Wrong, according to Jesus T. Tanchanco Sr., president of the Philippine Food Processors and Exporters Organization (Philfoodex), who explained the nutritional value of under-milled or less polished rice, during a speech before the 4th National Grains Postproduction Conference at the DECS Eco-Tech Center Pavilion in Cebu City.
The two-day confab is sponsored by the Philippine Rice Postproduction Consortium headed by Dr. Leocadio S. Sebastian, PhilRice executive director, in celebration of the International Year of Rice.
The theme of the conference is "Grains Quality, Nutrition and Health Consciousness in the Year of Rice."
Tanchanco, who was former food minister and administrator of the National food Authority (NFA), said that while white rice is more appetizing to eat, under-milled rice is more palatable and nutritious. Because under-milled or brown rice is not over-polished, it retains its nutritional value, he said.
"Many housewives still prefer the white or over-polished rice because to them, no matter what it costs, it is still the best. But what they do not know is that while under-milled or brown rice is less polished, it is nutrition experts, say, more palatable and nutritious," Tanchanco said.
He said from the social point of view, white rice has become a status symbol to class-conscious but misguided Filipinos.
"Rice is our main staple. We Filipinos eat too much rice, corn and cereals and too little of other food items such as vegeatables and other nutritional foods. The Filipino diet is deficient in vitamins, minerals and proteins," he said.
The latest findings reveal that 69.2 percent of our people are undernourished and 2.8 percent are underweight. This has resulted, he said, in many deaths especially among children due to malnutrition.
"The best way of counteracting our micronutrient deficiency is the consumption of brown rice or less-polished rice. "Tiki-Tiki’ for example. Its high nutritional values is extracted from‘darak’ which is rich in riboflavin, niacin and Vitamin B complex that provide the high nutritional value of ‘Tiki-Tiki.’ It has been popularly used to feed hogs and chicken, and these animals are the ones who get the nutritional value instead of our children," he said.
Tanchanco said a new development in rice and nutrition is the passage of R.A. 8976 which focuses on the micronutrient deficiency among Filipinos. The law, he said, requires the fortification of rice with iron, wheat flour, vegetable cooking oil and sugar with Vitamin A.