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Why should we eat rice?
Non-rice snacks: A variety of snacks made from sago in Negeri Luhu, West Seram, Maluku, are ready for consumption
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on-rice snacks: A variety of snacks made from sago in Negeri Luhu, West Seram, Maluku, are ready for consumption. Sago is the main staple food in Negeri Luhu. (JP/Arief Suhardiman)
Why should we eat rice?
Many of us (Indonesians and perhaps Asians in general) are well familiar with this remark: “I do not feel full when I have not yet eaten rice.”
Even though we (at least me) have already swallowed a hamburger or pizza, we may not feel full until we eat rice.
Most Indonesians have had a long-established habit of eating rice three times a day — for breakfast, lunch and supper — since childhood, leaving them highly addicted to it.
What if, for some reason (such as a failed harvest or the continued decrease of paddy fields in most rice-producing countries because of land conversion), rice becomes scarce? Can we face the day without it?
“I can,” 36-year-old Audy told The Jakarta Post. He immediately continued: “But only when I am compelled to do it.” He burst into laughter.
Audy, a freelance filmmaker, tells us how he had difficulty finding rice to appease his stomach when he was away from Indonesia. That was when he was pursuing a master’s degree in documentary filmmaking in Portugal, Belgium and Hungary from mid-2016 to mid-2019. His three-times-daily rice-eating habit was challenged when he stayed in these countries where rice is not a staple food.
“It was hard for me not to eat rice in the first 12 months. Rice is scarcely found in restaurants,” he said. “That’s why I cooked rice by myself in my room.”
He acknowledged his palate was also challenged as he could not find side dishes to pair with the rice like what he could find at home, such as tongseng (a soup prepared with cabbage and meat, especially lamb), opor ayam (chicken stewed in coconut milk), and sambal tumpang, a boiled salad with dressing made of tempeh, chilly, red onion, garlic, and coconut milk, which he said he loves very much.
Being aware that study was his main goal, in his increasingly hectic school schedule Audy said he did not want to waste time on food. “I began to familiarize myself with eating bread, noodles or crackers to replace rice,” he said.
“Since then I ate rice only when I had time to prepare it — once a week or when I got together with Indonesian friends.”
Audy said he diversified his consumption when it came to staple food, but only during his remaining two-year overseas. Upon returning to Indonesia, he has gotten back to his old habit of eating rice three times a day.
Audy is not alone. Many Indonesians who study overseas, especially in countries where rice is rarely found, have to adapt to new habits regarding staple foods.
“When I moved to Germany for the first time, I felt not strong enough to refrain from eating rice. I still continued my tradition of eating rice three times a day in the first three months,” Rudi says.
Now he is back in Indonesia and he dares to laugh at himself. “In the past, someone asked me: ‘Have you had your meal?’ I answered ‘No’, although I had already eaten five loafs of butter-lubricated bread mixed with cheese,” Rudi said.
The situation forced him to change. He has become highly accustomed to diversifying his daily food menu and no longer has to eat rice, but eats bread, noodles, fruit and salad instead.
“I continue the habit of eating different kinds of staple foods until today when I have already returned to Indonesia,” Rudi said.
Food diversification
When it comes to food diversification, Indonesia is rich in staple foods given that many ethnic groups have their own kinds. Take Papuans or Maluku people, as example. They are known as consumers of sago. People of Nusa Tenggara (NTT) are familiar with consuming corn and sorghum. Also, the people of North Sulawesi use a special kind of banana as their staple food, and so on.
All of the staple foods are considered similar to rice in terms of their carbohydrate contents that can satisfy the nutritious intake needs of the human body.
However, a policy of eating rice issued by the then-Soeharto government has changed the consumption of staple foods, which was previously more diverse, into one type, namely rice. In other words, there is uniformity in terms of staple food.
On top of that, the policy has also adversely affected, if not killed, the existence of local staple foods, such as corn, cassava, sago, sojourn and others because of declining demand.
Since then, rice is considered by most Indonesian people as their dominant staple food.
But eating rice excessively can be your enemy.
A study shows the habit of eating rice regularly fosters a higher risk of getting type-2 diabetes.
Rice has a high glycemic content, which adversely affects the glucose metabolism and insulin production of the body.
Eating staple foods as an alternative source of carbohydrates with low glycemic content is, therefore, recommended. Whole grain bread, sweet potatoes, cassava, taro and corn can replace rice as staple foods.
A spokesman from the Food Security Agency of the Agriculture Ministry once expressed the hope that provincial or regency administrations would redevelop the potential of their respective historic staple foods.
“They are expected to produce their respective staple foods so that the local foods that lost their appeal due to the impact of the old government policy on rice can regain their popularity,” he said.
Until today, rice remains the main staple food consumed by Indonesians despite a slight decline in its consumption.
Data from Statistics Indonesia shows that in 2007, rice consumption in Indonesia amounted to 1.74 kilograms per capita per week and the figure dropped by 0.169 percent to 1.571 kg per capita per week in 2017.
Despite the slight decline, the figure is far above the consumption of corn and cassava, which is below 0.2 kg per capita per week each.
Several regions have tried to intensively promote local staple foods. One of them is in Belu regency, NTT.
Kompas.com reported that a number of communities have started to plant sojourn and produce sojourn as their main staple food. They also innovatively process the seeds of sojourn into various forms of snacks, such as chips.
If eating rice excessively can lead to diabetes, then maybe it is wise to reduce rice consumption and eat another kind of staple food. But the decision is yours.
