White rice increases diabetes risk, but brown rice helps

White rice increases the chances of type 2 diabetes, according to Harvard researchers. Their study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine covered nearly 200,000 people which showed anyone that ate more than 5 servings of white rice per week had a 17% higher risk of diabetes compared with those that ate less than 1 serving of white rice a month.

In contrast, high brown rice intake was associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

The study suggests that eating whole grains such as brown rice instead of white rice may lower risk of type 2 diabetes and that most of our carbohydrate intake should come from whole grains rather than refined grains.