*** Quoting BOB KLAHN from a message to CAROL SHENKENBERGER ***

 CS>> thing I found out fast is Americans mostly eat tasteless
 CS>> rice as a filler and wonder why other folks eat so much of
 CS>> it.

BK>>  How about the sucrose coating?

BK>>  Ever wonder why diabetes is epidemic in Asia?

 CS> What sucrose coating?

BK>  I never liked rice until I tried it in Hawaii. My late wife and
BK>  I used to eat it all the time there. Some years after I got out
BK>  of the service, and we moved to the Toledo area, we decided to
BK>  see if we could find the same rice here. We went to a local
BK>  asian market, and found the same brand we used to buy there.
BK>  Looking at the ingredients list, we found sucrose among them.
BK>  Ever notice how the grains stick together so well? We guessed
BK>  sucrose was the reason.

Sorry, but i've never seen that added.  Not here or stateside.  Mine just
says ¨'rice' for the ingredients. Sometimes it says 'milled rice'.

The grains stick nicely all on their own if it's medium grain which is all
¨anyone out here buys for normal use.  To make proper 'sticky rice' is more
a ¨method but medium grain is a small part of that. Would you be getting
the ¨varient called also 'sweet rice' which is used more for sushi? Thats
an actual ¨genetic varient but wouldnt be shocked to see a little sucrose
added since you ¨do that with the vinigar when making it up anyways.

In the USA, most rices are 'long grain' and dont stick as well even if you
cook ¨them 'sticky style', tending to turn instead into rice mush.

 CS> except in the places where people shifted diets to a
 CS> sugar-laden one (which rice is not).

 CS> Something you know that I do not?

BK>   Both my current wife and I lost our first spouses to
BK>   complications of diabetes, so we are more aware of it than
BK>   most. Googled for:

BK>   diabetes epidemic worldwide

BK>  Came up with a lot of hits. This one covered it pretty well.

BK>  http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/0703eddiabetes.htm

Sorry to hear that. Not sure if the site is very definitive though. 
Diabetes ¨according to our Japanese Doc out here, is more rare than in the
USA.  There ¨are other things related to diet which are more common though
in the local ¨population.  

The use of sugar or sweetners, has been here for long before the crossing
of ¨paths with western culture.  There's no sudden influx of it really as
compared ¨to other places of the world. It's not corn or sugarcane based,
but it's there ¨and has been.
                                       xxcarol

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