Eating white rice daily increases diabetes risk
March 16, 2012, CBSnews, Ryan Jaslow
White rice is a dietary staple for more than half the world’s population – not just for people living in China, India, and Japan, but for many Americans as well.
A new study from the Harvard School of Public Health shows people who eat lots of white rice may significantly raise their risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Harvard researchers analyzed four earlier studies on white rice consumption that involved more than 352,000 people from China, Japan, U.S., and Australia, who did not have diabetes. The researchers found after follow-up periods that ranged from four to 22 years, that almost 13,400 people had type 2 diabetes. People who ate the most rice were more than 1.5 times likely to have diabetes than people who ate the least amount of rice. What’s more, for every 5.5 ounce-serving of white rice – a large bowl – a person ate each day, the risk rose 10 percent.
“This applies for both Asian and Western cultures, although due to findings suggesting that the more rice eaten the higher the risk, it is thought that Asian countries are at a higher risk,” the researchers wrote in the study, published in the March 15 issue of the British Medical Journal.
In China people eat an average of four servings of white rice per day while those in Western countries eat fewer than five servings a week, the researchers said…
Read the rest of the article via: Eating white rice daily ups diabetes risk, study shows – HealthPop – CBS News.
