On Fri, 18 Aug 2000, Amadeus Schmidt wrote:

> Nowadays in chinese restaurants and i've been told in china too, people eat
> polished rice. This is nearly devoid of vitamins, particularly energy
> vitamins and likely to *create* diabetes.

If you go to the USDA and compare white and brown cooked
long-grain rice (not enriched) you will find that the white rice
has a lot more thiamin, about half as much riboflavin, only
slightly less niacin, more pantothenate, less pyridoxine, much
more folate -- than brown rice.  It is not at all "devoid of
vitamins."  This suggests that while some vitamins are lost in
the polishing process, most are retained.  I don't think the data
support the view that white rice, but not brown rice, causes
diabetes.  The nutritional differences are not significant
enough.  It would have to be both or neither.

Todd Moody
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