Harvard Study Links White Rice To Diabetes

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]BBC: White rice 'raises diabetes risk', say US experts
Replacing white rice with brown rice and wholemeal bread could cut the risk of diabetes by a third, US experts say. White rice poses a diabetes threat because it causes steep rises in blood sugar, say Harvard researchers in Archives of Internal Medicine. Brown rice and other wholegrain foods are a healthier option as they release glucose more gradually, they say. The study is based on questionnaires; some say the data is not robust enough to base firm conclusions on. It may be that people who eat less white rice tend to live healthier lifestyles, for example...After adjusting for age and other diabetes risk factors, those who ate five or more 150g servings of white rice per week had a 17% increased risk of diabetes compared with people who consumed less than one serving - about a cup of rice - per month. Although few people - only 2% - in the study ate this much white rice, the finding was significant...Yet eating brown rice appeared to have the opposite effect, cutting the risk of type 2 diabetes...more...

[Mike Oxlong]

I wonder if they're aware how sumo wrestlers gain weight. Chanko's just to cleanse the palate between heaping bowls of rice. Diabetes is quite prevalent in their world.

[alicia454]

[Samurai_Jerk]

Is this supposed to be a surprise? I thought I had been well established years ago that white rice ain't that good for you.

Alicia's right about getting quality bread here. Maison Kayser makes a really nice whole grain bread but it's 2000 yen a loaf. The problem in Japan is that softer is always better so they love that glorified Wonderbread. It sucks when you go to the supermarket and they have a choice of 10 different brands of exacly the same kind of white bread.

Same with cold cuts BTW. 50 brands of exacly the same kind of shitty ham. Goddam I could go for a corned beef on rie with a side of dill pickles right now.

[GomiGirl]

Somebody needs to release a study that wholegrain breads are good for weight loss. Then all the bread companies will rush to make it.

Yamazaki white bread practically disoloves in your mouth.

[canman]

[Mike Oxlong]

Somebody needs to release a study that wholegrain breads are good for weight loss. Then all the bread companies will rush to make it.

Yamazaki white bread practically disoloves in your mouth.

I doubt it - white bread is as deeply ingrained in the national psyche as white rice. I travelled to Shanghai recently with a group from Japan, and at the airport hotel (Ramada) we had a very good breakfast buffet. I ate slice after slice of sourdough, German, rye, and black bread. Those J-nationals in the group whom ate bread went exclusively for the white bread that had identical size and shape slices.

[Uthark_Runa]

Is this supposed to be a surprise? I thought I had been well established years ago that white rice ain't that good for you.

Exactly. My in-laws didn't believe this when I told them, but now they have switched to wild rice, and thank for me for my advice.

Its easy to figure out why rice is ingrained into Japanese cuisine. Most of us know Japanese history fairly well (I should hope), but as the economy started to boom post war, the need for rice being the main source of calories should have gone down, but it did not. As this progressed, more and more foods added around a heaping bowl of rice started to take it's toll. Now we have millions of Japanese suffering from "skinny fat" syndrome. With the appearance of a thin body most are content, but still suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure, and other obesity-related conditions.....

[2triky]

Same with cold cuts BTW. 50 brands of exacly the same kind of shitty ham. Goddam I could go for a corned beef on rie with a side of dill pickles right now.

Does Katz's deliver via Fedex?

[TennoChinko]

I initially mis-read the title of this thread to be...

[SIZE="2"]" Harvard Study Links White Race To Diabetes" [/SIZE]

[Mike Oxlong]

In that it is a "disease of civilization", and studies in the colonies of South Asia, Africa, and later America have shown that when the natives start eating Euro-style, diabetes and related diseases inevitably appear and then run rampant.

[xenomorph42]

Somebody needs to release a study that wholegrain breads are good for weight loss. Then all the bread companies will rush to make it.

Yamazaki white bread practically disoloves in your mouth.

I don't know if that is a good thing or not!

