Indian Medical Research Memoirs Supplementary Series to the Indian Journal of Medical Research January 1940

Its resolution on the subject was in the following terms :— The Conference emphasizes the fact that the degree of milling to which rice is subjected is of vital importance in connection with the problem of nutrition throughout the East. [...] In many countries the poorer classes consume foods other than rice in small quantities and it is very difficult for economic reasons to increase the amount of supplementary foods in the diet ; in such circumstances the nutritive value of the main article of food which is influenced by the degree of milling becomes of great significance. [...] The phosphorus content of the milled rices is on the average 50 per cent of that of the husked or home-pounded samples. [...] The extent of the loss depends on the amount of water and the number of times it is washed before cooking and whether the cooking water is discarded or consumed. [...] The lower figures given by the latter may perhaps be due to the inability of animals used for the assay sick as a result of vitamin-Bi deprivation to absorb completely or utilize the vitamin present in the test dose of the foodstuffs.