All About Rice

Living with Diabetes makes you understand the importance of a proper lifestyle – a healthy diet and regular exercise. Paying attention to what you eat is important to ensure your blood sugar levels remain within a safe range. As you learn, you get better at living a healthy lifestyle. Monitoring what you eat and your blood sugar levels daily can help you understand the impact that the food you eat has on your blood sugar levels. One way to make things better is by calculating your carbohydrate intake and knowing the glycemic index of the food you are consuming.

Carbohydrates provide the body with energy and most people are accustomed to considering rice as the only choice of carbohydrates. The idea should be not to avoid carbohydrates all together because the body does need energy, rather, you must pay attention to the type and amount of carbohydrates you consume.

Calculate daily carbohydrate intake

How much of carbohydrates you require depends on your height & weight, daily activities, and medication which can be discussed with your doctor or nutritionist. One gram of carbohydrate contains about 4 calories of energy. ⅓ cup of brown rice contains about 15 grams of carbohydrates and ± 1 gram of fibre. The same quantity of white rice contains the same amount of carbohydrates but fibre and other nutrients are less. So, like any other food, rice can be a part of your healthy diet as long as the type and portions are appropriate.

Here are some types of rice along with carbohydrate and fibre contents in 1 cup:

Source: Medical News Today

How to choose the right rice

Brown long grain rice is better for diabetics because of the higher fibre and lower Glycemic Index. There is also rice that has been added with other nutrients, including vitamins and minerals. Checking the nutritional information before making your choice would be the right way to go about this.