Personally, my mother always engrained into our heads to stay away from white bread and white rice. Growing up on a more traditional german diet (not saying all of it is healthy, but as far as bread is concerned, can't beat it! Sorry France) we always ate everything whole grain Genmai is good too. I use barley and oats for everything, but when I tell some of my Japanese friends, they would never believe it. They believe their rice is the healthiest on the planet.
By the way, what's up with cutting off the "bread ends?" I really don't get that. That's the most tastiest part.

[Mike Oxlong]

Personally, my mother always engrained into our heads to stay away from white bread and white rice...

Yep - always heard "The whiter the bread, the sooner you're dead!" growing up.

[Kanchou]

Too bad brown rice tastes terrible... short grain white rice for the win (even if it gives me diabetes).

[Samurai_Jerk]

Does Katz's deliver via Fedex?

They will delivery a hard salami to any US military address in the world. They're the ones who started the "Buy a salami for your boy in Army" campaign in WWII.

[dimwit]

I think it is generally a good idea to regard nutritional studies with a high degree of sceptism especially in a study like this where the findings tend to be somewhat inconclusive. As in many studies, the level of comsumption to produce an increased risk diabetes is a hell of a lot more than I ever eat during the course of a week. Furthermore I assume the study was conducted in the United States were there may additional factors in the diet that may also contribute to diabetes which may not be as common in the typical Japanese diet. I think that it is a trueism overconsumption of any type of food leads to health problems, and therefore people should be more careful about what they eat (Sage advice that I never seem to be able to follow).

[james]

Too bad brown rice tastes terrible...

really? due to a medical condition, i've recently made, what were at first, some rather difficult dietary changes, including zero sugar and refined carbs. anyway, one of the changes i made was to have genmai instead of white rice and personally i find it tastes much, much better.

i'm trying to get my wife on board to implement some dietary changes slowly and to get the kids off white rice but it's a tough go.

[American Oyaji]

really? due to a medical condition, i've recently made, what were at first, some rather difficult dietary changes

Same here. I'm now under 300lbs for the first time in 4 years. (was up to 343 at one point)

Doctor told me I had diabetes and I said, "bull-SHIT" (imagine richard pryor saying it) and proceeded to stop drinking, cut out white bread and processed startches and started drinking water like a camel with a hole in its hump. I also started reading labels to see what is in foods.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I think it is generally a good idea to regard nutritional studies with a high degree of sceptism especially in a study like this where the findings tend to be somewhat inconclusive. As in many studies, the level of comsumption to produce an increased risk diabetes is a hell of a lot more than I ever eat during the course of a week. Furthermore I assume the study was conducted in the United States were there may additional factors in the diet that may also contribute to diabetes which may not be as common in the typical Japanese diet. I think that it is a trueism overconsumption of any type of food leads to health problems, and therefore people should be more careful about what they eat (Sage advice that I never seem to be able to follow).

I don't think white rice in and of itself is such a bad thing and there are certain foods that just wouldn't be right with brown (sushi comes to mind). However, the consumption of large ammounts of refined carbs is definitely not good for you. Japanese people are still not very aware of this and tend to blame their increasing health problems on only on increased meat and oil consumption. That is a problem if people don't realize there's more to the story.

The same thing happened in the US and obesity rates exploded when everyone started filling up on "diet" products thare were high carb and low fat. Preople would eat a whole box of pasta and think it was OK because they skipped the olive oil.

I remember years ago a friend of mine was dating a potchari Japanese girl who was trying hard to lose weight. She was doing so by filling up on things like rice and natto and skipping meat and oil but somehow kept gaining wieght. She was shocked when she hired a nutritionist and he told her to stop eating so much white rice because that was what was making her fat.

I was back in the US at the height of the Atkins Diet craze and talking with a friend who was a doctor from Russia. He said he couldn't believe Americans were just figuring out refined carbs make you fat since this was pretty much common knowledge where he came from. He said that's why most women eat "black" bread if they eat bread at all in Russia but no one worries about eating fatty pieces of pork or big hunks of cheese.

