Eat more rice, the board of Japanese researchers to fight obesity in the West – 05/02/2019

"Healthy" kiosks in schools, higher taxes on sugary drinks, warnings on "junk food" packaging, new drugs to reduce appetite … This week, meeting in Scotland, the most Leading global experts in obesity have evaluated these many other measures as alternatives to stopping the sharp rise of this disease, especially in the western world. The most striking recipe, however, came from the East. This was brought by a Japanese researcher and it seemed simple enough: to improve, he said, you have to eat more rice. And he justified it by a battery of statistics that forced him to take it seriously.

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Professor Tomoko Imai, of the Department of Nutrition of Doshisha Women's College of Kyoto, in collaboration with colleagues from Nagoya University and two other local research centers, has put on the spotlight. shoulder the work done. Obese population rate and the quantities of rice consumption per capita from 136 countries in the world with more than one million inhabitants.

After this observation, a very clear diagram was revealed: almost without exception, countries whose population consumes more rice have a much lower proportion of overweight people compared to nations where this cereal is less consumed or has almost no presence at the table. "A significant relationship was found, rice consumption was inversely proportional to obesity," was the conclusion.

Of course, high or low rice consumption is not the only thing that defines people who reach an unhealthy weight. Consequently, these researchers have also taken into account in the statistical calculation the influence of a number of factors related to the lifestyle and socio-economic situation of each country, including the total energy consumption in the country. diet, level of education, number of smokers, product per capita, health expenditure and percentage of the population over 65 years old. And even with this adjustment, they explained, the relationship remained unchanged: the higher the rice consumption, the less obese there is.

"The relationships observed suggest that the rate of obesity is low in countries where rice is the staple food. A Japanese or Asian diet style, made with rice, can help prevent obesity"Imai said, much to the surprise of those who attended the 26th European Congress on Obesity, which has just finished in a city of Glasgow still frozen in the spring.

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"Given the growing levels of obesity in the world, it should be recommended to consume more rice in order to protect the population from obesity, even in Western countries," said a Japanese academic who led research, based on data from the United Nations. the United Nations, the World Bank and other specialized sources.

And he was even encouraged to estimate that, if rice consumption per person only increased by 50 grams per day (a quarter cup), the world could quickly have seven million fewer obese adults. Currently, there are 650 million and these levels have almost tripled since the 1970s, according to data from the World Health Organization.

The badysis conducted by the Japanese showed that total energy consumption, smoking rate, obesity rate, but also the percentage of the population over 65, the product per capita and the expenditures of health were significantly lower in the coming years. countries with high rice consumption, such as Bangladesh (top of the charts with 473 grams per person per day), Laos (443 g), Cambodia (438 g), Vietnam (398 g) and Africa 39, Indonesia (361 g).

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This compares with countries with much lower rice consumption, such as France (15 g), the United Kingdom (19 g), the United States (19 g), Spain (22 g), Canada (24 g) or Australia (32 g). Argentina, with an average of 22.5 grams per day per capita, ranks 78th in the rankings.

This means that our country is a little below the center of the table, exceeding countries in the region such as Chile (22 g), Mexico and Paraguay (13 g), but with a much lower consumption than Uruguay (31 g). ), Bolivia (72 g), Colombia (73 g) and especially Brazil (92 g), Ecuador (122 g), Peru (128 g) and Cuba (153 g).

"Eating rice," says Imai, "seems to protect us from weight gain." Fibers, nutrients and other constituents in grains may increase feelings of satiety or satiety, and prevent it from overeating. Rice is also low in fat and produces a relatively low blood sugar after consuming it, which suppresses the secretion of insulin, although it exists. It has also been recorded that people who eat too much rice are more likely to develop a metabolic syndrome and diabetes. In this way, the consumption of an appropriate amount of rice can prevent obesity. "

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"This study consisted in isolating one of the ingredients – rice – which integrates a much broader food model, Asian or sometimes Japanese, for which we already had much evidence, produced mainly at the local level, about its badociation with health and even with greater longevity ", badyzed Monica Katz, president of the Argentine Society of Nutrition, in dialogue with Clarin.

"The important thing in these cases," said Katz, "is avoid believing that possible effects on health or disease could be produced by a single food of this model. It's not that we, the Argentines, have to eat more rice alone. The reading would be that, if we followed the pattern of the Japanese diet, we would surely now have quite different rates of obesity.

Glasgow, Scotland. Correspondent.

LGP