All white foods are not equal

There have been calls to return to the practice of feeding babies and young children tajin, a liquid from cooked rice with palm sugar added. While it may fill the child's stomach, it is a practice deplored by doctors and nutritionists alike. Tajin has almost none of the necessary vitamins and minerals needed by the growing child. Until a child can chew well and eat a variety of nutritious foods, milk remains the most important source of nourishment.

Mother's milk is unquestionably the best food for babies under one year and is still the best food, along with some solids, for the older baby if baby is drinking enough. As for cost, it is always cheaper to fortify the nursing mother's diet with eggs, dried fish or liver, green vegetables and some milk, than to provide adequate amounts of milk or formula for baby.

It is only recently that Indonesia has overcome the problem of childhood blindness caused by lack of vitamin A, a nutrient found in rich supply in milk, whether it comes from humans, cows, kerbau, or goats. Rice provides no vitamin A, almost no calcium or high-quality protein as well as several other vitamins.

It is my understanding that rice in the 1950s was more likely to have been milled by pounding the kernels at home or in the village. This traditional method left more of the outer coating on the rice, which is where most of the vitamins and minerals are concentrated. Modern, commercially milled rice is completely white, with all of the nutrient-rich coating removed.

Tajin made from this rice is even less nutritious than that which was fed to the older generation. It would be better to make a bubur (porridge) from katul giling (rice polishings) than from the rice itself.

If imported milk powders are too expensive for most Indonesian families, perhaps now is the right time to promote breast-feeding even more strongly and ensure that the mother is well-nourished. Could we also look to our animal herds as a source of nutrition? Milk from clean, healthy goats, kerbau or cows is superior to any tajin.

KAY YEE

(professional dietitian)