “real” grains – real grains are grasses, and spinach and its relatives are not a type of grass.

This doesn’t mean you can’t eat them like grain.

Trader Joe’s 17 Bean & Barley Mix

Trader Joe’s 17 Bean Mix is terrific for making a hearty winter soup. It has baby lima beans, black turtle beans, blackeye peas, dark red kidney beans, garbanzo beans, great northern beans, green lentils, green split peas, large lima beans, light red kidney beans, navy beans, pink white beans, yellow split peas, and pearl barley(if I am missing something, let me know). I’m used to eating just one type of bean or lentil in a meal, so this was an interesting change last night.

It has 13g of protein per serving, but I made and ate about 3 servings. I soaked the bean mix overnight, then cooked them in vegetable broth, along with kale, olive oil, black pepper, red pepper, and garlic powder for about 50 minutes. I had a little bread on the side. It was a very filling meal, full of so many different textures and subtle tastes, due to all the different types of legumes.

It was delicious, but the only problem was that the smaller lentils and beans cook a lot faster than the larger ones. So the lentils have to be turned to mush just to ensure the kidney beans are soft and cooked enough. This is the reason I usually prefer cooking just one type of legume.

Other than that, you can’t go wrong making soups or stews from this. It’s a great, high protein meal to come home to after joggling for several miles in the cold.