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By M. K. Gandhi
Polished vs Unpolished
If rice can be pounded in the
villages after the old fashion the wages will fill the pockets of the rice
pounding sisters and the rice-eating millions will get some sustenance from the
unpolished rice instead of pure starch which the polished rice provides. Human
greed, which takes no count of the health or the wealth of the people who come
under its heels, is responsible for the hideous rice-mills one sees in all the
rice-producing tracts. If public opinion was strong, it will make rice-mills an
impossibility by simply insisting on unpolished rice and appealing to the
owners of rice-mills to stop a traffic that undermines the health of a whole
nation and robs the poor people of an honest means of livelihood.
But who will listen to the
testimony of a mere layman on the question of food values? I, therefore, give
below an extract from The New Knowledge of Nutrition by Mr. Collum and Simmonds
which a medical friend, to whom I had appealed for help, has sent with his
approbation:
"Rice is the most important
cereal grain in the diet of more than half of the human race. It is used
especially in the wettest parts of the world. It has never found much favour in
the United States but is used in small amounts. Among primitive peoples rice is
eaten without polishing, in which form it is known as red rice, but it is
usually treated so as to lose a large part of its germ. This loss results from
the pounding of the kernels in rude mortars. The bran layer, which is richer in
mineral salts the endosperm of the seed, is retained in this process.
"Rice which is used for
export and for sale in the large cities at some distance from the place of production
is polished by abrasion. The abrasive action results in wearing away the bran
and germ. This mixture is known as rice polishing. The germ of rice, like that
of wheat or maize, consists of cellular structures which are the seat of
protoplasmic activity, and is a more complete food than any other part of the
kernel. It contains almost all the fats found in the grain, and is more
efficient in nourshing insects as well as higher animals, than is the polished
grain. Hamada (1923) reports that rice embryo protein has a high nutritive
value. Unpolished rice loses its flavour owing to the fats becoming rancid when
kept for considerable periods in a warm climate. Polished rice can be handled
without commercial hazard.
"McCarrison (1923) concluded
that vitamin A is present in paddy before it is milled. The milling of raw
paddy does not remove the whole, content of this substance as it is not
confined to the peripheral layers of the grain. He states that it is destroyed
in great measure by steam passing through paddy when it is contained in the
vats, as in parboiling.
"The practice of polishing
rice had its origin in the desire to improve its keeping quality, and the
incidental whitening of the kernels has led to the establishment of a demand
for a white product. This and the artificially established liking for white
flour and white corn meal, is an illustration of the failure of the instinct of
man to serve as a safe guide in the selection of food. The aesthetic sense is
appealed to in greatest measure in this case by the products of lowest biologic
values.
"Attractiveness of rice to
the eye is so important a factor commercially that the practice of artificial
whitening of the polished kernels has come into vogue. This is accompanied by
coating the kernels with talcum powder, the latter adhering by means of a thin
coating of Glucose. The milky appearance of the water in which rice is washed
is due to the talcum remaining in suspension. Rice which has been polished, but
not coated in this way, is called brown rice as contrasted with the coated or
white rice.
"Chart III shows that there
are four dietary factors in which polished rice is of such poor quality as to
require improvements before it becomes a complete food. Its proteins are of low
value. It is too poor in all essential mineral elements to meet the needs of a
growing animal, and is nearly free from vitamins A and B. The data in Chart III
were obtained with the rats and do not bring out the fact that rice is lacking
in the vitamin C. This substance is not essential in the diet of the rat.
"Kennedy (1924) found wild
rice to contain a higher percentage of protein than most other cereals, but it
resembles the cereals in containing proteins of rather low biological value. It
also resembles other cereals in containing inorganic material unsuitable for
the promotion of growth. Its content of vitamin A is low but it contains a
sufficient amount to prevent xerophthalmia. Wild rice has a greater food value
than the cultivated polished rice, because its proteins are of better quality.
It contains adequate amounts of vitamin B for growth."[1]
The following is the result of my
observations to date.
