Is the rice public eating healthy?

Rice being the staple food for more than half of humanity, everything about it is of interest and concern for the general public. The rice grains as we find them in the market are generally found in two categories-the brown rice and the white rice. The brown or whole-grain rice is the one in which all the ingredients of rice remain intact. But the white rice, which is popular among the urban, especially well-off section of the population, is only the starchy part (endosperm) of rice from which the bran and embryo have been removed. In fact, the white rice is devoid of the naturally occurring B vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and fibre. Obviously, compared to brown rice, nutritional content of white rice is lower. A cup of brown rice has 78 milligram (mg) of magnesium, while in the same amount of white rice, it is only 19 grams. Similarly, a cup of cooked brown rice contains 174 mg of potassium, which for the same amount of white rice is 55gm. Despite all these shortcomings, a cup of cooked white rice still has over 200 calories, about 4.0 gm of protein, 44 gm of carbohydrates and less than one gm of fibre. In addition to magnesium and phosphorus, it also contains manganese, selenium, iron, folic acid, thiamine and niacin, though in lesser quantities than in brown rice.
But in Bangladesh, the consumers of white rice are deprived of even the share of vitamins and minerals it should normally contain. The rice mills, in the process of husking and polishing rice, remove 10 to 20 per cent of the grains before marketing. Interestingly, this processed fine rice sells at a higher price than others that are less processed and coarser and consumed by the less privileged segment of the population. Researchers of the Institute of Nutrition and Food Science (NFS) of Dhaka University and Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), who conducted research on how the nutrient-rich content of the popular brands of boiled, high-yielding rice is being removed through its polishing and cutting by the rice mills, sent their findings to the government agencies concerned. But necessary action from the government to discourage, let alone stop the practice, is yet to be taken. Neither is there any awareness among the consumers about how the rice they consume is being hollowed out of its nutritious part by millers and what they are eating is pure rubbish. The irony is the disposable part of the rice is used as poultry and fish feed. Also, the leftover is used to produce rice bran oil. Scientists of the BRRI and other organisations involved in rice research have on different occasions conducted studies not only on the nutritional aspects of rice, but also on how price of the staple is being manipulated at different stages of its marketing by traders and intermediaries. They found that rice, during its marketing from the growers' level to the consumers, changes hands five times. At each stage of marketing, it gets pricier. Ultimately, it is the consumers who pay the price. Though, as the researchers found, 9 to 18 per cent of the protein of the rice is lost in the process of cutting (by 10 per cent), the consumers still pay a higher price to buy the rice from the market. Again, rice, fortified with vitamins and other nutritious ingredients, is being sold to the same consumers at a higher price. Of course, the well-to-do are usually the consumers of the artificially enriched rice. But had the public been aware, they would doubly benefit from consuming normal husked rice without going for the so-called finer brands of polished and cut rice sold in the market.
In the process of husking at the rice mills, nearly 350 to 400 gm of rice is lost from a kilogram (kg) of rice as wastage. The millers charge taka 1.0 to taka 2.0 per kg as profit against the processed rice. But what do they do with the wastage? As noted in the foregoing, they sell the vitamin-and-mineral-rich leftover at taka 6.0 to taka 9.0 per kg to its commercial users. So, in total, they earn a profit ranging from taka 8.0 to over taka 13 from every kg of rice husked from their mills. However, the rice mill owners are at variance with the charges being levelled against them saying that they are making super profit at the common consumers' expense. Their argument is, had they been able to make so much profit from their business, larger number of millers would have joined the business, which, according to them, is not the case. Whatever the case may be, a particular quarter cannot be blamed for all the wrong things in practice involving the nation's chief staple, rice. In fact, the public's deeply ingrained habits, the vested interests in control of the supply chain from the growers to the consumers and the economy that has developed surrounding all these activities cannot be wished away overnight.
First, it is the consumers who have to be health conscious and be better informed about what they are actually eating. Until they avoid buying the so-called finer brands of rice, nothing will change. Of course, the government has a role in ensuring that businesses display the nutritional contents on the packages of the different brands of rice on sale in the market.

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