Is eating too much rice the main cause of diabetes? Rice: I don't take the blame

A friend told Huazi that he had seen an article forwarded to him, saying that the rice we eat daily is "junk food" and is full of starch and sugar. Eating rice is the main cause of diabetes. Is this true? Huazi told him not to believe it, because this statement put a huge "blame" on rice, but in fact, the "blame" of inducing diabetes should not be borne by rice.

1. White rice is not all starch and sugar. Although rice is mainly starch, it does not only contain starch and sugar. It also contains many nutrients such as protein, fat, dietary fiber, vitamin B, E, minerals, etc. However, most of the nutrients are mainly contained in the rice husk. Although the husk can be eaten, it is not good-looking and tastes bad, so it is ground off during the fine processing.

The rice we usually eat is the germ layer left after the rice husk is removed. The germ layer mainly contains starch, while nutrients such as protein, dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals have become less. But it is just that the content has become less, not as the rumor says, that rice is all starch and sugar.

2. Eating sugar is not the cause of diabetes. In many people's impressions, the cause of diabetes is eating too much sugar. Because most diabetic patients have a period of "sugar addiction" in the early stage of the disease, especially love to eat sweets. This is because the blood sugar metabolism in the body of diabetic patients is disordered, and the cells cannot use blood sugar, which transmits the wrong information of "the body lacks sugar" to the brain, so people can't help but eat sugar.

In other words, it is diabetes that makes people love to eat sugar, not love to eat sugar that causes diabetes. The real cause of diabetes is an unreasonable diet structure and an unhealthy lifestyle of eating more and moving less. In addition, in recent decades, the consumption of staple foods by Chinese residents has declined significantly, while the incidence of diabetes has increased significantly, which also shows that the amount of rice eaten is not the cause of diabetes.

3. Diabetic patients need to control their rice intake. Rice is not the cause of diabetes, but diabetic patients need to control their rice intake. This is because rice has a high glycemic index, and eating too much will affect the effect of blood sugar control. Therefore, diabetic patients need to adjust their diet structure and replace one-third of their daily staple food with unprocessed coarse grains and whole grains, which will help control blood sugar.

Some diabetic patients are worried about the increase of blood sugar in staple food, so they rarely eat staple food or simply do not eat staple food, and only replace it with vegetables and fruits. This approach is not advisable. Because the main energy source for the human body is the glucose in the staple food, if the staple food is eaten too little, they will eat a lot of fruit, resulting in excessive fructose intake.

Fructose cannot directly provide energy for the human body, and needs to be converted into glucose through gluconeogenesis in the human body. However, during gluconeogenesis, a large amount of fructose will be converted into fat and stored in the human body. As a result, it will lead to fatty liver and weight gain, cause dyslipidemia and aggravate insulin resistance.

Therefore, what diabetic patients should do is not to give up staple foods, but to adjust the structure of staple foods, and replace one-third or one-half of the staple foods with coarse grains such as brown rice, soybeans, potatoes, black rice, and beans. This can ensure nutritional balance while also helping to control blood sugar.

In summary, rice is not the cause of diabetes, but regular consumption of refined rice can easily lead to nutritional imbalance in the human body, so remember to combine coarse and fine foods in your diet to be beneficial to your health. I am pharmacist Huazi, welcome to follow me and share more health knowledge.