HERE COMES THE TENDER RICE-A VERITABLE SOURCE OF NUTRACEUTICALS

Rice is the most important staple in many Asian countries, though lately its consumption is growing in other parts of the world also. Though rice cultivation is water intensive and it may make some sense to wean away consumers from eating rice, such a strategy is unlikely to succeed because of the difficulty involved in changing traditional food consumption habits. Not that it is impossible as demonstrated in Korea, a predominantly rice consuming countries, where wheat was made popular by the United States and in southern India where population are slowly shifting to wheat from the staple food, rice. Probably such shifts in dietary pattern can take place over a long period of promotion and through adequate incentives.

Asian giants China and India are the two major rice producers accounting for almost about 340 million tons an year. Rice is a nutritional grain though its protein content is not as high as that in wheat. But the way the paddy is processed makes the difference in terms of nutrient content. There are different colored rice varieties with different colors like purple, red and black and added to these recent development of golden rice rich in carotenoids has provided another variant. Black rice is being touted as being rich in antioxidants, comparable to that in blue berries and black berries.

Processing of paddy involves dehusking and debranning to get the white cotyledon that is commonly known as rice and it is this processing step that makes it less nutritious by removing significant part of the nutrients. It is a paradox that almost all nutrients in rice are concentrated in the husk and bran portions of the grain and ironically they are considered inedible, removed during paddy processing. Bran, constituting about 10% of the grain, is also a good source of highly nutritious fat which is now being commercially exploited. Besides bran is also a rich source of sterols, gamma-oryzanols and many phenolic compounds. Rice milling industry in some countries fortify the product with vitamin B1, B2 and iron to restore that lost during polishing operation. Magnesium is one of the minerals lost irretrievably during polishing but not restored by the processor. Same is true with fiber also. Parboiling process that enables some of the soluble nutrients present in the bran to be infused into the cotyledon, makes it more nutritious. Unfortunately consumption of parboiled rice is limited to Kerala and part of Karnataka states in India.

Normal white Rice can hardly be considered as a source of antioxidants but if recent research findings are confirmed, it can be cultivated for obtaining a nutraceutical product over riding its food value. It has been found that the total phenolics and total flavonoids in immature rice grains could be significantly higher than those in mature seeds. More interestingly the bio-availability of these antioxidants is very high as most of them are in free and soluble form like Ferulic acid, ready to be absorbed by the body. The tocols which are hydrophobic antioxidants are plentiful in developing rice grain and are mainly composed of alpha-tocopherol, gamma-tocotrienol and alpha-tocotrienol. In addition, content of soluble dietary fiber in immature rice grains is found to be high that has benefits for gastrointestinal health. Based on the concentrations of bioactive compounds at different stages of rice grain development, immature grains between the 15th and 18th day after anthesis (full flowering) are suitable for nutraceutical applications.

The implications of the above findings are far reaching because here is an instance of a staple food being considered as a potential candidate for the nutraceutical industry. If rice is going to be harvested so early for use as a nutraceutical product, yield will be considerably less and consequently the cost can be very high. Rice farmers can have the choice of earmarking a part of their field for producing immature grains which can fetch them much higher returns. Before building castle in the air, concerted efforts are necessary to dwell deeper into these findings, confirm them, standardize the optimum conditions for getting maximum antioxidant content in the grain and develop delivery system for the market.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com/

EVOLUTION OF FOOD HABITS-UNCERTAINTIES AND UNPREDICTABILITY

The root cause of over eating and consumption of unbalanced foods has been attributed to factors like lack of parental influence during childhood, exposure to toxic food environment, insufficient education at schools regarding the virtues of eating good foods and unlimited opportunities and access to low cost junk foods outside the home. It is believed that modern society has much to answer for this lopsided development vis-à-vis child health during the early growth face. In the past, several decades ago, when average family size used to be much larger than what it is to day, influence of wise old people like grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles etc was there to guide the minds and attitudes of children to develop sound eating practices. After the transformation of the society from undivided large families to nuclear families because of rapid industrialization, the parents do not seem to have sufficient time to spend on children, leaving them to be influenced more by external factors and environment.

There is a progressive decline in family values with each passing generation and the dilution of parental influence on child development is evident in all spheres of children's progress to adulthood. With inflation causing great hardship to families trying to lead a reasonably good quality of life, there is compulsion for the house wife to go for work to augment family income. Added to this the gender equality movement has pitchforked many intelligent and professionally motivated women, "good" mothers otherwise, into high profile jobs requiring deep commitment with very little time left for devoting to their children. It is justifiably said that in a family environment "love" is transferred through foods prepared and served by the mother and if she has no time for cooking or serving food at the dining table, what type of influence she can have on the child?. Eating is not just a physically routine task but involves an emotional bonding between mother and the child and if such opportunities are not available the child is likely to develop all wrong habits as far as food is concerned. Each mother has to ask herself as to how many times her family had sat together on a dining table for partaking a common meal cooked by her that is healthy as well as delicious (except of course sitting at a restaurant table)..

