Our Sunday ultimate frisbee group we became involved with.

Author: Kyle Telgemeier | Major: Jazz Performance | Semester: Summer 2024

Flying into the tropical island nation of Mauritius, I wasn’t fully sure what to expect. Obviously, I knew the work I was going to be doing, but outside of that the island nestled in the Indian Ocean was a mystery to me. After landing and taking a few days to get settled into our accommodations in Flic En Flac and definitely not get up to any shenanigans, we headed to the university to meet the enumerators assisting us and to schedule what days we would survey and where.

The survey we were giving would collect data on consumer willingness to pay for low Glycemic Index (GI) rice. For context, the rate of type 2 diabetes in Mauritius is about 30%. Which is, to put it lightly, not ideal. Since rice is a big component of the local diet and consuming large amounts of refined carbs like rice is associated with high diabetes risk, rolling out the newly developed low GI rice could help lower the type 2 diabetes risk and help those already suffering with the disease. On survey days the Uark group would use public transit to get to the area we would be surveying that day and meet up with the enumerators.

I am a big fan of accessible public transportation, but being on a bus for three (yes, I said THREE) hours made me want to join the automobile lobby. I was told to prepare for buses to take a long time and in my arrogance, I thought I knew what a slow bus was like, I did not. On the bright side it gave me a chance to listen to a bunch of new music and see lots of the beautiful scenery and more out of the way towns across the island. Once we arrived at our location and met up with the enumerators we (mostly the enumerators in all honesty) would go and survey people around the area. Naturally, the surveying started slow but we quickly picked up steam and met are minimum response number halfway through out stay.

At some point after asking dozens of people rice related questions, it felt like we were trying to start a grassroots carb cult. And I was into it, I became one with the grain. You like rice but don’t like diabetes? Well have you heard of our lord and savior low GI rice? Obviously the actual process was far more scientific and professional but this is what was going on in the inner machinations of my psyche.

Towards the end of my stay, we made it over a thousand surveys, which is more than enough for a population representative sample. Goofs and gaffs aside, the data we collected and the paper we’ll be compiling will be incredibly useful in understanding diabetes on Mauritius and gauging the usefulness of low GI rice for the nation. We’ll find out how much rice consumption contributes to the diabetes problem, as well as some other possible causes like white bread, and what percentage of the population would consume the low GI rice. All of that will conclude by giving a presentation of the data at an agricultural science conference in early 2025, giving me an opportunity to spread the word of my “definitely not a rice cult™” back in the states.