[namelost]

Over-obsession with carbohydrates/sugar intake is a health fad. One simply can't expect health fads to be uniformly distributed across the planet.

People like to eat white rice, because they've been doing so for thousands of years with no ill-effects. The question is how can we improve nutrition education in the west so that people don't think that they are going to get diabetes from eating rice.

[nindalf]

> People like to eat white rice, because they've been doing so for thousands of years with no ill-effects

As pointed out, human society is wealthier and we're eating more white rice than ever. Since its considered 'superior' to other cereals, we eat it to the exclusion of other cereals. In Japan, for instance, eating too much white rice almost sank the Japanese navy [1]

[1] - https://medium.com/war-is-boring/eating-too-much-rice-almost...

[oliv__]

Exactly, people in the US have taken this to the extreme.

Just because everybody's been stuffing themselves with over processed bread, donuts and fries and have gotten obese doesn't imply that carbs are evil point blank and you must never eat them. That's just insane.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the atlantic and in the rest of the world, people in France eat their baguette everyday, Italians eat pizza and pasta all the time, most of the Asian continent lives on white rice every meal, etc..., and these are among the thinnest populations you will find.

How this argument is never considered is beyond me.

[cybergoat]

There is nothing particularly wrong in eating white rice, if your energy expenditure is matching up to the intake.

But as societies change, manual labour is replaced by machines and people move on to physically less demanding work, diets have to adapt.

[contingencies]

Roughly...

Cup of cooked white rice: 205 calories.

Single cup of milo and milk: 100+ calories for milo, 100+ calories for milk.

So they're about the same in energy, however that is not the whole story. Firstly, the glycemic index[0] or how fast sugars are released - rice is good (low and sustained energy release) whereas Milo is bad (fast). Secondly, the overall eating habits encouraged... Milo is encouraging time-poor, less considered, more commercial/productised single-serving consumption and provides little additional nutrition, whereas rice typically accompanies and encourages more natural foods with a more complete nutritional profile (not just "massive energy hit plus incidental protein"). Obviously the environmental overheads with respect to packaging and transport are also far worse for Milo than rice.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index

[kgr]

According to the link you provided, most white rices are in the high-glycemic category. According to the "International table of glycemic index and glycemic load"[1], Jasmine Rice has a Glycemic Index of 109, which is actually higher than even pure glucose, which has an index of 100. Milo, on the other hand, depending on where you buy it and what you mix it with, has a GI of between 36 and 55.

[1] http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/76/1/5.full.pdf