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Which Rice Is Good For Diabetic Patients


The Advantages Of Basmati Rice

Rice for Diabetic people

There are a number of reasons why you should choose this type of rice to be part of your meals. One of the most important reasons is because of the type of carbohydrate that basmati rice is and how it affects your blood sugar levels. There are two types of carbohydrates, those that hit high on the glycemic index and those that have a low to moderate effect. The foods that have a high GI number are to be avoided while low to moderate GI amounts are acceptable.

Basmati rice is a food that ranges from the low to moderate levels in terms of GI. That means it can be consumed during meals as long as other foods that have a higher GI count are left out so that the effect is not magnified. So, for example when you are eating steak you can have a serving of basmati rice instead of bread and potatoes. This means that this rice makes for a nice alternative when you are consuming meals on a daily basis.

Studying The Favorable Impact Of Lentils As A Starch Buddy

The investigators fed two groups of 24 healthy adults, whose average age was 27 years and at a healthy weight, white rice only, or half white rice with three different types of lentils , potatoes alone, or half potatoes with one type of lentil.1

Blood samples were taken before and after the meals in order to analyze the participants glucose levels. In comparison to those eating rice alone, blood glucose was significantly lower in individuals who eat meals with rice mixed with any of the lentils. Blood sugar levels were also lower in meals in which the potato was combined with lentils instead of when the meal contained pure potatoes were eaten as is, although a little less so.1


As you likely know, blood glucose reflects the sugar level present in the blood during the process of digestion and changes in response to the types and amounts of carbohydrate contained in the foods as well as beverages consumed. Pulses, which are high in fiber, are lower in starch content than rice or potatoes, so are known to slow down the digestion and with it, reduces the release of the carbohydrates into the blood. The end result: lower blood sugar following a meal containing lentils.1

How To Eat Rice And Potatoes Without Spiking Your Blood Sugaradd Lentils

With D. Dan Ramdath, PhD, and Andrew Freeman, MD, FACC, FACP

When it comes to diet, not everything about keeping your blood sugar down has to be difficult. Canadian researchers have come up with a clever diet swap that’s both easy and gets great results in keeping down blood sugar.

Recognizing how much people want their rice and potatoes, these nutrition experts found a great way to help you enjoy your favorite carbohydrates, or more accurately starchesrice and potatoeswith a twist that avoids the usual glycemic spike that jeopardizes good blood glucose control.1

Good trick for people with diabetes, add lentils to rice or potatoes to skip the rise in blood glucose.


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How To Cook Starch

Diabetes is one of the most prevalent health conditions in India. It is a condition in which a person is not able to produce sufficient insulin or fails to make use of the insulin, that is already present in the body. Earlier, diabetes was thought to be a genetic condition, but nowadays, it generally triggers because of an inactive lifestyle. It causes spikes in blood glucose levels, which can further lead to heart-related diseases. Diabetes can be controlled by bringing in a few changes in our lifestyle and diet. Read more to know how you can stay fit while eating starch-free rice.

BeatOs Diabetes Educator, Madhuparna Pramanick, shares, cutting down rice from your meal is difficult as its considered a staple food in many parts of India. Indulge yourself in healthier recipes made of rice like chicken brown rice, brown rice biryani, stir fry rice with extra veggies, etc. You need to remember just one tip: always eat in moderation!

Add Beans And Veggies To Brown Rice For Better Sugar Readings

How to Cook Rice for Diabetic Patient?

Heres the deal. Because brown rice still scores on the high end of the Glycemic Index, its best to serve it with foods that 1) are naturally high in fiber and 2) have little effect on your blood sugar. Those two qualifiers describe beans and veggies. Beans are the king of fiber-rich foods, and veggies are your free for all when it comes to blood sugar control. Well, except when it comes to potatoes. Those starchy guys are no bueno if you like being stable. Heres an example making a typical steak dinner diabetic friendly.

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Spend Less Time Cooking Rice

Cooking brown rice at home is easiest when done in a rice cooker, but if youre lacking one of those, Uncle Bens has your back. In the rice aisle you can find 10 minute rice bags that are slightly cooked already, so it greatly reduces the time brown rice takes to cook. Seasoned brown rice packs that take 90 seconds to microwave are also plentiful in the rice aisle, however, if youre mindful of the salt intake, those are not your best choice.


You can also find completely cooked brown rice in the frozen food isle of some grocery stores – including Walmart.

Diabetes And Its Status In India And In World:

I had an opportunity to attend NUTRICON 2020 International Conference on Role of Millets in tackling the Diabetes conducted by the Indian Institute of Millets Research and Nutrihub, Hyderabad and it was great to hear from the renowned panel speakers.

