Over 3 Cups of White Rice a Day May Cause Diabetes, 9-Year Study Says

Eating over three cups of white rice offers a greater risk of diabetes than eating less of it, a new study has found.

Extensive research: The long-term international study, conducted as a part of the large-scale Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) project and published in the Diabetes Journals, posited that the risk is most prominent for South Asians.

The study is led by Bhavadharini Balaji of the Population Health Research Institute, and Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University in Canada.
Researchers analyzed a total of 132,373 participants, between 35 to 70 years old, from 21 different countries in Asia, North and South America, Africa and Europe.
Participants, whose average white rice consumption was 128 grams (4.5 ounces) a day, were monitored over the course of nine and a half years.
The high glycemic index in white rice reportedly causes blood sugar levels to rise after meals.
Consistent sugar level spikes eventually exhaust insulin production, which leads to type 2 diabetes, noted KPC news.

Results and findings: According to the report, South Asians consumed the highest amount of white rice at 630 grams (22 ounces) a day, followed by Southeast Asians at 239 grams (8.4 ounces) and Chinese at 200 grams (7 ounces) per day.

Those who ate higher amounts of rice then ate lower amounts of other foods like wheat, fiber, red meat and dairy products.
Scientists found no significant link between white rice consumption and diabetes in China, The Print reported.
Researchers believe that the result from Chinese participants is caused by a variety of factors including their lifestyle and the type of rice (sticky rice) they eat.
Substituting white rice for brown rice is a healthier alternative, according to a separate study from 2014.

Featured Image via Pille-Riin Priske

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