Rice - To Eat or Not To Eat?

A week ago I posted an article I received from a friend on rice and its effects to human if taken in excess. I agree with most of the statements in the article but that is when you take rice in excess.

I wonder how early man discovered how to eat rice. Who taught the early man to prepare rice, or for that matter other grains to make them edible, as eating them in their raw form will definitely put the early man off as they are tasteless. The early man may have seen birds and other animals eating the rice and other grains in their raw form and hence try to find ways to eat them. But who taught the early man to remove the husk from the grains, to boil it and so on. Who taught the early man to add bacteria culture to the powder form of the grains and then convert it into bread? Is it a revelation from the Almighty? I have been taught that the Almighty taught man what he did not know, hence these may have been based on revealed knowledge. Discovery of the knowledge may come in different ways as only He can reveal. One can perhaps do research, spend all the efforts to study intricacies of things but without His revelation the discovery may just come to naught. Therefore I believe that if the revelation had indeed happened, than eating the rice is also meant for men. So I do not agree to the statement that rice is not meant for human consumption, or man were not meant to eat rice.

I also believe that if we follow the teachings of our religion, and I believe other religions teach the same, to do things in moderation, we will not fall into any harm. Our body system should be able to handle it. It is only when we submit to excesses that our body system fail to cope thus inviting all the ailments. Many ailments that are happening to man nowadays are results of excesses and failure of the body system to cope. Therefore, take rice or any other food for that matter in moderation.

I like rice, other grains as well, and food derived from them, like breads, capati’s, puttumayam (stringhoppers?), and what have you. The Japanese are known to have long lives and their staple food is rice. They take rice in various forms, throughout the day but each meal they take only one small bowl of it. The farmers, working in the fields tend take more rice at each meal, but they burn the sugar (from the rice) away when they work in the fields. Those who lead a sedentary lifestyle should not eat like the farmers do!! Eat less or in moderation and you will be alright. But then how much is “in moderation” ?

Puttumayam? I like it. I have been eating it occasionally since I was small. I have not eaten stringhoppers or puttumayam for a long while. A few days before coming to Bintulu, a puttumayam vendor on a motorcycle passed by the house in the early morning. I bought some and the vendor gave some grated coconut and brown sugar to go with it. This is the usual way I eat puttumayam. Some people take it with curry or with chilli-spiced gravy, but for me the only way to enjoy it is with grated coconut and brown sugar as taking it with curry is no different than taking grained rice with curry. I will mix them together and eat just like that, dry. I had the opportunity once to see how puttumayam was made. The powdered rice was in dough form. There was a brass cup with two handles at the top and tiny holes at the bottom of the cup. There was another cup with identical handles but with no holes at the bottom that fits snugly into the first cup. Dough was placed at half level in the first cup. The second cup was then placed over the dough in the first cup and the two cups were ‘squeezed’ together by their handles allowing the dough to come out in ‘strings’ through the tiny holes. The ‘squeezing’ was done over a wicker tray placed over a boiling pot of water with the stringhoppers shaped into circular palm-sized pieces. Steaming the puttumayam takes only a short while. Perhaps the dough had been partly cooked first before it was squeezed into stringhoppers. Now, how did this method of preparing the rice become possible? Somebody must have done the experiment(s) at some point in time in the past and I am sure not without Divine Revelation. I am glad that food has evolved over time to what we have today. If not, we would be eating just roasted food, or worse still raw food that the cavemen ate…….. hmmmm I wonder…..

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