Whole, unpolished rice is
unprocurable in the bazars. It is beautiful to look at and rich and sweet to
the taste. Mills can never compete with this unpolished rice. It is husked in a
simple manner. Most of the paddy can be husked in a light chakki without
difficulty. There are some varieties the husk of which is not separated by
grinding. The best way of treating such paddy is to boil it first and then
separate the chaff from the grain. This rice, it is said, is most nutritious
and, naturally, the cheapest. In the villages, if they husk their own paddy, it
must always be cheaper for the peasants than the corresponding mill- husked
rice, whether polished or unpolished. The majority of rice found ordinarily in
the bazars is always more or less polished, whether hand-husked or mill-husked.
Wholly unpolished rice is always hand-husked and is every time cheaper than the
mill-husked rice, the variety being the same.
Subject to further research, the
observations so far show that it is because of our criminal negligence that
rice-eating millions eat deteriorated rice and pay a heavy price into the
bargain. Let the village worker test the truth of these observations for
himself.[2]
Wheat or Gur
Let us now take up wheat. It is
the second most important article of diet, if not the first. From the nutritive
standpoint, it is the king of cereals. By itself, it is more perfect than rice.
Flour bereft of the valuable bran is like polished rice. That branless flour is
as bad as polished rice is the universal testimony of medical men. Whole-wheat
flour ground in one's own chakki is any day superior to, and cheaper than, the
fine flour to be had in the bazars. It is cheaper because the cost of grinding
is saved. Again, in whole-wheat flour there is no loss of weight. In fine flour
there is loss of weight. The richest part of wheat is contained in its bran.
There is a terrible loss of nutrition when the bran of wheat is removed. The
villagers and others who eat whole-wheat flour ground in their own chakkis save
their money and, what is more important, their health. A large part of the millions
that flour-mills make will remain in and circulate among the deserving poor
when village grinding is revived.
But the objection is taken that
chakki grinding is a tedious process, that often wheat is indifferently ground
and that it does not pay the villagers formerly to grind wheat themselves. If
it paid the villagers formerly to grind their own corn, surely the advent of
flour-mills should make no difference. They may not plead want of time, and
when intelligence is allied to labour, there is every hope of improvement in
the chakki. The argument of indifferent grinding can have no practical value.
If the chakki was such an indifferent grinder, it could not have stood the test
of time immemorial. But to obviate the risk of using indifferently ground whole-wheat
flour, I suggest that, wherever there is suspicion, the flour of uneven
grinding may be passed through a sieve and the contents may be turned into
thick porridge and eaten with or after chapati. If this plan is followed,
grinding becomes incredibly simple, and much time and labour can be saved.
All this change can only be
brought about by some previous preparation on the part of workers and
instruction of villagers. This is a thankless task. But it is worth doing, if
the villagers are to live in health and elementary comfort.
Gur is the next article that
demands attention. According to the medical testimony I have reproduced in
these columns, gur is any day superior to refined sugar in food value, and if
the villagers cease to make gur as they are already beginning to do, they will
be deprived of an important food adjunct for their children. They may do
without gur themselves, but their children cannot without undermining their
stamina. Gur is superior to bazaar sweets and to refined sugar. Retention of
gur and its use by the people in general means several crores of rupees
retained by the villagers.
But some workers maintain that
gur does not pay the cost of production. The growers who need money against
their crops cannot afford to wait till they have turned cane-juice into gur and
disposed of it. Though I have testimony to the contrary, too, this argument is
not without force. I have no ready-made answer for it. There must be something
radically wrong when an article of use, made in the place where also its raw
material is grown, does not pay the cost of labour. This is a subject that
demands local investigation in each case. Workers must not take the answer of
villagers and despair of a remedy. National growth, identification of cities
with villages, depend upon the solution of such knotty problems as are
presented by gur. We must make up our mind that gur must not disappear from the
villages, even if it means an additional pice to be paid for it by city people.[3]
Rice
The problem of rice is daily
presenting interesting features. Shri Shankarlal Banker has already commenced
experiments on unpolished rice. He writes:
"When formerly paddy was
hand-husked, it underwent three polishes after the removal of the outermost
husk, and many people indeed believe even now that that process has to be gone
through. I therefore had some paddy got and, after removing the husk, had three
polishes by pounding once, twice and thrice, of which specimens are being
herewith sent. The rice that was only once polished was much sweeter to the
taste than that which was polished twice and thrice. The first process of
removing the husk was gone through by means of chakki, and the polishing or
pounding was done by, using the village pestle and mortar. The rice which was
obtained by merely removing the husk was in colour almost like that which was
first polished. But it took a longer time to cook. The next time, therefore, I
soaked the rice in water for some time, and there was no difficulty about
cooking. The sweetness was all the greater. Some contend that rice that is not
polished at all is difficult to digest. But this is not likely. The part that
is removed by polishing contains vitamins and salts, which help digestion. If,
however, this belief is not well-founded, you will perhaps procure authentic
information. You will be interested to know that on removing the mere husk from
10 seers of paddy it was reduced to 7½, seers. Thus the weight was reduced by
25 per cent. On polishing three times it was reduced by 40 per cent. The paddy
that I used for my observation was the variety called jirasal."
