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Monday, December 05, 2005
Fortified rice helps combat malnutrition
THE consumption of rice fortified with higher levels of iron and other micronutrients may significantly help reduce the growing micronutrient malnutrition among local consumers, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said.
Citing results of a new study conducted by Filipino and American scientists, IRRI officials said the iron-biofortified rice can raise levels of stored iron in the body and improve the nutritional status of people who consume them.
Soccsksargen health officials are currently pushing for commercial distribution of the iron-biofortified rice over the next three years.
IRRI director general Dr. Robert Zeigler said the findings were confirmed in a study that involved the introduction of the nutritionally enhanced rice in the diets of religious sisters in ten convents in the Philippines.
"After nine months, the women had significantly higher levels of total body iron in their blood," he said.
Zeigler described the research as a major step forward in the battle against iron deficiency, considered as one of the developing world's most debilitating and intractable public health problems affecting about two billion people.
The iron-dense variety of rice used in the research was initially developed and grown at IRRI and eventually tested by an international team of researchers from Cornell University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of the Philippines Los Baños. (Allen V. Estabillo)
(December 5, 2005 issue)
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