Rice Function for Disease Prevention and Establishment of Medical Rice Association.
When I visited Bangkok in Thailand about five years ago, I saw the label “medical rice
on a package of ‘diabetes and health promotion’ rice, and I was hopeful that the concept
could be widened beyond Thailand.
On December 10-12, 2014, the “East Asia Functional Standardization of Rice Conference”
was held at Kyoto Research Park to promote the idea among related countries.
Since then, I am considering what is “medical rice”. To say ‘medical rice’ we need
evidence from human studies. We have learned of the health effects of unpolished brown rice,
genmai in Japanese, from Japanese history. Sagen Ishizuka909) was a pioneer doctor in
the Imperial Japanese Army who proposed the concepts of shokuikuation) and the marobiotic diet.
He was one of the first to investigate the nutritional value of whole grains as well as kelp, radish, and kudzu.
In Kenji Miyazawa’s famous poem “Unbeaten by rain, Unbeaten by wind”, his daily intake
With a handful brown rice a day, miso and a small amount of vegetable suffice” was confirmed to contain all necessary daily nutrients by our recalculation.
We thought that it was necessary to clarify the actual
health effects of brown rice diet by a well-designed epidemiological study, so we started
GENKI study Evidence of Nutrition for Kenko (health) Innovation). There are 1,223 participants
from groups promoting a brown rice diet. Brown rice eaters show
lower body mass index (BMI) in men and women at all ages.
The average BMI in males was 22.0±3.2 kg/m2
and 20.7±2.8 kg/m2 in females. Dietary habits consisting of brown rice, rich in vegetables,
and avoidance of meat seemed to support healthy life and quality
of life.
Diabetes Res Open J. 2019; 5(1): e1-e3. doi: 10.17140/DROJ-5-e013