[GomiGirl]

All this food talk is making me hungry.

Always been a brown rice, wholegrain bread kinda girl. Really miss decent bread choices that have crusty outsides and non-sweet insides.

But now that I am pregnant I seem to live on vegies, fruit and red meat. No cravings for carbs much at all - other than mashed potato. No sugar cravings either. (I am having a boy so these are all fairly normal cravings.)

Fruit selections are awesome in Japan especially this time of year.

[Iraira]

I think that it is a trueism overconsumption of any type of food leads to health problems

Not true at all. If you eat 25 sugar-loaded doughnuts every day for 1200 months, you'll live to be 100 years old.

[Yokohammer]

If you eat 25 sugar-loaded doughnuts every day for 1200 months, you'll live to be 100 years old.

So true.
Write a book describing this astounding health discovery and make a fortune.
Everyone else seems to.

[Uthark_Runa]

All this food talk is making me hungry.

Always been a brown rice, wholegrain bread kinda girl. Really miss decent bread choices that have crusty outsides and non-sweet insides.

But now that I am pregnant I seem to live on vegies, fruit and red meat. No cravings for carbs much at all - other than mashed potato. No sugar cravings either. (I am having a boy so these are all fairly normal cravings.)

Fruit selections are awesome in Japan especially this time of year.

Congrats GomiGirl!

[Kanchou]

really? due to a medical condition, i've recently made, what were at first, some rather difficult dietary changes, including zero sugar and refined carbs. anyway, one of the changes i made was to have genmai instead of white rice and personally i find it tastes much, much better.

i'm trying to get my wife on board to implement some dietary changes slowly and to get the kids off white rice but it's a tough go.

Maybe Japanese genmai is good, but the brown rice they sell in the states tastes... badly. It's too grainy, too hard, and isn't sweet or sticky enough.

[GomiGirl]

Bit of a change of subject - what does the term "like white on rice" really mean?

The Urban dictionary really doesn't explain it well enough for my tiny brain to comprehend.

[Mike Oxlong]

Bit of a change of subject - what does the term "like white on rice" really mean?

The Urban dictionary really doesn't explain it well enough for my tiny brain to comprehend.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/like_white_on_rice

White rice being by far the most common (at least in the US), the image is of rice and white naturally going/being together.

[Greji]

White rice poses a diabetes threat because it causes steep rises in blood sugar, say Harvard researchers in Archives of Internal Medicine.

I've followed this threat for a while and was not going to comment, but couldn't resist. I wonder when exactly was this Harvard research conducted.

My wife has been a Class II Diabetic since Christ was a Corporal and being a local rice cooker, the first thing she was told in controlling the disease was to cut out white rice and replace it with other substances (a long list is available and although not as high on it as certain other products, brown rice was okay.)

Now her treatment began many, many, many moons ago and she continues to receive the same advice that she has previously received from Doctors in both the US and Japan. This is diet and exercise and diet control meaning restricting the intake of certain foodstuffs, including white rice.

I just find it interesting that the brains of Harvard are just figuring this out. Then again it may have been a federally funded research grant.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I've followed this threat for a while and was not going to comment, but couldn't resist. I wonder when exactly was this Harvard research conducted.

My wife has been a Class II Diabetic since Christ was a Corporal and being a local rice cooker, the first thing she was told in controlling the disease was to cut out white rice and replace it with other substances (a long list is available and although not as high on it as certain other products, brown rice was okay.)

Now her treatment began many, many, many moons ago and she continues to receive the same advice that she has previously received from Doctors in both the US and Japan. This is diet and exercise and diet control meaning restricting the intake of certain foodstuffs, including white rice.

I just find it interesting that the brains of Harvard are just figuring this out. Then again it may have been a federally funded research grant.

It could be a case of people realizing along time ago that eating white rice wasn't good for those with tonyobyo but not realizing that it was one of the causes (or at least not having a good study to back up what they believed).