Porridge made from white rice is not suitable as a daily breakfast health food, according to medical experts. While it is known as a soft, easily digestible dish that provides nutrition, its main ingredient is refined carbohydrate, which can rapidly raise blood sugar after eating.
According to the medical community on the 15th, Lee Jin-bok, a family medicine specialist, said, "I do not recommend the habit of eating white rice porridge every morning for health purposes." This is because white rice, the main ingredient of porridge, is a representative refined carbohydrate, and the starch is sufficiently broken down during the long boiling process, speeding up digestion and absorption.
He continued, "Porridge is a food designed to be quickly absorbed by our bodies," adding, "Eating it when sick to reduce the digestive burden and supplement nutrition is fine, but I do not recommend eating it every morning for health."
This explanation is also backed by research. When white rice (whole grain) was boiled for 20 minutes, its glycemic index (GI) was 83, but when the cooking time was extended to 30 minutes, it rose 15.8% to 96.2. These results were measured on 10 healthy adults using the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 2010 method. The longer it was boiled and the more the starch broke down, the greater the rise in blood sugar. In international GI data, porridge and congee were measured at 76 to 86, corresponding to high-GI foods of 70 or above.
Even in the same amount, porridge has a higher GI than rice because of the cooking method. Singapore's public healthcare institution HealthXchange explained that porridge exposes starch to digestive enzymes more than rice, breaking it down and absorbing it into glucose more quickly.
The breakfast menu the specialist suggested as an alternative is unsweetened Greek yogurt. Lee said, "Unsweetened Greek yogurt can supplement the high-quality protein our bodies essentially need," adding, "It keeps you full and satisfied for a long time from the morning." Protein digests more slowly than carbohydrates, so it does not raise blood sugar sharply. However, since many Greek yogurt products contain added sugar depending on the product, one should check the nutrition label and choose unsweetened products low in sugar.
It is difficult to conclude whether a food is good or bad based on GI alone. Domestic family medicine research pointed out that when choosing foods, GI should be considered together with calories, other nutrients, and dietary fiber. According to one analysis, those who should be especially wary of high GI are diabetic patients or those with a family history, while for the general public, overall dietary composition, intake, and exercise are more important.
The habit of eating breakfast itself is linked to cardiovascular health. In a meta-analysis published this year in the international journal Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine, an integrated analysis of data from approximately 2.38 million people (2,383,813) found that people who skip breakfast had a 17% (odds ratio 1.17) higher risk of cardiovascular disease than those who eat regularly.
This analysis pooled nine prospective studies, and the same tendency was confirmed for the risk of coronary artery disease, stroke, and cardiovascular death. Skipping breakfast is cited as the cause through a pathway in which it reduces satiety, leading to subsequent overeating and lowering insulin sensitivity.
