In the first study to examine whether rice consumption had any relationship to diabetes, Harvard School of Public Health researchers found that substituting brown rice or other whole grains cut the type 2 diabetes risk from 16% to 36%, depending on which grains are used.

This study examined information about nearly 200,000 health care workers. Eighty percent of those studied were women.

The Wall Street Journal

“Replacing as little as a third of a daily serving of white rice with an equal amount of brown rice may lower the risk of type 2 diabetes, a study suggests. And replacing white rice with other types of whole grains can cut the risk even more.

“Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health say their study is the first to look at the relationship between rice intake and diabetes in a U.S. population. The authors based their findings on diet, lifestyle and health information from three studies covering 197,228 health-care workers, 80% of them women. (Emphasis added)

“They found that eating five or more servings of white rice per week was associated with a slightly higher risk of type 2 diabetes than eating less than one serving a month. Eating two or more servings a week of brown rice, however, was associated with slightly lower risk.

“The researchers conclude that replacing 50 grams of cooked white rice, equivalent to about a third of a serving, with an equal amount of brown rice seems to cut the risk of type 2 diabetes by 16%. Replacing white rice with other whole grains such as whole wheat and barley appears to lower risk by an estimated 36%, the paper says. The findings were published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.” (Emphasis added)

Source: Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2010

Citation:Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(11):961-969.