NFA Chief Endorses Eating Brown Rice

It took no less than the 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 program, NFA Administrator Atty. Rinan Dalisay said 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, too.

While Antonio calls the unpolished rice and not the pigmented rice the brown rice healthier, 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.

Due to the cost, the healthier brown rice is not as popular among consumers that NFA has to start rolling its campaign here.

In Bohol, while brown rice varieties are common, most millers process the brown rice into gleaming white, knowing that white is the more popular option.

For Bohol’s Rice Processing Complex Manager Alvin Mante, all rice varieties can be made into brown rice.

By more and more polishing, the brown rice comes out gleaming pearly white, but the polishing shaves off 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 on April 20.

Other than the nutritive value of the brown rice, Dalisay also said the recovery rate of the brown rice is high.

It means, processing brown rice takes lesser loses which can mean savings.

Dalisay guided Boholanos to rethink about their health and pointed out that pre-Hispanic natives eat rootcrops, grains, and brown rice.

It was only after the Spaniards imposed the white rice as the good rice that we started consuming the white well-milled rice, he said.

And while brown rice sells around P60 to P80 a kilo, in Bohol, authorities in coordination with the stakeholders are offering the healthier option for a low P37 a kilo retail price, Mante disclosed.

As this went on, local 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 said. (rmn/rac/PIA7 Bohol)