REPOST: The benefits of brown rice protein

This article shares why adding brown rice protein to your diet can be beneficial to your fitness and health.

Brown rice protein powder is fast becoming a popular way of adding protein to one’s diet. Here’s what you need to know. ~ | Image Source: health24.com

Protein is one of the cornerstones of a balanced diet and can be obtained from a number of food sources such as eggs, chicken, fish, dairy, soy and beef.

But if you’re vegan or follow some kind of restricted diet, you might be struggling to meet your daily protein needs. The answer could be as simple as adding brown rice protein to your diet.

Brown rice protein is a superb plant source of amino acids (the building blocks of protein) that provides a good protein alternative for people who are lactose intolerant. It’s furthermore hypoallergenic (i.e. it tends to cause fewer allergic reactions than many other protein sources) and it’s easily digested.

Note, however, that although brown rice protein is fast becoming increasingly popular – especially among athletes and bodybuilders – the jury is still out on all its health benefits.

Of benefit to bodybuilders

When it comes to strength training in bodybuilders and athletes, brown rice protein does seem to have a lot going for it.

In a study by the University of Tampa in the USA, which observed experienced bodybuilders on different diets over the course of eight weeks, researchers focused on four key metrics: recovery and soreness, muscle growth, change in body composition and strength improvement.

They found exactly the same results across all four metrics in study participants who used plant-based rice protein as in those who used animal-based whey protein from milk.

In addition to no remarkable differences in soreness or recovery time, both groups showed greater improvement in power, muscle mass and body composition, as well as a decrease in body fat, showing that rice protein was indeed of great benefit to the bodybuilders.

Read: Brain protein new culprit behind Alzheimer's?

“Previous studies showed that animal-derived protein had a different effect on muscle growth than plant-based protein such as soy. This has changed,” lead author Prof Ralf Jäger said in a Growing Naturals interview.

Other benefits

Research also shows that brown rice protein provides an excellent alternative to whey protein for people who are lactose intolerant, live a vegan lifestyle or who just prefer plant-based protein sources.

Despite the fact that protein-rich plant foods often lack some of the essential amino acids needed for growth and muscle repair (which means they have to be paired with other protein-rich plant foods), these foods are generally healthier than protein-rich animal products.

Plant proteins contain less fat, less atherogenic fat (atherogenic = causing clogged arteries/heart disease), no cholesterol, and plenty of dietary fibre and protective nutrients such as bioflavonoids.

Lacto-ovo vegetarians and people who live in rural communities, who haven’t changed to western eating habits, generally follow an incredibly healthy diet. By eating predominantly plant foods combined with milk, dairy products and eggs, these people ensure that they’re getting sufficient total protein and sufficient “complete” protein with all the added benefits bestowed by a diet rich in fibre, vitamins and minerals.

Protein also plays an important role in terms of weight loss. Protein reduces the glycaemic index (GI) of a meal, which keeps you satisfied for longer. A low-GI diet also protects against type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

How to use brown rice protein

Shop for brown rice protein powder online or in a health shop near you, and add it to smoothies, muffins, low-fat puddings and cereals. Consult your doctor or dietician before you make any dramatic changes to your diet.

And keep an eye on your protein intake – remember that you only need about 1 to 2.2g of protein per kilogram body weight per day. Any excess protein will be broken down and either stored as fat or used later as a source of energy.

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Sustainable farming: Two practices that should be employed

Image Source: themindunleashed.org

Sustainable farming is not just about the bottom line. It involves using non-renewable resources efficiently, natural resources wisely, avoiding irreversible damage to the environment, and growing nutrient-rich crops while satisfying food needs and improving the quality life of both farmers and consumers.

The following are two examples of sustainable farming practices that should be employed by eco-conscious farmers and farm operators:

Crop diversification

Diversifying crops ensures greater genetic diversity, which stabilizes ecosystems. Planting different varieties of the same crop together ensures that, in the event of a pest attack, not all crops will be affected. In addition, diverse plants lead to more diverse populations of natural pest-fighting organisms.

Growing alternative crops also secures more profitability while lessening environmental impact. Two studies have found that farms with greater crop diversity can operate year-round, providing continuous employment for farm workers.

Other advantages to crop diversification include exploring and marketing to niche markets and helping the local economy by growing crops that would otherwise have been imported from other areas.

Image Source: uky.edu

Alternative energy use

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), agriculture is responsible for approximately nine percent of total human-related greenhouse gas emissions.

To lessen carbon footprint without compromising the profitability of a farm operation or the quality of its crops, and to offset the environmental damage caused by crop production, field burning, livestock manure management, and rice cultivation, farm operators should consider using alternative energy sources.

