A high intake of staples in the typical Chinese diet, particularly rice, moderately increased the risk for type 2 diabetes in a population-based study of Chinese women.
“Given that a large part of the world's population consumes rice and carbohydrates as the mainstay of their diets [this finding] may have substantial implications for public health,” study investigators wrote in Archives of Internal Medicine.
Little is known about diabetes risk in populations that traditionally subsist on diets high in carbohydrates. “In our [study] population, the amount of carbohydrates consumed by participants is much higher than in previous studies of primarily white participants,” Dr. Raquel Villegas of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn., and her associates noted.
The researchers analyzed data from the Shanghai Women's Health Study, a prospective cohort study of nearly 75,000 women who were aged 40–70 years at baseline in 1996–2000. The women were followed every 2 years for an average of 5 years. A total of 1,608 women developed new cases of type 2 diabetes.
A high intake of carbohydrates in the form of rice, noodles, steamed bread, and bread moderately raised the risk of developing diabetes. Compared with those in the lowest quintile of carbohydrate consumption (263 g/day), those in the highest quintile (338 g/day) were at greater risk of developing diabetes. This association persisted across all categories of body mass index and waist-to-height ratio. It was somewhat stronger in overweight women (Arch. Intern. Med. 2007;167:2310–6).
The median intake of raw rice was 250 g/day. After adjustment for factors such as age and body mass index, those who ate at least 300 g/day of rice had a 78% increase in risk for diabetes, compared with those who ate less than 200 g/day.
In addition, women whose diets included a high percentage of energy contributed by carbohydrates also were at higher risk of developing diabetes.