TAGBILARAN CITY, April 20, (PIA) –It took no less than National Food Authority (NFA) administrator to start convincing Boholanos to go back to the basics and rethink of consuming the healthier option in rice.
Speaking while promoting and launching the brown rice, NFA Administrator Atty. Rinan Dalisay pressed that what is believed to be inferior, low class and shunned unpolished rice is in fact packed with more fiber, proteins, antioxidants, minerals and vitamins.
Brown rice, owing to its seemingly inferior texture is popularly known as food for the poor, but Philippine Rice Research Institute’s (PhilRice) advocacy campaign director Hazel Antonio said it is food for the rich.
While Antonio calls the unpolished rice and not the pigmented rice the brown rice, she also said PhilRice believes brown rice, which is now a top choice among the rich, is not just for the rich.
Antonio is PhilRice’s advocacy campaign director.
For all the costs, the option for the healthier brown rice is not as trendy here that the NFA has to start rolling its campaign here.
In Bohol, while brown rice varieties are common, most millers process the brown riceinto gleaming while, knowing that while is the more popular option.
For Bohol’s Rice Processing Complex manager Alvin Mante, all rice variety can be made into brown rice.
By more and more polishing, the brown rice comes out gleaming pearly white, but the polishing shaves of the important minerals, anti-oxidants and proteins, Mante said.
Brown rice, or the whole grain from the rice is better because only the hull is removed that the intact bran gives it its distinctive brown color, nutty taste and chewy texture, better than the well-milled rice, according to a flyer distributed during the endorsement ceremonies at the Island City Mall Activity Center, April 20.
Other than the nutritive value of the brown rice, Administrator Dalisay also said the recovery rate of the brown rice is very high.
It means, processing brown rice takes lesser loses which can mean savings.
Dalisay, who speaks Cebuano, guided Boholanos to rethink about their health and pointed out that pre Hispanic natives eat rootcrops, gains and brown rice.
It was only after the Spaniards imposed the white rice as the good rice, that we start consuming the white well milled rice, he elucidated.
And while brown rice sells like P60-P80 a kilo, in Bohol, authorities in coordination with the stakeholders are offering the healthier option for a very low P37 a kilo retail price, Mante informed.
As this went on, loca NFA manager Ma. Fe Evasco urged farmers to start planting.
“We urge the provincial agriculture and the PLGU to urge farmers to plant and increase brown rice production,” Evasco belted out. (rac/PIA-7/Bohol)
NFA administrator Atty Renan Dalisay pitches for the brown rice as the healthier and the alternative farm product that even as much of the world’s food insuffiency can be solved if people just think. (foto by Ric Obedencio/PIABOhol