Biodiesel, created through a chemical reaction between vegetable oils or animal fats and alcohol, can be burned as fuel or mixed with a petroleum-based diesel while reducing carbon monoxide emissions by up to 12 percent. It can be used to power heavy farm machinery.

Other alternative energy sources to consider are hydro-power, which harvests energy from moving water, and solar power, which can be used to pump water, charge electric fences, and power lighting.

Image Source: greenprophet.com

Ourmilla Sharma aims to support Guyana's agriculture industry by producing high-quality rice varieties for local consumers and for export. To learn about other sustainable farming best practices, subscribe to this blog,

REPOST: A Miracle Rice Could Save Millions Of Lives

 This article by Lauren F Friedman of Business Insider discusses the proposed Golden Rice, which is said to be healthier and richer in vitamins as compared to traditional white rice.

"Golden Rice" (R) and ordinary rice, in the hands of a scientist at the International Rice Research Institute in The Philippines. | Image Source: businessinsider.com

One of the world's great humanitarian crises has a simple cause and, some researchers argue, a simple solution. But that's where the story gets complicated.

Around the world, 250 million children are vitamin A-deficient, including about a third of the world's preschool-age population. This simple deficiency kills or blinds millions of women and children each year. In places like the United States, where vegetables like carrots are neither expensive nor scarce, it's difficult to grasp just how pervasive, dire, and deadly a simple vitamin deficiency can be.

Children whose diets are chronically low or lacking in vitamin A are at high risk for xerophthalmia, the most common cause of preventable childhood blindness, and insufficient vitamin A can make children more likely to catch an infection and more likely to die from one when they do.

In 1992, a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins calculated that increasing consumption of vitamin A, without any other interventions or nutritional improvements, could prevent 1.3 to 2.5 million deaths among infants and preschoolers every year. That's more than the number of children killed each year by measles, whooping cough, and tetanus combined.

Programs that aim for widespread distribution of vitamin supplements certainly exist, though they are expensive, complicated, and difficult to sustain. Such programs also sometimes fail to reach the most vulnerable populations in remote rural regions.

But if a food that people are already eating could be transformed into a nutritional powerhouse, it could help save the eyesight and the lives of millions of children and mothers around the world. Each time farmers harvested the crop, they would have a simple food with the impact of a life-saving medication.

In fact, such a miracle crop already exists. It's called "Golden Rice."

So why has it been met with so much opposition?

What Is Golden Rice?

International Rice Research Institute | Image Source: businessinsider.com

From the beginning, Golden Rice was conceived as a project that could significantly improve global health, even though it seemed terribly futuristic when it was first proposed.

"Identified in the infancy of genetic engineering as having the potential for the biggest impact for the world’s poor, beta-carotene-producing rice was initially funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the European Union," writes Amy Harmon of The New York Times. Beta-carotene, the pigment that makes carrots and squash orange, turns into vitamin A in the human body.

"In a decade of work culminating in 1999," Harmon writes, "two academic scientists, Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer, finally switched on the production of beta carotene by adding daffodil and bacteria DNA to the rice’s genome." Scientists later swapped out the daffodil DNA for corn DNA, vastly increasing the amount of beta-carotene in the special rice, whose resulting yellowish color resembled the flesh of a ripe mango.

"From the outset, it seemed totally crazy," Potrykus said, in an interview with New Scientist, explaining what a longshot the technology was when they first tried it. "It was a surprise that it worked."

Many environmental groups voiced immediate concerns about Golden Rice and genetically modified food in general. (The scientific consensus on GM foods is that they are just as safe as any other food.) Neth Daño, an agricultural policy researcher and advocate in the Philippines, told NPR that some see Golden Rice as a public relations campaign for genetically modified foods and biotechnology, rather than the most pragmatic solution.

Still, The Gates Foundation and other major donors see Golden Rice as an important potential tool in fighting vitamin A deficiency, and so — in spite of protests and plenty of red tape — the project has moved forward.

Even after scientists created the proof-of-concept Golden Rice, much tweaking and additional research was needed. The beta-carotene-rich rice needed to be traditionally bred to work with favored local rice varieties, a process that is time-consuming and complicated. And Golden Rice backers needed to prove that in spite of what was, for many, unfamiliar technology, the resulting product would be as reliable as supplements for curbing deficiencies.

Finally, in a 2009 study, scientists showed that Golden Rice was an effective source of vitamin A, and in a follow-up study, they found that it was as good as pure beta-carotene and better than spinach at providing vitamin A to children.

Professional tasters have even said that the high-tech rice tastes just like the original.

