Rice, more nutritious than wheat

By Dhaneshi YATAWARA

Among the container-loads of food that Sri Lanka imports we have spent Rs. 195 million to import wheat flour in 2009. Though it seems to be far less than the Rs. 321 million we spent in 2006, the expense is still a burden. Wheat is imported to provide food for the people whose staple food had been rice over centuries. It may fill a hungry stomach but, does it fulfill the nutritional requirements of the human body?

Sri Lanka has been a rice-consuming country since ancient times and every meal with traditional food was a balanced diet rich in fibre. Bread became a replacement to rice yet the habit of having a variety of other curries with lots of vegetables and greens did not suit this concept. Instead of having a balanced meal Sri Lankans started to load themselves with bread - high in starch and minimal in fibre. According to medical and education experts this habit worst affected children, making the younger generation ill and inefficient.

"The main cause for the spreading of non communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases, gastro intestinal problems is eating a low fibre diet. This is mostly observed in the western countries and to prevent such a catastrophe eating more rice could provide a better solution," said Dr. Shanthi Gunawardane, Consultant Community Physician and Director of the Nutritional Coordination Division of the Ministry of Health.

Renuka Peiris, Director of the School Health and Nutrition Division

Dr. Shanthi Gunawardane, Consultant Community Physician

According to scientific findings the vitamins in the bran of the rice gets absorbed inside while steaming, which is the first step of the process in making paddy in to rice. Thus these nutrients has a high chance in surviving in the cooking process. "If the food we consume carry enough fibre it will control the amount of sugar and lipids released in to the blood during the human digestion process," said Dr. Gunawardane. It also contains a high amount of amino acids especially the most essential ones like Lysine, Threonine, Cystine, Methionine, Tryptophan.

"As rice contains more fibre than bread it becomes a filling meal and we can be active for a longer time without being hungry," she said. As Dr. Gunawardane explained further, though a 100 grams of rice can give us a small amount of fibre, as we eat it for all three meals the daily fibre content becomes high. "Fibre content in the food is the key to healthy life," she added. But in wheat flour the fibre content lowers from 2.24% to 0.34% as the bran is removed from 93% to 70%.

Speaking about the Sri Lankan school population Director of the School Health and Nutrition Division of the Ministry of Education Renuka Peiris, said that the food habits of the school children are making them less fit. "We need to create a healthy, active younger generation. And according to many researches done in Sri Lanka shows that children lack healthiness - they are either obese or malnourished," Peiris added. According to her with the inception of a free meal in selected schools where rice and rice flour based food are provided children concentrated more on education and showed more enthusiasm in the school activities. "On these observation the Education Ministry took steps to promote our staple food among the school community," Peiris said explaining the new trends taking place in schools. "We believe the best way is to make the child aware of the benefit of having a healthy life which would lead to a change in his or her behavioural pattern," she added.

In this way the child is educated to understand his or her health level by themselves and take steps to restore their healthiness. " This is a long term process but we believe it will be more successful rather than dictating to the child on what to eat and do," she said.

Through the Ministry of Education a special program is conducted to check the health factors among children in selected schools. "By creating a health friendly atmosphere in the school the message eventually goes to the family and it would be the best method to educate the entire community," said Peiris.

Under these new steps the education authorities were able to bring the consumption of wheat flour based products to a control. "We may not be able to succeed 100% quickly yet we see a progress - especially in rural and estate sector schools," she added.

The free meal concept promoting rice consumption covers 80% of the schools in the country. Yet considering the entire school population it covers only 25% and the authorities plan to increase this with more health awareness programs in schools.

With a massive paddy production expected in the coming harvest season the Economic Development Ministry plans to promote rice flour among bakery owners that would cut down a significant quantity of wheat flour imported and eventually cut down money flowing unnecessarily out of the country.

As authorities of this new program will be carried out across the country starting from the Colombo district. The technical know how will be the most important factor in this transformation.

Bringing back a healthy concept to the community and stabilizing it does take its own time.

Yet with a bit of an extra effort it is high time for the Sri Lankans to value our own traditions and food habits in order to make a healthy nation and a strong future generation.