Glycemic Index of Various Brands of Rice in Healthy Individuals

Since the varying different contents of amylose in rice grains have different effects on blood sugar, we examined the effect of consumption of three varieties of rice on glucose response in healthy subjects, to compare the glycemic effects of 50 g carbohydrate in the Basmati, Kazemi and Sorna pearl varieties of rice in normal subjects. Thirty healthy subjects (13 males and 17 females), were evaluated 4 times at 1 week intervals. On the first day, all subjects consumed 50 g glucose, and were then divided into 3 groups. Each group consumed one of the 3 types of rice with 50 g carbohydrate con-tent each week. Blood samples were collected before and at 15, 30, 60 nd 120 minutes after tak-ing of glucose and rice consumption. The Gly-cemic index (GI) was calculated for each rice as the ratio of the incremental area under the 3-hour glycemic response curve to rice to the in-cremental area under the 3-hour glycemic re-sponse curve to 50 g glucose. The GIs of Sorna pearl, Kazemi and Basmati were 52.2±5.1, 67.6±13 and 61.2±6.1 re-spectively, with that of Sorna pearl being lower than the others (p<0.05). Maximum changes in blood sugar for Sorna pearl, Kazemi and Basmati were 21.8±12, 27.4±6 and 31.7±5.9 mg/dL, respec-tively. Glycemic index and glycemic load for Sorna pearl rice were lower than for the other two rice types, difference statistically sig-nificant. The effect of Sorna pearl rice consumption in diabetes mellitus patients however needs more study.