Congratulations on getting your blood sugar under control. Most culturally Asian people I have known in my life could not go cold turkey on white rice. They mixed 50/50 white/brown. It was good enough for most of their blood sugar testing. I like the added texture in some dishes, but I am not a native rice eater. As long as the main dish has strong flavor, like rendang, I don't even notice much of a difference. I have seen it cause some domestic fights over such a simple thing.
I am interested in the experience you have had with trying to educate native Indonesians about diabetes. I have not had this, but the few people I know that have get a lot of push back. Indonesia has one of the highest diabetes death rates in the world for a not overweight populous. Considering it is largely preventable, there really needs to be better education on the subject.
White rice: Granted...if I eat nasi padang (either the ayam gulai or rendang)...nasi merah can't beat the real thing....but still I'd rather sacrifice a bit than seeing my glucose spikes high. I don't really speak to that many people...so my sample size is pretty small, consisting of people whose one parent has diabetes, people with diabetes themselves, people with diabetes in family, people not have diabetes (yet) but consume lots of rice, indonesian desserts and at risk of being diabetics.
From my limited experience sharing my story, this is what I gathered:
1. They see eating as one of the simpler/easiest joy of life...if you say 'don't eat..this..that' it takes a way their enjoyment, especially during a party...if you can't eat 'well' during a party, the party is not as fun (I guess kinda like alcohol when I lived back in the US..).
2. They hate the word diet...it takes too much discipline. I keep telling them, the problem is that word..'diet'. I don't use that word...I say I change my way of eating. I like knowing what food makes me sick, what food makes me feel 'good'.They see diet as a temporary thing and there needs to be a 'clear' purpose "Oh wedding is coming up, need to look good to fit in this dress", "Oh need to diet otherwise, the doc won't operate me". They just won't diet especially for a long term health since it's too long to see the benefit.
3. Unless they are really sick in the hospital, they depend on the meds as a simple fix...even then, when they're sick they always have family members taking care of them and use that opportunity to gather around in the hospital room...making it a family reunion (happens in my family too).
4 Happens more with older people....they just plain don't listen to younger folks..or they're just afraid to go to the hospital (blood tests).
5. I've even heard "Why are you dieting so much, you look sick...you eat like poor people".
6. They think diabetes=pure white sugar. I've seen people say "Oh i don't eat sugar anymore, i drink coffee with 'special honey' it's healthy'. Missing the point that honey is considered high concentrated sugar, granted it has more nutrition than sugar, but it still spikes the glucose...maybe not to certain people, but I just play it safe and I dont have honey instead (and use tropicana sugar free honey once in a while).
7. Those who inform themselves.....still use outdated American Diabetic Association or other conventional organization...say two hour post prandial of 180...I use American Endocrinology's number which is 140..even that I try to maintain it under 120...and recently i am paying closer attention to my one hour to see which food that cause the spike over that..
8. They just don't know how to see the bigger picture. I've told them okay, you just basically restrict your refined carbs...(white rice, bread, cakes, refined sugar, added sugar)..replied with "What do you eat then??" I say "more veggies, protein, etc" replied with but you eat very little? I say "No...I eat less PER SERVING but I eat often..." They reply "wah if I eat so little like that, I will be hungry all day" I say No...you can eat AGAIN in a couple hours when you start feeling a bit hungry...and they reply "but that means I eat a lot!" they just can't differentiate between eating smaller meals, snacking vs eating twice the whole day...too time consuming maybe.
9. Some did ask me what's my good secret since they needed to lose weight...I told them..."Discipline" they usually say "Too hard"...and again rice and noodles are two biggest staple in Indonesian daily meals so taking them away means they "have not much to eat with"....and some prefer to eat the 'real thing' rathen than eat say..shirataki noodle (fake noodle according to them...if you're eating fake noodle, might as well eat the real thing).
That's all i got so far...again this is not a generalization of all...but the people who I happen to meet. Some of these obviously apply to other nations at all (I belong to a facebook diabetic support group) some just say they're depressed but they use food as comfort particularly the bad ones.