1,900 Costa Ricans were studied, those who ate a lot of white rice, and those who preferred beans to rice.

In Costa Rica there’s been a trend of increased white rice consumption, instead of beans, and there’s been an increase in diabetes.  Researchers wanted to know if there is a connection between white rice and diabetes.

In the study, reported by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, some of the people were asked to eat beans instead of white rice.  People who ate beans instead of rice had a 35% reduction in metabolic syndrome.

“[White] Rice is very easily converted into sugar by the body. It’s very highly processed, it’s pure starch and starch is a long chain of glucose. Beans compared with rice contain much more fiber, certainly more protein and they typically have a lower glycemic index, meaning they induce much lower insulin responses.”-Frank Hu,  Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, in a Reuters interview

The researchers are concerned with the diets of people in the United States, because the amount of white rice consumption is going up, and that could explain why rates of diabetes keep going up.