We Indians have unbreakable relationship with rice. For Indians it is like "Grain of Life". Rice is a staple food and large part of the world’s population (particularly Asians) eats rice in more quantity. There is a saying - "The wheat eating people have more strength while rice eaters have more stamina".
But from last two decades we are neglecting rice. Rice has dropped to second position among people's priorities. Because people blindly believe that rice contains more carbohydrates which leads to weight gain and diabetes. But the fact is, all grains contain almost equal amount of carbohydrates. Then why people are blaming only rice? The reason is - Indians easily store fat in their body particularly around stomach. Also last two decades have witnessed major change in the disease pattern in India. Heart attack, Diabetes, Cancer etc are very common these days. This is due to our life style and these diseases are also called as "lifestyle related diseases". In many cases these diseases could be result of heredity. One major issue to notice here that since Indians eat more rice, they related Rice---->Fat------>Diabetes.
Indians have been using rice since ancient times. Even Sanyasi's, Muni's were using Rice and in Vedas also importance of rice has been described as "Anna Brahmam" which means "Rice is God". Our grandfather, grandmother everybody were using rice from many years and have they ever complained about rice? Have they ever tried to go away from rice? They are stronger than us. If we eat any food in excess amount, our body utilizes only some amount of food, which is really needed and stores excess amount of food in the form of fat. Not only rice, if we eat any grains or any food in excess amount, it leads to weight gain. So why to blame only rice?
So with this false information, Indians are slowly moving away from using rice. Once upon a time there was no life without rice and today rice has to compete with other grains like wheat, oats etc which are stored in attractive packs and which are branded. Rice is struggling for its existence. Because of globalization, western foods and cereal grains entered Indian market and now they are easily available everywhere. To gain profit and to expand their market share in India, Western companies started praising their products thereby giving second place to Indian food products. They are using media advertisements for this purpose. These advertisements say that children who take Indian foods like Dosa, Idli, Upma etc will not become intelligent and they will be slow in studies and sports, whereas children who eat their country products which are stored in attractive packs, will become very intelligent, stronger and they are always one step ahead in studies and sports. We can see many advertisements in TV, which say that their countries cereal grains like oats, Soya, olive oil, noodles will keep fat and heart diseases away and people who eat rice and rice products, become victims of heart diseases. They are brainwashing us in such a way that forget common people, even some doctors and dieticians started believing their stories and started advising their patients to keep distance from rice!!!!
Why Indians easily believed their false claims? Because Indians are very emotional people. When it comes to the issue of their children, they will become more sentimental and emotional. Because every parents want their children to grow stronger, become intelligent. Even while purchasing food products, we use emotions instead of intelligence. We used to celebrate the day when baby eats rice for first time and it used to be happy occasion for us. But today we can rarely see these kinds of celebrations.
1. Rice protein is safe and it will not cause any types of allergy. Protein in wheat and oats may cause allergies to people. Rice has more protein than oats and is easily absorbed by our body. à Rice and its products are easily digestible.
2. Rice can stop diarrhea and vomiting. It is used in ORS – a medicine used to control diarrhea and vomiting and this medicine is available in all Government hospitals for free of cost. It has been medically proven that rice based ORS is better than glucose based ORS and included in WHO (World Health Organization) recommendations.
3. Brown rice reduces Alzheimer’s ( Condition in which person looses its memory after the age of 60 years) threat.
4. Rice has many verities. Indian medical system Ayurveda says that each variety of rice is meant for curing certain diseases.
5. Rice is the best food for pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers. à Rice is used for treating hear diseases. But because of business minded people of western countries, Indians believe that rice causes heart diseases. What a pathetic condition!!!
India is home to a number of rice verities that have medicinal properties. There is an urgent need to conserve these varieties. We should create public awareness about the importance of rice among the younger generation. We will get rice for 30 –40 Rs/Kg in the market whereas oats and other cereals cost 120 – 150 Rs / pack. So guys, why are you hesitating to eat rice. Come and eat rice everyday and enjoy a healthy life.