Capping off the National Rice Awareness Month 2021

November is National Rice Awareness Month. The Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Training Institute (DA-ATI) invited everyone to join and participate in a series of activities, campaigns and webinars that would help us gain a deeper understanding about rice and to become RICEponsibly healthy.

NRAM 2021: Be RICEponsibly Healthy

The theme of this year’s National Rice Awareness Month is Be RICEponsibly healthy. Part of this campaign is the #BeRiceponsiblyHealthy Virtual run. In this event, the registered participants have to run a total of 5 Kilometers for the whole month of November. More or less twenty content creators participated in the said campaign. We took turns sharing on our platforms our virtual run experiences and relevant thoughts and insights about rice especially in the Philippines.

My Virtual Run Experience

For the whole November, I have devoted myself to being RICEponsibly healthy particularly focusing on my cardiovascular health through running and consuming food that are good for the heart. I have been jumpstarting most of my days with a quick run around the city. Glad that we also have a Track oval in our city for a safe run.

We would often share our running experiences (i.e. the distance we covered and the run duration) with the other participants through our group chat. Apart from our virtual run stuff, the participants who are also content creators would share their insights about the NRAM 2021 through their vlogs and blogs.

After my morning runs and home workouts, I would usually have a cup of brown rice and vegetables for brunch. Part of my high-fiber diet is a cup of brown rice a day. Before, I would honestly eat less to none of rice. However, due to the nature of my lifestyle, I told myself I could use the calories from it. Also, it’s way healthier than the white one. My mom has joined my Fitness November and started her weight loss journey. She’s been having pigmented rice with me, too! Currently, she has lost 7 Kilograms already.

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Why Brown Rice?

Research studies have proven how pigmented rice especially the brown one is healthier. It has more vitamins and antioxidant-rich compounds; thus, good for one’s health. These kinds of rice are polished lesser during the mill than the white one. Hence, we can get more natural compounds and nutrients from it. Further, brown and pigmented rice have been proven as well to aid weight loss as they are more filling. Lastly, such rice is good to fight the chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart problems.

Another reason to go for Brown rice is that, its production and manufacturing is lesser compared to white. If more of us start to demand for it, eventually its price in the market would be much cheaper. Hence, more available. Given its health benefits, would you start going for brown?

A Call to Action

According to Food consumption surveys, more than half of what goes into our plates is wasted and its mostly rice. Regardless of what kind we eat, we should always bear sustainability in mind. Let’s be aware of what we put in our plates and make sure that we can consume it. Wasting it is not just merely wasting every penny spent to get that food in our tables but also the effort of the farmers who have been working hard in producing rice. Valuing every grain is tantamount to our appreciation to our farmers. As a Filipino folk song goes, “Magtanim ay di biro”.

National Rice Awareness Month, In a Nutshell

There’s more to know about rice and I hope that we won’t just come across with these knowledge during its awareness month. Let us be proactive enough to raise our own and others’ awareness about it. Learning more makes us know what to value and how to do it, too.

Special thanks to the Agricultural Training Institute for letting us be part of this campaign and continuing to educate us about Agriculture!