If you thought avoiding candies, chocolates, softdrinks, and other sweets is enough to reduce your blood sugar levels, then think again. There’s a staple food item posing a bigger risk and you don’t even realize it: white rice.
In a recent report by The Straits Times Singapore, it was found that "a bowl of white rice has more than twice the carbohydrate content of a can of a softdrink, eliciting a higher blood glucose response."
Look:
The graph shows that white rice has a glycaemic index (GI) of 78-98, while the GI for softdrinks is 63. The higher the index, the more blood sugar is produced.
A Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study states that each serving of white rice a day raises the risk of diabetes by 11 per cent. Zee Yoon Kang, chief executive of the Health Promotion Board Singapore, shares his battle plan to reduce the risk of diabetes caused by white rice.
The most important thing to do according to him: replace 20 percent of your white rice consumption with brown rice.
"Brown rice does not lead to as high of a blood sugar spike," Zee Yoon Kang says. "There is no need to fully replace what they now eat. Just increase the quantity of whole grain and brown rice," he shares.
According to him adding 20 per cent of brown rice to your white rice is enough to reduce the risk of diabetes by 16 per cent.
The report also advised a 15-minute walk (2,000 steps) every day to cut your risk of death from diabetes by 4 percent.
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This article first appeared on The Strait Times.
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