The only comment I would like to
offer on this letter is that I do not think that any further medical opinion
will help. The opinion I have gathered and reproduced in these columns is
emphatic in favour of unpolished rice. But so far as I am aware, we have
nothing in medical literature describing experiments of which Shri Banker has,
like many of us, made the commencement. Proof of the pudding is in the eating;
let everyone make the experiment for himself.
One caution, however, as a
practised cook I would like to utter. Among the many domestic quarrels I used
to have with my wife was one over rice-cooking. She would have every grain
separated. I had developed into a dietetic reformer and I knew that that rice
was not half as good as that which was well and properly cooked. Not an ounce
of water in which I cooked rice was thrown away. But at that time I knew no
distinction between polished and unpolished rice. I simply took the ordinary
bazar rice and cooked it through till it became one mass. The reader will be
glad to know that the quarrel ended in a victory for the reform, and the wife
became a convert to properly cooked rice. The precaution about unpolished rice
is all the more necessary, because the pericarp of rice, which contains all its
richer constituents, requires to be cooked thoroughly. Therefore, if unpolished
rice is soaked in cold water for at least three hours before cooking, and then
well boiled, there is not only no danger of its proving undigestible, but it
will be decidedly more palatable, as has already been found at Maganwadi, the
abode of the Village Industries Association in Wardha. We have been having here
what may be called half-polished rice, not the perfect variety that is
described in the foregoing letter. Nevertheless, the rice is well cooked.
Nobody has complained about its indigestibility. But, being far more nutritious
than polished rice, which is almost pure starch, naturally unpolished rice,
cannot be, and must not be, eaten in the same quantity as polished rice. This
is true of all conservative cookery.[4]
No Waste!
Those who have been following
what is being written in these columns on balanced diet will not have failed to
understand the vast importance of bran which we simply throw away and give to
our cattle. I do not grudge the cattle what they get. But it seems to me that
we are thoughtless about cattle-feeding as about many other things. Cattle do
not need bran so much as green fodder and seed cakes which they can easily
divide with us if we will revert to the village oil-presses. But we need every
ounce of the bran of wheat and rice if we are to become efficient instruments
of production, not to be beaten on this earth by any race, and yet without the
necessity of entering into killing competition or literally killing one another.
But I must not prolong what is becoming a heavy preface to a simple recipe
which a friend has passed on to me for treating wheat bran. He is obliged to
his sister for it. Here it is:
Grind sufficient wheat coarse to
give you one pound of bran which you get by passing the meal through a medium
sieve. Add 112 lb. of cold water, eight tolas of pulverized clean gur and half
a tea-spoonful of clean salt to the bran and stir well. Pour the mixture in a
flat vessel, cover and let it stand for full half hour. Then put a well-fitting
tava or dish on the pot containing the mixture and stand it on hot coal and
heat hot coals on top. Keep the pot between the two fires for full five
minutes. Then transfer the mixture on to an iron kadai and roast on a slow fire
till the water is fairly dried out. Then take the pot off the chula and let the
contents cool. Then strain them through a sieve with clean hands and the
contents will drop on a clean cloth or board in the form of threads. Expose
these to the sun till thoroughly dry. These can be taken as they are or with
hot or cold milk or hot water or whey. Two ounces will make a good breakfast
and is claimed to be a valuable aid to remove constipation the bane of
civilized life and precursor of many diseases.[5]
[1] Harijan,
26-10-1934
[2] Harijan,
25-1-1935
[3] Harijan,
1-2-1935
[4] Harijan,
15-2-1935
[5] Harijan,
12-10-1935