Today, five field trials are wrapping up in the Philippines, primarily testing whether the crop will behave in a way that makes it appealing to local farmers. Researchers will also do additional safety and efficacy testing before Golden Rice goes up for approval, which could happen as soon as 2016.

Why Rice?

Rice is a staple food for half of the world's population, and in countries like Vietnam and Bangladesh, it provides two-thirds of all calories consumed. Worldwide, about a fifth of humanity's calories come from rice.

In many countries where rice is an important staple, vitamin A deficiency and its associated hazards are endemic.

Plain white rice is a relatively robust source of energy, but has few nutrients. The seeds of white rice contain no vitamin A, but just one bowl of golden rice would fulfill 60% of a child's daily vitamin A needs. | Image Source: businessinsider.com

"When children are weaned, they're often weaned on a rice gruel," Gary Toenniessen, a Rockefeller Foundation microbiologist, explained to NPR. "And if they don't get any beta-carotene or vitamin A during that period, they can be harmed for the rest of their lives."

While supplemental nutrition programs are both helpful and necessary, they are not enough, and funding irregularities and logistical challenges can make them an inconsistent source of vitamin A.

Golden Rice, once it is widely released, will be much more cost-effective, as agricultural economist Alexander Stein has shown. Despite common misconceptions, no one stands to get rich when poor farmers start growing Golden Rice. Instead, it will represent a fundamentally different approach, an embodiment of the old "teach a man to fish" adage.

Dr. Antonio Alfonso harvests Golden Rice during a field trial in The Philippines. |  Image Source: businessinsider.com

"It can be planted by the farmers using seeds from their own harvest and that would provide sustained supply of betacarotene," Antonio A. Alfonso, Ph.D., the Golden Rice project leader at the Philippine Rice Research Institute told Business Insider. "The bottom line is that [vitamin A deficiency] affects millions of children and women, making them prone to blindness and susceptible to common infections. Golden Rice, if given the chance, could help."

Patrick Moore, Ph.D., an early member of Greenpeace and an outspoken, sometimes controversial, advocate of Golden Rice, is even more emphatic. "At a certain point, you need to be willing to make a leap of faith," he said, in a phone interview. "The risk of not moving forward with this is the continuation of 2 million children dying every year."

"If Golden Rice were a medicine that could cure a disease like malaria," he added, "it would have been approved ages ago."


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REPOST: Budget 2014 sows the seeds of growth in agriculture

This report from Business Today sheds some light on the current standing of India's agricultural sector.

Rajat Wahi, Partner and Head of Consumer Markets, KPMG India | Image Source: businesstoday.intoday.in

Over the last few years, the agriculture and food sector has been performing below par. A weak monsoon means the future too will be challenging. So the expectations from the Union Budget were high. The measures announced were broadly centered around three key growth drivers - boosting agriculture production, improving agri infrastructure and enhancing credit support to farmers with an ultimate of aim of ushering in a second Green Revolution accompanied by a 'protein revolution'.

Like his predecessors, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley too reiterated the need to reduce dependence on monsoon. He allocated Rs 1 billion towards an initial study for the much-anticipated national river grid project that has the potential to revolutionalise Indian farming. To improve productivity, there is a dire need to check imbalanced use of nutrients. The government's plan to implement soil health cards on 'mission mode' and set up mobile testing labs could promote sustainable practices. The formulation of a new urea policy indicates a potential modification of the Nutrient-Based Subsidy (NBS) regime to ensure optimised use of fertilizers.

The work performed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) has now been linked to agriculture-related activities. This is a positive move and could check the continuous migration of workers to non-agri sectors while creating productive agricultural assets. To complement this measure, Rs 300 billion have been set aside towards the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) and Rs 50 billion towards scientific warehousing to minimise post-harvest losses.

Improving market infrastructure could go a long way towards improving price discovery and realisation, leading to improved farmer remuneration and the much-needed disintermediation in the sector. Setting up an Rs 5 billion-worth price stabilisation fund, the budget introduced several schemes to improve market infrastructure in a bid to create a 'national market'. However, a lot still needs to be done at the grassroots level to improve last mile connectivity for product and information flow. This may require significant contribution from the states.

Finally, credit to farmers has been a major pain for the sector over the past years. Setting a credit target of Rs 8 trillion for banks, the budget also introduced several measures to improve credit availability to landless farmers and farmer-producer organisations. While renewed focus on long-term loans for asset creation is a welcome move, close monitoring of grant applications may be required. Overall, the focus on asset creation and productivity enhancement indicates a positive thrust to address the critical bottlenecks faced by the sector while creating an enabling environment for sustained growth.

