TL;DR – Time to eat MORE rice!
Alkaline diet? Ketogenic diet? Scratch that.
Eat more rice instead if you need to fight obesity.
According to Bloomberg, a Japanese study has found that in contrary to popular weight-loss strategy such as low-carbohydrate diets in many developed countries, experts found that people following a Japanese or Asian-style diet based on rice were less likely to be obese than those living in countries where the consumption of rice is low.
In other words, the more rice you eat, the better it is to protect against obesity.
Sounds too good to be true (I know, right?), but Professor Tomoko Imai, from Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, Kyoto, Japan, who led the research, said that rice can help in preventing obesity because rice was low in fat.
And on top of that, the fibre, nutrients and plant compounds found in whole grains may increase feelings of fullness and prevent overeating.
I don’t know about you, but I LOVE my rice. So, that’s great news for me!
More affordable RICE coming your way
What’s even better is knowing that there are cheap and affordable economic rice in Singapore.
If you don’t already know, Rice Garden is a social outreach programme started by NTUC Foodfare in 2009, to provide affordable and nutritious meals to people from all walks of life.
By affordable, I mean unbelievably cheap.
Mind you, a standard mixed rice set at Rice Garden comprising one meat and two vegetable dishes is only priced at $2.70 for the general public. It is $2.00 for senior citizens, students, full-time National Servicemen and NTUC Union members, and can go as low as $1.50 for ComCare and NTUC Foodfare Privilege cardholders.
If you have been following the news, you might have heard Labour Chief Ng Chee Meng talk about the slew of May Day initiatives for the working Singaporeans. Amongst other things, he has said that NTUC Enterprise’s acquisition of Kopitiam has further extended NTUC’s ability to make quality cooked food affordable and more widely accessible.
So yes, by the year end, there will be 10 more Rice Garden outlets, bringing the eventual total to 55 outlets. The labour movement is working towards having at least one Rice Garden outlet in every densely populated residential estate.
This comes on the back of NTUC’s moves to help alleviate Singaporeans’ concerns about costs of living. “The labour movement understands that cost of living remains a key concern of our workers, and will continue to address this in both the immediate and long-term.”
Now, there is no more good reason not to eat more rice anymore, right?
