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Tuesday, November 28, 2017

RICO - Rice and Corn Mix: New nutritious staple food for Filipinos

RICO - Rice and Corn Mix Staple Food. Photo Credit || PhilMaize

(Featured Post) - The Philippine Center for Diabetes Education Foundation said that at least six million Filipinos nationwide have been diagnosed to have diabetes - a major health problem among Filipinos that can result to other serious health problems like cardiovascular diseases, kidney damage and infections.

The foundation warned that the figure could double to twelve million by 2040 if  nothing can be done to stop the increasing prevalence of the illness. 

To help combat this problem, the Department of Agriculture through the cooperation of both government and private sectors introduced a new staple food being developed as a healthy alternative to the plain white rice - this is called RICO or Rice and Corn Mix. 


DA Sec Manny Piñol highlighted some of the benefits of eating RICO aside from helping the country not to depend on other countries for its food supply.  

"With the increasing number of Filipinos afflicted with Diabetes, health conscious people have started looking at both the White and Yellow Corn as options ['because of its low Glycemic Index content and high in Beta Carotene']," Piñol wrote. 

Research found out that too much rice in one's diet could led to an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes thus medical practitioners recommend consuming staple food that has a lower Glycemic Index. 

According to Piñol, the new product which is a mixture of Rice and Corn will be available for the public in major supermarkets like SM, Robinsons, Rustans, PureGold and others. It will be sold in 2-kilo packs in which buyers have the choice to select different RICO mixtures (100% Corn; 75% Corn-25% Rice Mixture; 50%-50% Rice-Cord Mix or 25% Rice-75% Corn.

" A Memorandum of Agreement between the Department of Agriculture, the National Food Authority, the PhilMaize Foundation and representatives of supermarkets... Under the MoA, the DA will finance PhilMaize so it could produce RICO Staple while the NFA will help in marketing by offering it for sale through its outlets in Metro Manila and nearby areas," Piñol wrote.

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1 Comments:

Unknown said...

San po un shop sa baguio city

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