http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100220-254258/Gordon-urges-Filipinos-to-eat-less-rice
MANILA, Philippines—Eat and import less rice and be healthy.
That’s according to Sen. Richard Gordon, who will have Filipinos eating less rice under his projected administration for the sake of health and the economy.
“We should eat less rice ... because [too much is] bad for our health. Diabetes comes with too many carbohydrates. I would like a campaign like that,” said Gordon, the standard-bearer of the Bagumbayan party.
Carbohydrates like rice break down as sugar and are stored as fat when not burned as energy.
And an eat-less-rice program fits the doctor’s prescription against lifestyle diseases like obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes, Gordon said.
Paradigm shift
His less-rice program is still sketchy at this stage, but he said it would involve the use of mongo, camote and cassava as replacements of the staple.
Asked if he thought the public would take to this gustatory shift, Gordon noted that Filipino migrants eventually adjusted to new cuisine.
More dollars
“When you go to America there’s a [different culinary] paradigm. We just have to stretch ourselves a little bit more. Life would already be more difficult with climate change, so we have to be smarter. We have to consider [less rice] for health reasons,” he said.
The Gordon School of Economics theorizes that if Filipinos eat less rice, there would be less imports and more dollar savings.
Taken a little farther, less rice consumption coupled with better irrigation technology can mean rice surplus—ergo, the possibility of exportation that is equivalent to dollar earnings.
“If we sell rice abroad, we make more dollars. If we sell less, we earn less,” he said. “If we want to earn more dollars from our rice, we should be a more rice-producing and -exporting nation.”
To set the tone, Gordon said, the country would still import rice in the first three years of his administration.
Wake up
But within this period, he plans to accelerate the creation of irrigable lands by building more and smaller catchment dams nationwide to collect rainwater and prevent flooding.
Gordon said the prevalence of El Niño in the Pacific area made it imperative for the Philippines to consider radical solutions, especially because the adverse weather pattern hurt agricultural workers the most.
He said his campaign for less rice and additional irrigation plots would be “part of a new frame of mind for Filipinos.”
“We need to wake up this nation from slumber... We need to teach a culture of productivity,” he said.
MANILA, Philippines—Eat and import less rice and be healthy.
That’s according to Sen. Richard Gordon, who will have Filipinos eating less rice under his projected administration for the sake of health and the economy.
“We should eat less rice ... because [too much is] bad for our health. Diabetes comes with too many carbohydrates. I would like a campaign like that,” said Gordon, the standard-bearer of the Bagumbayan party.
Carbohydrates like rice break down as sugar and are stored as fat when not burned as energy.
And an eat-less-rice program fits the doctor’s prescription against lifestyle diseases like obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes, Gordon said.
Paradigm shift
His less-rice program is still sketchy at this stage, but he said it would involve the use of mongo, camote and cassava as replacements of the staple.
Asked if he thought the public would take to this gustatory shift, Gordon noted that Filipino migrants eventually adjusted to new cuisine.
More dollars
“When you go to America there’s a [different culinary] paradigm. We just have to stretch ourselves a little bit more. Life would already be more difficult with climate change, so we have to be smarter. We have to consider [less rice] for health reasons,” he said.
The Gordon School of Economics theorizes that if Filipinos eat less rice, there would be less imports and more dollar savings.
Taken a little farther, less rice consumption coupled with better irrigation technology can mean rice surplus—ergo, the possibility of exportation that is equivalent to dollar earnings.
“If we sell rice abroad, we make more dollars. If we sell less, we earn less,” he said. “If we want to earn more dollars from our rice, we should be a more rice-producing and -exporting nation.”
To set the tone, Gordon said, the country would still import rice in the first three years of his administration.
Wake up
But within this period, he plans to accelerate the creation of irrigable lands by building more and smaller catchment dams nationwide to collect rainwater and prevent flooding.
Gordon said the prevalence of El Niño in the Pacific area made it imperative for the Philippines to consider radical solutions, especially because the adverse weather pattern hurt agricultural workers the most.
He said his campaign for less rice and additional irrigation plots would be “part of a new frame of mind for Filipinos.”
“We need to wake up this nation from slumber... We need to teach a culture of productivity,” he said.
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