Look at a country like the US where the modern living style does not permit the family to enjoy home made foods and more often than not, food is eaten outside the home in public places like restaurants and other eateries where foods served are considered most unhealthy measured by any yardstick. No wonder that country has become the obesity "capital" of the world with children as well as adults assuming monstrous body size and grotesque shapes. Added to this the processed food industry consistently floods the market with foods with high calories, fat, sugar and salt, almost devoid of desirable nutrients like proteins, fibers and others. Under such circumstances who are to be blamed for this health havoc? It does not require any survey to prove the point that to day's parents have practically no influence on the evolving food habits of their children, though an elaborate study in the US about the degree of association between children and their parents dietary intake based on world wide data from 1980 to 2009 has also confirmed the above surmise.

According to some observers such a situation must have developed because of many complex interplaying factors like family structure and practices, the environment in schools, school lunch programs, local food environment to which child is exposed to, peer influence, government policies and massive industry promotional programs. The million dollar question is how to inculcate scientifically correct eating habits amongst the kids and who should be doing it? Of course parents cannot shirk their responsibility as a major stake holder in evolving their children into good citizens with sound health and mind. For this to happen, there has to be a parental reformation that will ensure that parents themselves are convinced about foods which are good or bad and then transfer this experience to their children in a systematic and regular manner. One of the common tendencies that is becoming widespread amongst nuclear families, with single child or two children, is to cater to the whims and fancies of the child with regard to packed foods that are available in vending machines and super market shelves and enjoy the temporary emotional satisfaction of seeing the child happy! How many parents would resist such a temptation and instead counsel the child regarding the harm such junk foods can cause to its health? Very few, of course.

Government policies must be tuned to help the working mothers to spend more time with their children, especially during early stages through appropriate policy measures. Of course the maternity leave, commonly available to the extent of 3 months has served the purpose of helping the mothers to nurse their new born and give undivided attention during this period. No matter how good and widespread can the creches and child care centers be, they will never be a substitute to the care of the mother. While government employees in India are being provided with 3 years of leave for bringing up the children as a welfare measure, same facility must be extended to private sector female employees also. If full pay cannot be protected, at least leave with half pay should be offered to prospective mothers or facilities for working from home, if feasible should be considered. Unless such progressive measures are implemented, the future children will continue to be affected by the "wrong food intake" syndrome, with snow balling effect not only their health but also that of the planet itself.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

"MILLING" TECHNOLOGY-CAUSE OF CHANGING FOOD HABITS

What one eats to day has no resemblance to what people from two generations ago ate and one of the most critical causative factors is the milling technology, an ubiquitous unit operation that has changed the whole world. In chemical engineering parlance, milling simply refers to a unit operation deployed for achieving size reduction but in food processing it has some what different connotation. The terminology like grinding, crushing or milling is used commonly to refer to processing of raw foods into edible ones, though many people have little idea about the subtle difference.

Grinding is a word having 10 different meanings as far as an English speaking person is concerned and these include crushing some thing to small pieces or powder, oppressing or treating extremely harsh, polishing of a surface, making sound by friction, coming to halt with a noise etc. As far as food processing is concerned it is common expression that denotes size reduction to bring a coarse food material, especially dry ones, into powder or flour with varying particle size. Grinders fitted with appropriate sieves can deliver flours with different particle size. In contrast crushing is a general terminology that is used widely for pressing, squeezing hard, to cause creases in the dress materials, to describe defeat and also to convey a sense of overwhelming, intending to subdue, infatuation and making beverages from fruits prepared by pulping.

The word "Milling" originated from the "Mill" that means a building fitted with machinery for grinding grain into flour or a machine that grinds a substance into powder. In course of time it became a common terminology to denote many operations in the organized sector for converting raw products into finish products. Paper mills, cotton mills, textile mills, steel mill etc have very little in common with a flour mill where flour is the end product. In food processing area milling is most commonly referred to a series of operations under dry or wet conditions, the ultimate aim being either dehusking, debranning, splitting or grinding into flour. Wet milling is the most common kitchen operation for preparing batter that is used to make hundreds of traditional preparations. No kitchen is considered complete unless a "mixie" is provided. Industrial milling like cocoa mass preparation, homogenization, ultra grinding, etc is part and parcel of food industry.

What influence milling has had on the health of modern consumers? Can this unit operation be blamed as the sole reason for drastic changes in the eating habits which have taken place during the last hundred years? To some extent, naturalist would say so. Milling is responsible for reducing the dietary fiber in almost all foods consumed to day. Milling removes bran and germs from wheat, bran from dehusked rice and husk from legumes while splitting and almost all processed foods to day are based on these three food grains. During milling and refining significant loss takes place vis-à-vitamins, minerals and many phytonutrients. By making super fine flours the natural role played by the jaws and the dental structure in masticating foods is by passed. Fine particle foods are digested faster creating sudden sugar peaks in the blood not considered desirable. Same applies to fruits also as eating a whole fruit has superior benefits compared to peeled, pulped, refined juices, consumed so commonly to day. The foundation of many of the modern foods is the finely ground flour from corn and other food grains and that many of these foods are responsible for to day's "bloated" society is an irrefutable fact.

Convenience taking precedence over nutrition, modern families may have no choice but to depend on processed foods which saves consider time and efforts leaving them free to do many other pressing daily chores. While search for exciting new foods with different texture, taste and flavor is bound to be part of human life, discretion in deploying milling technology more appropriately can make a difference between good and indifferent quality of life. Milling technology and machinery available to day are so versatile that sufficient flexibility is built into these gadgets to get a products of desired nutritional quality.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com