RICE AND THE MANAGEMENT OF DIABETES
Due
in part at least to the current popularity of “low carb” diets, people
with diabetes are often advised to at the very least severely limit, if
not completely avoid rice. This is of course a major issue for people
who traditionally eat rice for all of their main meals (breakfast, lunch
and dinner), like many people from South and East Asia. For these
people, complete avoidance is not really a long-term strategy for
success, as it goes against their cultural and personal food
preferences. What are the alternatives, if any?
Portion caution
Cooked rice is indeed a concentrated source of starchy
carbohydrate. As can be seen in this month’s “Your GI Shopping Guide”, a
quarter of a Cup of most cooked rices provides around one carbohydrate
exchange (12-18g carbohydrate per serve). While everyone with diabetes
should see a dietitian for personalised advice, as a general guide, the
carbohydrate recommendations for main meals for adults are:
Men 45 – 60 grams of carbohydrate, or 3 – 4 exchanges
Women 30 – 45 grams of carbohydrate, or 2 – 3 exchanges
So, if you are going to continue to enjoy rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner, aim to have less than 1 cooked Cup at each meal. Bulk the meal out with non-starchy vegetables (e.g., alfalfa sprouts, asparagus, bean sprouts, bok choy, broccoli, Brussel’s sprouts, cabbage, capsicum, cauliflower, celery, chives, cucumber, eggplant, endive, garlic, green beans, kale, lettuce, leeks, marrow, mushrooms, okra, onions, radish, rocket, shallots, silverbeet, spinach, squash, tomatoes, watercress, and zucchini) and some lean protein (e.g., eggs, lean meat, seafood, skinless poultry or tofu).
Swap it, don’t stop it
There are literally thousands of varieties of rice grown around
the world. We have measured the GI of only a small portion of them.
While many varieties have a high GI (>70), not all varieties do.
Lower GI varieties are becoming increasingly available in both South and
East Asia, to suit the culinary needs of the local population. See this
month’s “Your GI Shopping Guide” for some more common examples and
ideas.
Glycemic load counts
The glycemic load (GL) is the amount of available carbohydrate
(grams) in a serve of food, multiplied by its GI value (which is a
percentage):
GL = available carbohydrate per serve X GI value ÷ 100.
Each unit of GL is equivalent to 1 gram of pure glucose – the sugar people measure in their blood with their home blood glucose meter when they have diabetes. So, by choosing the lower GI variety of your favourite rice, and eating it in smaller portions, you can potentially cut the glycemic impact of the rice you eat in half.
Long-term success
For those people who have enjoyed eating rice for their main
meals for most of their life, complete avoidance or severe restriction
is not a recipe for long-term success. As the scientific evidence base
shows us, many people can adhere to a “low carb” diet for 6 months, but
most can’t for 12 months or more. It is therefore arguably better to
enjoy a smaller amount of high-quality rice on a regular basis, than to
try to avoid it.
Read more:
- Diabetes Australia: What should I eat
- National Diabetes Services Scheme: Carbohydrate counting and diabetes
- Effect of dietary carbohydrate restriction on glycemic control in adults with diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis
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