More brown rice, less white rice could reduce diabetes risk, study

U.S. researchers suggest that eating more brown rice and less white rice, and similarly for other grain foods, eating more whole grain and less refined grain, could lower people’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, because unrefined grains have more nutrients and fiber, which slow the rush of sugar into the bloodstream.

You can read about the National Institutes of Health sponsored study that led up to these findings in the June 14 online issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine. The lead author was Dr. Qi Sun who worked on the study while at Harvard School of Public Health and is now an instructor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, both in Boston.

“We believe replacing white rice and other refined grains with whole grains, including brown rice, would help lower the risk of type 2 diabetes,” said Sun.

He and his colleagues found that consuming five or more servings of white rice a week was linked to an increased risk, yet eating two or more servings of brown rice was linked to a lower risk, of developing type 2 diabetes.

Tags: health, life