Dr. Rice Story
New varieties of nutritive rice branded as Dr. Rice from the frontiers of research laboratories in the USA and India with a higher protein and lower glycemic index can give better health for all!
Rice, 10,000-year-old staple food, is coming to your plate with naturally developed higher protein low glycemic rice for better health!
Rice has been the most important staple grain for the vast majority of humans in the past several thousand years and even now!
Rice first grew at least 9,400 years ago in China. Archaeologists have unearthed bits of rice from when it was first domesticated in China. The scientific name of domesticated rice is Oryza sativa. Rice has 4,500 years of documented history. It arrived 3,400 years ago in India. Rice arrived the North America 320 years back in 1694 through North Carolina. Now rice is produced in 120 countries in the world. Worldwide consumption of rice is 510 million tons. China is the largest producer of rice, followed by India. Together they produce 50% of world rice production.
Global Rice Production by Country
Plants give their best to the seeds so that a seed can have all the nutrients to grow well. So for thousands of years, man has been using rice as the main nutritious food source. Nutritious food is vital for the proper growth and development of people. Food provides energy, protein, essential fats, vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals to meet our daily metabolic requirements. It helps prevent diseases, besides maintaining the body’s metabolism for physical- and mental- well-being.
There are more than 5,000 varieties of this plant. One rice plant from one seed gives 70–100 grains, and the grains are called paddy.
Paddy has a hull on the outer layer called husk. The husk is not digestible and is harmful if it enters the human digestive system. Before the mechanization of processing rice, the husk is removed by hand pounding. This process retained a good percentage of bran on the rice grain. The processing of rice has been mechanized completely. Nowadays, most of the milled rice is well polished and lacks bran. The following moving pictures show what we are doing in processing.
A: Rice with chaff |B: Brown rice| C: Rice with germ| D: White rice with bran residue| E: Polished|
Bran is about 6% of the total weight of the grain.
Rice is NOT just Carbohydrates!
It contains 453 nutrients — Amino Acids, Vitamins & Cofactors, and Phytochemicals with Medicinal and Nutritional Properties- the first source of energy, taste, and health. But due to market demand, bran is removed, and rice is fully polished and sold as white rice. Rice bran is a functional food that has shown protection against major chronic diseases (e.g., obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer) in humans.
The highly polished white rice is not so good for health. The lifestyle changes in modern times made rice unhealthy. There are three main reasons for this negative aspect of present-day polished rice. First, we remove the bran and consume highly polished white rice for taste. Second, rice is low in protein, so you need to eat a lot of rice to get sufficient protein. Third, rice gets digested fast, and the body gets glucose rapidly, making rice a high glycemic index food item.
Yet, rice is a staple food for more than 3 billion people. So the unhealthy rice should be made healthy!
Scientists at various rice research laboratories are trying to solve the problem.
White rice is mainly carbohydrate with some protein. Protein in the commonly available rice is up to 8% maximum. Of the several thousands of varieties of rice, some indeed have more of certain desired features.
Biofortification for Nutritive Crops through Conventional Breeding
Scientists research the specific varieties containing the desired features, such as higher protein in rice. Then they carefully combine that feature with the most popular rice variety to get a higher protein feature in the popular variety. This is called conventional biofortification. Dr. Ida Winifreda & Dr. Herry Utimoto, Rice researchers at Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station, LSU AgCenter, Rayne, LA 70578, USA, developed a new 11% protein rice variety. That is 53% more protein than normal rice. In addition, this variety has a 41 Glycemic Index (G.I.). Consuming high protein and low G.I. can give better health. Using the new variety with its full bran content can be even better. There are several studies about the health benefits of consuming brown rice; mainly, the report from a Harvard group strengthens the point.
In my speech at the Aaharkranti event on 13th April 2021, I mentioned that biofortified varieties of staple foods are needed to reduce malnutrition and improve the health of people at large. Dr. Trilochan Mohopatra, director-general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, said they had developed rice varieties with higher protein at National Rice Research Institute(NRRI), Cuttuck, India.
I contacted the scientists in India. I signed a licensing agreement to grow the Indian variety of high-protein rice, and I obtained seed. We did pilot cultivation in 2021, and we got paddy. We milled and donated the first crop to students in two different schools, one in the state of Andhra Pradesh and the other in the state of Gujarat. We have distributed the rice. Now we are getting ready to sell as Dr. Rice in India with 10% protein (source of data (AICRIP/IIRR and NIN, Hyderabad)
I signed an agreement with the farmers (Mr. Blake Gerard, McClure & Mr. Bob Butcher, IL) in the USA to distribute the USA variety of high-protein rice in The USA. We are getting ready to introduce in Asian markets in USA and export to the Middle East & Asian countries.
We branded these varieties as "Dr.Rice," having higher protein, better nutritional values, and low glycemic index. We hope people will enjoy consuming these rice varieties and have better health!
