“Just cut out rice” is advice I hear repeated to a lot of people with Type 2 diabetes, and it rarely lasts. If rice is eaten most days in your home, cooked in bulk and served to the whole family, a plan that bans it is a plan you will abandon. As a registered nutritionist, I would rather help you make rice work — through the type you buy, how you cook it, how much you serve and what goes alongside.
Not all rice behaves the same way
The glycaemic index (GI) of rice varies a lot:
- Basmati rice is typically medium-GI — noticeably lower than most other white rice because of its starch structure. For many South Asian households, simply switching to a good-quality basmati is a realistic first step.
- Brown and other wholegrain rices are lower-GI again and higher in fibre, though they take longer to cook and not everyone enjoys the texture. Mixing half brown with half white basmati is a good compromise that most families accept.
- Parboiled ("sella") basmati has a lower GI than regular basmati and holds up well in biryani and pulao.
- Very soft, sticky or overcooked rice tends to spike blood sugar more than firmer, separate grains. Cooking rice so it is done but still has bite — and, if practical, cooling it and reheating it — increases its resistant starch and lowers the glucose response.
Portion is the bigger lever
The type of rice matters, but the amount usually matters more. A useful starting point for many adults is around a fist-sized portion of cooked rice (roughly 150g), with the rest of the plate made up of dal or a bean curry, a vegetable sabzi, salad and raita. If you currently fill half your plate with rice, halving that and filling the gap with dal and vegetables is often the single most effective change.
Stretching rice with lower-GI additions
- Mix in pulses: cook chana dal, moong dal or red lentils into the rice (as in a khichdi or a pulao) so every serving carries more fibre and protein and less pure starch.
- Add vegetables to the pot: peas, carrots, beans, spinach or cauliflower bulk out a pulao and lower the proportion of rice per serving.
- Try part-substitutions: half rice and half cauliflower "rice", or rice mixed with cooked quinoa or bulgur, keeps the dish familiar while reducing the carbohydrate load. Not everyone likes these, and that is fine — they are options, not requirements.
- Serve rice with a generous protein and fibre side so the meal as a whole is balanced. Rice with a large dal and salad behaves very differently from rice with a small, oily curry.
What about millets?
Millets such as bajra, jowar and ragi are lower-GI wholegrains with a long history in South Asian cooking, and they are worth rotating in — as rotis, as a khichdi, or as a rice alternative a few times a week. My guide to low-GI roti and chapati flour blends covers how to work them into everyday bread.
Keep your diabetes team in the loop
If you take insulin or medication that can cause low blood sugar, changing how much carbohydrate you eat can affect your readings and may mean your doses need reviewing — so make these changes with your GP or diabetes nurse, not on your own. For the full picture see the diabetes nutrition page and rice versus roti and diabetes risk.
If you would like personalised support with carbohydrate quality and portions in diabetes, I offer one-to-one online consultations built around the food you and your family actually eat — not a generic meal plan. See how culturally-tailored nutrition consultations work. You can view my consultation packages or book a free 15-minute call to talk it through. Where a medical condition is involved, I work alongside your GP or a registered dietitian.