Indonesians quitting ‘rice addiction’ over diabetes fears

JAKARTA — Indonesian Mirnawati once ate rice with every meal, but its link to diabetes convinced her to join a growing movement to quit a staple food in the third biggest rice-consuming nation on Earth.

As the World Diabetes Day marked on Thursday, the southeast Asian nation has been struggling to tackle the disease that affects as many as 20 million of its 260 million people, especially that Diabetes has emerged as one of its deadliest killers behind stroke and heart disease.

But kicking the rice habit is not easy; with Indonesia's favourite dish nasi goreng (mixed fried rice) sold everywhere, and the grain woven into the culinary fabric of a nation whose late dictator transformed it into a must-have meal.

"In my first week without rice, I felt like I was being possessed by ghosts," said Mirnawati, a 34-year-old former construction company employee who goes by one name.

"But now I'll never go back to it," she added, about four months into her new diet.

Complications from diabetes, which affects some 425 million globally, can lead to heart attacks, stroke, blindness and even limb amputation.

Most of the world's sufferers live in low and middle-income countries like Indonesia.

Rice is packed with fibre and key vitamins. But an unbalanced diet that relies too heavily on refined white rice has been linked to an increasing global prevalence of diabetes and insulin resistance as it raises blood sugar levels, according to experts.

That is what led Mirnawati — along with her mother and cousin — to drop rice in favour of more vegetables, meat and nuts.

It is a step that an increasing number of Indonesians are taking in an informal “no rice” movement, although there are no official numbers.

The push, partly driven by social media, has been backed by local governments including cultural capital Yogyakarta which last year rolled out a campaign to convince residents to go without rice at least one day a week.