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Rice varieties and their health benefits

Image Source: telegraph.co.uk

Rice is the staple food of over half of the world's population. Although there are more than 40,000 varieties of rice, white rice is the most commonly consumed in North America. However, more and more people are discovering other, healthier types of rice and incorporating them into their meals. .

Bhutanese or Himalayan red rice is deep red in color and has a nutty flavor and chewy texture when cooked. It's rich in B vitamins, manganese, phosphorous, magnesium, and anthocyanins, which have been shown to reduce the risk of atherosclerosis. It also contains four grams of fiber which improves bowel functions and slows down digestion, possibly aiding in weight loss. It has also been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and lower blood cholesterol levels.

Image Source: npr.org

Brown rice is white rice that hasn’t been processed or refined. As it's a whole grain, it's good for heart health, as it reduces the risk of arterial plaque buildup and lowers cholesterol. It's also low on the glycemic index, which makes it a good alternative to white rice for diabetics.

North American wild rice is high in protein and is a good source of B vitamins, folate, fiber, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, zinc, and niacin. It's also very high in antioxidants that fight free radicals. A study in China found that wild rice help in lowering cholesterol.

Image Source: ripe-cuisine.com

Chinese black rice, also called Forbidden Rice, is rich in antioxidants –that a spoonful of Chinese black rice contains the same amount of anthocyanin as a spoonful of fresh blueberries. Chinese black rice is also a good source of iron, manganese, selenium, phosphorous, molybdenum, magnesium, zinc, and selenium.

Unprocessed brown Basmati rice shares similar nutrient profile of other types of rice, but it has 20 percent more fiber than other brown rice varieties.

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REPOST: 'Possibility of Drought, But Government Fully Prepared': Agriculture Minister to NDTV

The government of New Delhi remains positive despite the possibility of drought in some parts of the country due to sub-normal monsoon. Read more in this NDTV.com article.

Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh told NDTV that a contingency plan has been prepared for 500 districts all over the country. | Image Source: ndtv.com

New Delhi: A sub-normal monsoon has given rise to the possibility of drought in parts of the country, but the government is ready to tackle it, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said ahead of a meeting called by the Prime Minister to review the impact of poor rainfall.

Mr Singh told NDTV that a contingency plan has been prepared for 500 districts all over the country. "We have prepared a Cabinet note to help farmers with compensations such as subsidised diesel and cheaper loans."

"We have adequate buffer stocks and will do everything to control prices," he promised.

The minister said an advisory was being sent to state governments on the need for drought preparedness. The states expected to be most affected are Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Mr Singh said the Centre has also called a two-day meeting of state officials next week to discuss this.

The meeting called by the Prime Minister today will be attended by the Union Agriculture Minister as well as other senior ministers. The impact of a weak monsoon on price rise, especially on essential commodities, will be discussed in detail at the meeting, sources said.

India is expected to receive below-average rainfall this year, potentially damaging crops in about half of the country's farmland that depends on monsoon rains.

The Agriculture Ministry has already started preparing a contingency plan to cushion the farmers from the adverse impact of a weak monsoon.


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Building Business in Guyana

Ourmilla Sharma is on a mission to help her fellow citizens in Guyana. And so far, results are indicating that she is on fire and more than meeting her goals and dreams.

Ourmilla Sharma and her husband, Satyanand Sharma, are the founders and operators of AA Agri Industries, a business organization that is dedicated to helping increase rice production in Guyana, both for domestic consumption as well as for export as an affordable commodity to other countries. With more than 500 hectares of rice-producing land under the management of AA Agri Industries, this firm is using the fertile lands of Guyana’s coastal regions to employ local residents and produce an important basic food source.

Image Source: istockphoto.com

 In 2013, Guyana saw a huge increase in rice production, leaping to more than 525,000 tonnes as compared to approximately 420,000 tonnes in 2012. There is little doubt that the contributions of Ourmilla Sharma and AA Agri Industries have been instrumental in such an impressive growth in rice output. Part of their contribution has been to bring back to Guyana a larger and better variety of seeds as well as providing new farming techniques that have improved overall production.

A native of Guyana, Ourmilla Sharma made her own success when she came to the United States. She received a BA in Economics at the University of New York and then worked successfully as both an international foreign exchange trader as well as a market analyst in Wall Street for 14 years. Much of her career was with Dresdner Bank and Dresdner Capital Management, where she managed a multimillion dollar investment portfolio.

With her extensive management and financial expertise from her years on Wall Street, combined the experience her husband has in the agricultural industry, their transition to establish and run their own companies was a logical evolution. In this way, both of these natives of Guyana have discovered a way to bring their success and business practices back to Guyana to benefit their friends and family.

This move has been a benefit both to their home country as well as for the many natives who are learning how to create value from their natural resources and joint efforts.

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