Parboiled rice metabolism differs in healthy and diabetic individuals with similar improvement in glycemic response.

BACKGROUND

White rice is a popular staple food; however, its high glycemic effect makes it an unfavorable choice for people with type 2 diabetes.

OBJECTIVES

We hypothesized that the consumption of parboiled rice (PBR) reduces postprandial blood glucose concentration and appetite similarly to brown rice (BR) in diabetic people compared to white rice (WR). The objectives were to explore the effect of PBR on the pattern of blood glucose concentration and satiety in type 2 diabetic patients compared with healthy individuals.

METHODS

Subjects were randomly administered 50 g of available carbohydrate from PBR, WR, or BR. Blood glucose and appetite were measured at 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, and 120 min after ingestion of the rice samples.

RESULTS

The postprandial blood glucose responses were significant among the healthy and diabetic subjects after consumption of the three rice samples. On the subjective appetite assessment, the response to the amount of food subjects could consume was significantly lower for healthy subjects after ingestion of PBR only. Despite these differences in rice metabolism between the two study groups, the area under the curve for the blood glucose response was reduced by 35% and 38% after consumption of PBR in diabetic and healthy subjects, respectively. Blood glucose responses to WR and BR however, were not significantly different from each other in either group.

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that PBR is a better alternative to WR or BR for diabetic individuals to control postprandial hyperglycemia.