Less polished rice is more nutritious

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 (brown rice) is less polished, it is, nutrition experts say, more palatable and nutritious.

From the social point of view, white rice has become a status symbol to class-conscious but misguided Filipinos.

Dr. Emil Q. Javier, former chairman of the board of trustees of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), said whole rice or 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 processes.”

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.

Additionally, he said, brown rice is rich in dietary fiber, which protects against hypercholesterolemia, diabetes and colorectal cancer.

According to him, promoting brown rice is a formidable challenge because most Asian rice consumers have acquired a taste for polished white rice. “Asians associated white rice with modernization and affluence, and brown rice with backwardness and poverty.”

Tiffany Lim, marketing assistant of SL Agritech Corp., said brown rice not only lowers bad cholesterol, “it also balances the action of calcium in the body by regulating the nerve and muscle tone.”

“I was really elated to know that a group called BRADS (Brown Rice advocates) is spearheading a campaign to go for brown rice in their diet. Ito rin ang aming dahilan kung kaya’t ang aming tanggapan ay makapag-produce ng tinagurian naming ‘Jasponica’ brown rice upang lalu pa nating maakit ang ating mga kababayang sa kahalagahang kumain ng brown rice,” she said.

The latest findings reveal that 69.2 percent of our people are undernourished and 2.8 percent are underweight. This has resulted, Lim said, “in many deaths especially among our children due to malnutrition.”

Former food minister Jesus Tanchanco said the best way of ounteracting micro-nutrient deficiency is the consumption of brown rice or under-milled rice. “Because under-milled rice is not over-polished, it retains its nutritional value,” he said.

“Take ‘Tiki-Tiki’ for example, its high nutritional value is extracted from ‘darak’ which is rich in riboflavin, niacin and Vitamin B complex that provide the high nutritional value of ‘Tiki-Tiki.’ Dahil sa ang darak ang pinakakain natin sa mga baboy at manok, they are the ones who get the nutritional value instead of our children,” he said.