A look behind the curtain: White Rice
Here is another look behind the curtain for you
White rice is not normally a part of my diet. I admitted defeat to it a long time ago, but sometimes, you know ... life happens! My mum flew out from Amsterdam this morning and so yesterday we went
to visit Zwolle in Holland. Tired, after a day of travel and walking around in the cold, we got Indian food takeaway for dinner and had it in the hotel at 8.30pm.
The food was delish 😋, but as it happens, Indian food comes with a side dish of white rice.
I knew from experience that white rice is relentless so I only had a little of it - about 1/4 of a small plate. I gave myself a good amount of insulin, but hey, by 11pm, Rice had used up all the insulin and was having a party! At half past midnight, Dexi (my continuous glucose monitor and best friend), was beeping at me with the 😱 emoji as my blood sugar hit 180 mg/dl ( - 140 mg/dl is the top of the normal range). Out comes Insulin Pen and eventually, reluctantly, the Rice recedes ... In the Anna Vs White Rice battle, it's was a 0:1.
How is that relevant to you if you have a working pancreas?
White rice is basically pure starch, i.e molecules of glucose joined together in long chains. The fibre has been removed from it. So after you eat it, it starts gradually giving you all that glucose...and it keeps on giving ... and giving ... for hours ...
If you are going to be moving a lot after you eat it, your muscles will use that glucose to make energy and all is good. (Fun fact: muscles can suck up glucose from your blood stream without needing insulin to get it into their cells - they have this superpower, but only when they are working!).
However, if you are going to be sitting or sleeping, it is your pancreas that will bear the load. It will have to come up with enough insulin to get that rice glucose out of your blood into your cells.
If your pancreas is struggling already (because you have type 2 diabetes or prediabetes/ insulin resistance), you are not doing it any favours by eating white rice - unless you are off to a CrossFit session at the gym shortly after.
If you don't have diabetes, your pancreas will still have to work hard. It will be able to do it, but it will have to produce a good amount of insulin nonetheless. If all you have with that rice is some veggies and a piece of meat or fish and if the rice makes up about 1/4 to 1/3 of your plate, then that should be doable without too much trouble. Imagine, however, if together with your rice you have Thai or Chinese food (where the sauces have a good amount of sugar) or you have a risotto where rice makes up the majority of your plate and on top of that you add dessert and/or a sweet drink and/or alcohol, oh and you had a starter which was bread or some sort of carby thing and after all that, you go sit/lie down for a while. You can see that that's quite a different story. You get the idea. Has your pancreas been designed to deal with this avalanche of glucose all in one go? Not so sure … If this is an occasional pass-time, it will recover. But is it going to be happy if this is a way of life? You know the answer.
So here is how to optimise
Give whole grain/wild rice a go. Often you can find it as a mix. (A pressure cooker helps here as it will half its cooking time to a reasonable 15-20 mins). The glucose spike is quite different - I speak from experience, tried and tested. Plus, you get the bonus of those vitamins and minerals that nature packaged rice with (and of which white rice has been stripped).
Even among white rice - all are not equal. Basmati will be kinder to your pancreas than sushi rice. (One of my most impressive blood sugar spikes ever was at a sushi restaurant in the early days of my type 1 diabetes life. Let's just say it was memorable enough that I have not been back to a sushi restaurant since!)
The longer you cook rice and the mushier it gets the higher its glycemic index.
If you cool rice in a fridge/freezer and mildly reheat it the next day - its glycemic index will be lower and so will your blood sugar spike. This is due to something called resistant starch which forms after rice has been cooled. It takes longer to get through your digestive system so the glucose spike from it is lower. Don't expect miracles, the difference is not massive - but hey, every little helps!
Acknowledge that rice pasta/noodles, rice crackers, rice flour, gluten free snacks based on some sort of processed rice - will hit harder and faster … We are talking about the blood glucose spike of regular rice but multiplied a few times. All the marketing in the world calling these things "healthy" will not change the fact that the matrix of the food has been altered, the bonds between glucose molecules have been broken and there is that much less for your digestive system to do - hence the hard and fast spike. So, act wisely around them. Limit their consumption and, if you must have them, combine with veggies, good fats and protein.
Life is not Perfection. If you are out and about, by all means, enjoy that curry or pad thai. But try to eat it slowly and enjoy every bite. Pay attention to the taste and flavours. You will get less in this way, since you will actually be able to feel the satiety signal your brain will send you (about 20 minutes after your stomach is full) and you will enjoy your food more. Win win.
Try to eat rice in the first half of your day, when there is more chance that you will move your body afterwards. Even doing simple household tasks or a bit of walking will make quite a difference. If you have it for dinner, try for an earlier dinner and see if you can fit in a walk afterwards.
The moral of this story is …
Rice is a good staple that has been sustaining us humans for thousands of years. In a life spent working in the fields all day, it is a perfect source of constant energy. In a life spent mostly behind a computer, we have to be smart about it. You get the nuance now, don't aim for perfection, but do try to optimise. Your pancreas will thank you and will happily doing its amazing job for you.