Rice and Sugar?
4 April 2011
A Weekly Wellness Note
Rice and Sugar?
I hear strangest things in my clinic, from my patients, almost everyday.
Here’re typical exchanges:
Patients tell me: “don’t eat rice, it’s fattening”; “no banana, it makes you fat”; “no watermelon, it’s too sweet”.
When asked why, here’s what I hear: “I need to lose weight”, “I’m fat”; “I’m diabetic”.
Shocked; and then I’d attempt to explain to them the following:
“Eating rice alone does not make you fat”. Really?
Yes, because what causes weight gain is excess calories. And it does not matter where the excess calories come from: fat, protein, carbohydrate or sugar.
“Sugar does not cause diabetes”. Really?
Yes, because the biggest risk factors for diabetes are overweight/obesity and physical inactivity.
And what’s so wrong with eating sweet fruits? It is not a sin to eat or love to eat something sweet, especially when they are as natural as a piece of fresh fruit. Really.
Enjoy all tropical fruits—banana, mango, watermelon, jackfruit, manggis. Eat them fresh, as they are. No juicing, no blending.
Come on, we are Malaysians. If we don’t eat rice, what do we eat?
So enjoy your rice—I mean steamed brown rice. It’s full of vitamins, minerals, fibre, and it is low calories.
Really.
Yours in wellness,
Dr Yen Ang DrPH( USA), MSc(S'pore), MPH (USA), RD, ACSM Lifestyle Intervention Consultant