Dr. Faraz Farishta . As per the estimated report of the International Diabetes Federation:

  • 1 in 11 adults has diabetes 463 million people
  • 1 in 2 adults with diabetes are undiagnosed 232 million
  • Over 3 in 4 people with diabetes live in low and middle-income countries.
  • 10% of global health expenditure is spent on diabetes USD 760 billion.
  • 1 in 13 adults has impaired glucose tolerance 374 million people
  • 1 in 5 people with diabetes is above 65 years old 136 million people
  • 1,110,100 children and adolescents below 20 years have type 1 diabetes.
  • 1 in 6 live births is affected by hyperglycaemia in pregnancy) 84% of which is due to gestational diabetes.

From the above-estimated report, it can be concluded that Diabetes is a Global Emergency.

Dr Iryna Vlasenko, PhD Pharmacy, Associate Professor said that Diabetes and COVID-19 are the two dangerous pandemics around the world.


Let us understand the basics of Diabetes. There are 2 types of diabetes, namely Type -1 and Type -2. The people with Type -1 diabetes, the body of the patient does not produce any insulin and with Type-2, the body produces little insulin or is less sensitive to its effects.

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Is Wild Rice Better Than Brown Rice For Diabetics

If you intend to cut calories intake and increase protein, wild rice is the best pick for you. Wild rice holds fewer calories and boosts protein content in your body. Moreover, brown rice acts nearly in the same way as wild rice. Both types of rice can provide you with fiber, antioxidants, and nutrients like magnesium, manganese, and phosphorus.

Let’s find out which rice is a better option for people with diabetes.

  • If you want to reduce the overall GI of your meal, you need to eat brown rice along with low GI foods, protein sources, and healthy fats. Brown rice comes with a medium GI score.
  • Wild rice and brown rice are both healthier for people with diabetes. These types of rice contain significant fiber content that assists in minimizing the glucose in the bloodstream.
  • Brown rice has more vitamin B compared to wild rice. If you are on a meat-free diet, it will be the best pick for you. So you do not need to replace any one of them. If you are experiencing diabetes, both brown rice and wild rice are a healthy choice and can minimize your blood sugar level.

Recommendations Of Diabetic Patients

Which is better for a Diabetic wheat or rice? – Dr. Shantala Rudresh

If you are a diabetic patient then, eating whole-grain chapati is an excellent alternative to eating regular sliced bread which has significantly higher glycemic indexes. Brown rice contains many important nutrients and shouldnt be excluded from your diet. White rice has a higher glycemic index than both brown rice and chapati and is poorer in nutrients, so it shouldnt be relied upon as a dietary staple if you are diabetic.


Updates From Lybrate: A Good and healthy Diabetic diet of nutritious products can help in managing the diabetes problem. You can explore a wide range of diabetic products available at Lybrate.

In case you have a concern or query, you can always consult the best general physicians online& get answers to your question via online doctor consultation.

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What Kinds Of Rice Are Best For Diabetics

Sarah Schenker, RD, PhD

Sarah Schenker, RD, PhD , registered dietitian and nutritionist based in London. She is a member of the British Dietetic Association, The Nutrition Society, the Association for Nutrition and the Guild of Health Writers and has served on both professional and government committees.

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Rice is one of the worlds most popular foods. Rice is also a starchy foodbad news for diabetics or others trying to keep their blood sugar at a healthy level. The good news is that not all kinds of rice have the same blood sugarblitzing effect.

One measure of how fast carbohydrate-containing foods raise blood sugar levels is the glycemic index . Different varieties of rice have different GIsfrom as high as 70 or more for short-grain, white sticky rice such as that used in Thai curry or risottoto about 55 for basmati rice.

There are several reasons that basmati is a particularly good rice choice for diabetics. When cooked, the grain of basmati rice tends to stay intact, keeping it light and fluffy rather than stuck together in clumps. The light-and-fluffy property is an indication that the starch hasnt gelatinized, which means that the starch will be released more slowly into the bloodstream, keeping blood-sugar levels more stablecrucial to managing diabetes.

Can A Person With Diabetes Eat Wild Rice

Do you think you are eating a nutritious diet? Do you wonder whether food containing high-carbohydrates like rice is a good pick? A well-balanced diet is essential for people with diabetes.

Diabetes is a medical condition that causes the body to struggle to produce or use insulin. The result is your body does not store or use blood sugar or glucose effectively.


Glucose comes from food containing carbohydrates, so the question is whether you should eat rice or not being a diabetic?

If you have diabetes, you don’t need to avoid carbs at all instead, you need to consider the type and quantity of carbs you can eat. While different types of rice are available, you need to choose the healthier one for you.

This post will let you know in detail about the role of rice in the healthy diet for diabetes. Moreover, it will break down what type of rice is suitable for a person with diabetes.

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Many Reasons To Switch To Brown Rice

With a growing body of evidence showing a clear link between eating white rice and developing Type 2 diabetes and how brown rice can help, switching to eating brown rice instead of white is important. White rice causes glucose metabolism to deteriorate and increases peoples risk of becoming diabetic.


