One of the factors that may adversely affect a person directly when moving to Cambodia is the change of diet and the implications this may have over the longer term.

There are several potential disadvantages to eating a diet that includes rice with most meals for a westerner when they move to Cambodia. Some of these include:

Nutritional imbalance: A diet that is heavily reliant on rice may not provide all of the necessary nutrients and vitamins that a person needs. Rice is a good source of energy, but it is relatively low in protein, fiber, and other essential nutrients compared to other grains. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a diet that is based primarily on rice can lead to deficiencies in essential nutrients such as zinc, iron, and vitamin B12 (https://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/en/).

Gastrointestinal issues: Some people may experience gastrointestinal discomfort or issues when they first start eating a rice-based diet. This is often due to differences in the types of bacteria present in the gut, and it can sometimes be resolved by gradually increasing the amount of rice in the diet over time.

Loss of cultural diversity: A diet that is based primarily on rice may not offer the same level of cultural diversity as a diet that includes a wider variety of foods. This can lead to a lack of variety and flavor in the diet, which can be unappealing or monotonous over time.

Increased risk of chronic diseases: A diet that is high in refined grains, such as white rice, has been linked to an increased risk of chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. This is because refined grains have a higher glycemic index, which means they can cause rapid spikes in blood sugar levels. A review of studies published in the Journal of Nutrition found that a diet high in refined grains was associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3883571/).


NB: I included the "Loss of cultural diversity" even though this is unlikely to be a factor if a person were to spend all their time in a major city, such as Phnom Penh, where the opportunity to vary ones diet is limited merely by ones budget. But if you were considering a life away from the hustle and bustle of the larger conurbations it will certainly be something to consider.

lead to deficiencies in essential nutrients such as zinc, iron, and vitamin B12

Get some squid in

I'm not usually one to prefer the healthier version of something, but when it comes to rice, there is no question that brown rice is far superior to white rice. White rice is about as bland as the water it was boiled in. It's tasteless, unfulfilling and just boring. Brown rice however at least has some taste to it and leaves you feeling much fuller and more satisfied after eating the same sized portion.

It does take longer to cook, and can be more difficult, often impossible to find on restaurant menus, plus I get that 'what sort of freak are you?' sideways glance from my Khmer friends when I suggest it, but I've always preferred it to white rice. Not because it's healthier, that's just an added bonus. I just find it a bit more satisfying to water flavoured, nutrition-free, bland and boring white rice.

xandreu wrote: ↑Tue Dec 20, 2022 10:42 pm I'm not usually one to prefer the healthier version of something, but when it comes to rice, there is no question that brown rice is far superior to white rice. White rice is about as bland as the water it was boiled in. It's tasteless, unfulfilling and just boring. Brown rice however at least has some taste to it and leaves you feeling much fuller and more satisfied after eating the same sized portion.

It does take longer to cook, and can be more difficult, often impossible to find on restaurant menus, plus I get that 'what sort of freak are you?' sideways glance from my Khmer friends when I suggest it, but I've always preferred it to white rice. Not because it's healthier, that's just an added bonus. I just find it a bit more satisfying to water flavoured, nutrition-free, bland and boring white rice.

Yup. However brown and red rice is often sneered at as being pig food among some of the people here in Cambodia

Just because you move to a rice centric diet country doesn't mean you need to follow their diet. the only real reason to is if you have 0 budget and need to try and live at local food prices.

I often eat out at rice centric restaurants and just get a hot pot filled with veg, Indian food with potato or spinach as my main side, or eat at a western restaurant / cook western food. Also papaya salad is everywhere and another way to balance the diet instead of 80% rice + meat/veg.

Jerry Atrick wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 12:55 am Yup. However brown and red rice is often sneered at as being pig food among some of the people here in Cambodia

Same in Japan. Brown rice is associated with poor people and periods of desperation while white rice is associated with high status.

Still, brown rice is slowly becoming more commonly eaten here as the nutritional benefits are explained.

I eat rice less than 2x/week:
when i went on a keto diet i ate no rice, bread for a few months.

I have seen that the longer you stay in SE Asia , for most of my friends, the less rice they eat

for the locals rice, is a filler when they cant afford to eat anything else, so stuff themselves with rice

Came across this article on rice tonight. It's definitely thought-provoking. Is refined white rice the next dietary health hazard for the poor ? Like refined sugar, it gives calories but not nutrients.

Back to brown: how a shift away from refined white rice could cut diabetes
The secret to a healthier diet has been around for centuries: a return to unprocessed grain in its natural state. And in Asia, the health benefits could be huge
Kaamil Ahmed
Tue 20 Dec 2022 06.00 GMT
A plan to develop a new breed of iron-rich rice that could ward off disease was swiftly abandoned by Dr Sirimal Premakumara after he ventured into the countryside of Sri Lanka – and found it already existed.

The secret to injecting more nutrition into the common diet, he discovered, were already there in the varieties of rice the country’s farmers had been growing for centuries.

So instead of researching new breeds, the University of Colombo lecturer has spent the past 10 years studying the brown, purple, red and glutinous varieties of rice still grown in small amounts by farmers in Sri Lanka, despite being almost forgotten as the market demanded piles of cheap white rice.

High yield white rice has been crucial to fighting global hunger, but its reputation is coming into question with concerns about its nutritional deficiencies and its links to type 2 diabetes.

Premakumara has so far documented 300 types of rice with anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that could be developed for wider consumption. “It was the farmers who saved these traditional grains. We call it medicinal rice because they claimed it was like medicine, and we just wanted to verify those claims,” says Premakumara, who focuses on Sri Lanka but fears that Asia as a whole has lost thousands of varieties through the industrialisation of rice farming over the past century.

Rice is a staple of diets across Asia, where 90% of the world’s rice is produced and 78kg is eaten each year per capita – more than double any other region – according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. In Cambodia, Laos and Bangladesh, it provides the main source of carbohydrates and protein because so little else is consumed by the average person.

But white rice, which has been milled and polished to remove the nutrient-rich outer layers, is now closely associated with the continent’s growing problem with diabetes. The International Diabetes Foundation predicts that, by 2045, diabetes will affect about 152 million people in south-east Asia, which includes India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, up from 35 million in 2000, and 260 million people in the western Pacific region, as classified by the IDF, which includes China, Japan and Thailand, up from 44 million 20 years ago.

Dr Vasanti Malik, Canada research chair in nutrition and chronic disease prevention at the University of Toronto, says her research shows that eating two or three servings of white rice a day increases the chances of developing diabetes by 16%, compared with eating smaller amounts. White rice, she says, is quickly absorbed because it lacks fibre and other micronutrients, prompting rapid spikes of blood glucose and insulin levels which, over time, increase the risk.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-deve ... t-diabetes