MANILA, Philippines - Many housewives still prefer the white or well-polished rice than the other kind of rice. To them, white rice, no matter what it costs, is still the best. This is so because white rice is more appetizing to eat.
But what they do not know is that while second-class milled rice or brown rice is less polished, it is, nutrition experts say, more palatable and nutritious.
Tiffany Lim, SL Agritech Corp. marketing assistant for rice, said “from the social point of view, white rice has become a status symbol to class-conscious but misguided Filipinos.”
The latest findings reveal that 69.2 percent of Filipinos are undernourished and 2.8 percent are underweight. This has resulted in many deaths, especially among children owing to malnutrition.
Rice is the country’s main staple. Filipinos eat too much rice and cereals and too little of other food items such as vegetables and other nutritional foods. As a result, many of Filipino children and even adults are malnourished.
“The best way of counteracting micro-nutrient deficiency is the consumption of brown rice or under-milled rice. This is because under-milled rice is not over-polished, so much so that it retains its nutritional value,” Lim said.
She said that while brown rice or less polished rice is nutritious and palatable to eat, it also helps lower the risk of cancer and because it contains magnesium, it balances the action of calcium in the body by regulating the nerve and muscle tone and likewise lowers bad cholesterol.
Dr. Emil Q. Javier, former chairman of the board of trustees of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said whole rice (brown rice) and wheat offer significant levels of protein and essential vitamins and minerals, but most of these nutrients are removed in the polishing stage of the milling process.
In rice, he said, polishing removes 15 percent of the protein, 85 percent of the fat, 90 percent of the calcium, 75 percent of the phosphorous, 80 percent of the thiamine, 70 percent of the riboflavin and 68 percent of the niacin.
“We are happy to note that the Brown Rice Advocates or BRADS is spearheading a campaign aimed to change the lifestyles or rice consumers to persuade them to replace white rice with brown rice in their diet,” Lim said.
The “Doña Maria Jasponica” brown rice is produced by SL Agritech Corp. which also produces the well-known SL-8H hybrid rice seeds. The “Jasponica” brown rice is available in all leading supermarkets and groceries in Metro Manila.