In this large prospective study of middle-aged Chinese women, staple foods, rice in particular, were linked to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. The authors identified 1,608 incident cases of type 2 diabetes in 297,755 person-years of follow-up. In general, most prospective studies have reported no association between carbohydrate intake and type 2 diabetes. The authors explain these conflicting results by noting that the amount and sources of carbohydrate intake in previous studies, which primarily involved white participants, differed substantially from those observed in their study. Moreover, the authors revealed that in their population, the amount of carbohydrates consumed by participants is much higher than in previous studies of primarily white participants. The authors conclude that since a large part of the world’s population consumes rice and carbohydrates as the mainstay of their diets, this prospective data linking intake of “refined” carbohydrates to increased risk of type 2 diabetes may have substantial implications for public health.
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