That makes eliminating white rice from your diet and replacing it brown rice for diabetes prevention a wise course of action. A mounting body of credible evidence shows that eating brown rice instead of white rice helps prevent diabetes by slowing the release of sugar into the bloodstream.

This simple food choice can have a dramatic impact on diabetes management.

In addition to its lower Glycemic Index, brown rice also has about 7 times the fiber of white rice per serving. This abundance of fiber helps brown rice to stabilize blood sugars, improve heart health and reduce bad cholesterol. All of these things are important for controlling diabetes and keeping it at bay. Brown rice also has fewer carbohydrates and calories than white rice.

This can also help to lower the incidence of diabetes. According to the Harvard study led by Qi Sun, replacing 50 grams of white rice in your daily diet with 50 grams of brown rice gives you a 16% less risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

How Much Basmati Rice Can I Eat With My Diabetes

Good news for diabetics! Low GI rice variety identified

In most practices, including my own, 45-60 g carbohydrate are recommended with each meal. If you do not count your carbs, see my article on the plate method LINKS to better assist you.


Make an appointment to see a Registered Dietitian to help you develop a meal plan, individualized to meet your specific needs and to work best with your personal lifestyle.

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Eating White Rice Regularly May Raise Type 2 Diabetes Risk

Eating white rice on a regular basis may increase the risk for type 2 diabetes, according to new Harvard School of Public Health research.

HSPH researchers from the Department of Nutritionled by Emily Hu, research assistant, and Qi Sun, research associatereviewed four earlier studies involving more than 352,000 people from China, Japan, the United States, and Australia who were tracked between four and 22 years. The researchers found that people who ate the most ricethree to four servings a daywere 1.5 times more likely to have diabetes than people who ate the least amount of rice. In addition, for every additional large bowl of white rice a person ate each day, the risk rose 10 percent. The link was stronger for people in Asian countries, who eat an average of three to four servings of white rice per day. People in Western countries eat, on average, one to two servings a week.

The study was published in the British Medical Journal March 15, 2012.


White rice has a high glycemic index, meaning that it can cause spikes in blood sugar. Previous research has linked high glycemic index foods with increased type 2 diabetes risk.

People should try to make a switch from eating refined carbs like white rice and white bread to eating more whole grains, Sun told Time magazine.

Additional HSPH authors, also from the Department of Nutrition, included An Pan, research associate, and Vasanti Malik, research fellow.

Brown Rice Vs White Rice: Which Is Better

Replacing White Rice With Brown Rice Reduces Risk of Type 2 Diabetes, Study Finds

June 14, 2010 — Replacing white rice in your diet with brown rice may reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a new study.


The finding is important because the consumption of white rice in the United States has increased dramatically in the past few decades, and about 18 million Americans have type 2 diabetes.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health say eating two or more servings of brown rice weekly seems to be associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. On the other hand, they report, eating five or more servings of white rice per week is associated with an increased risk.

Qi Sun, MD, now an instructor of medicine at Brigham and Womenâs Hospital in Boston, and colleagues at Harvard estimate that replacing 50 grams daily of white rice with the same amount of brown rice would lower the risk of type 2 diabetes by 16%.

Replacing the same amount of white rice with other whole grains, such as barley and wheat, is associated with a 36% reduced risk.

The study is published in the online journal Archives of Internal Medicine.


The researchers say the study is the first to specifically examine white rice vs. brown rice in relation to development of type2 diabetes among Americans.

White rice is created by removing the bran and germ portions of brown rice. The authors say that more than 70% of rice eaten in the U.S. is white.

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High Fiber May Not Be Great Always

Fiber does not get digested in our bodies. It helps to keep our body clean and provides a steady glucose raise in blood.

However, fiber may not be great for everyone. People who have a weak digestion capacity may experience stomach aches, bloating, flatulence, acidity, indigestion after consuming a high fiber meal.

Besides this, the excess fiber in the diet also prevents the absorption of iron and calcium in the body. Therefore if you have anemia or calcium deficiency, high fiber rice is not a good choice.

Which is the best ricefor diabetic patients Table 4: Glycemic index of Indian rice-

Indian Rice variety
  • Pocket friendly

Choose any semi-polished/ single polished parboiled rice for regular consumption.

Single/ semi-polished rice contains a decent amount of fiber not too high like brown rice or not too low like any white rice.

Parboiled rice manages to retain nutrition like brown rice and is also easy to digest.

The study shows the GI of long-grained rice drops from 83 to 67 after going through the parboiling process. Therefore look for parboiled rice.

Types Of Basmati Rice: Brown Vs White

Mix Veg Brown Rice | Best for Diabetes Patients| Easy Recipe|

Basmati rice comes in both brown and white varieties. Both have a nutty aroma with a distinctive, buttery scent. Basmati means queen of scents. The rice also has a pleasant, nutty flavor.

Just like brown and white rice, the white basmati is more processed. The hull, bran, and germ are removed in white basmati. In brown basmati, the only thing removed is the hull. However, both of these choices are healthful options.

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