HYDERABAD: The Telangana Sona variety rice has bagged international acclamation. A research article on Telangana Sona (RNR 15048), also known as Chittimallelu, grown in the State, which was published in the latest edition of American Journal of Food and Nutrition, says it is better than Japonica rice in glycemic index (GI). Japonica rice is extensively cultivated and consumed in China, Japan and Korea.
The paper said, "In this study, RNR 15048 (Telangana Sona) was tested and found to be having low glycemic index (GI) (51.72±22.50), which upon regular consumption for a period of three months reduced glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) levels in diabetic subjects thereby suggesting its potential in the maintenance of blood glucose."
Three officials from the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) -- Prasanthi Prabhakaran Sobhana (Department of Dietetics), Jeyakumar Shanmugam (Lipid Chemistry) and Panda Hrusikesh -- along with Srinivas Epparapalli and Damayanti Korrapati1 published the paper. The study said, "The low-GI rice RNR 15048 can be a useful therapeutic diet that helps in the reduction of blood glucose and elevation in plasma HDL cholesterol levels in patients with type-2 diabetes."
The study stated that the GI value and the digestibility of foods are known to depend on various factors such as the presence of high dietary fibre, processing techniques, physicochemical and cooking properties such as alkali spreading value and gel consistency, nutritional factors, cooking time, the presence of macronutrients and the ratio of amylose and amylopectin. Hence, some of these factors may be responsible for the low GI of RNR15048 rice variety.
Studies conducted in Japan with a short grain rice Japonica showed moderate GI of 68. In the present study, the GI of the rice variety RNR 15048 was observed to be lower than 51.72. The low GI in Telangana Sona could be attributed to variations in the chemical nature of the starchy polysaccharides-amylose and amylopectin, structural pattern and cooking quality, the study said.
Good news
The human intervention study in type-2 diabetic subjects with low GI rice RNR15048 showed clinically and statistically significant reduction in HbA1c and fasting blood glucose levels and elevated HDL cholesterol levels
RNR15048 may be used as an alternative for regulating glucose levels in type-2 diabetic patients