Do you want to do your share of solving the country’s rice shortage problem? Eat spaghetti and pasta! You’ll be doing the country, and the world, a big favor.

“Save Rice, Eat Spaghetti” is the latest advocacy of The Old Spaghetti House, a six-year old restaurant with 23 outlets all over Metro Manila. In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, The Old Spaghetti House owner and general manager Melissa Guerrero declares that their new slogan is in full support of his “Eat Rice Less” campaign. TOSH is encouraging its clientele to substitute one meal per day with a spaghetti dish.

“Our new campaign,” says Ms. Guerrero, ”addresses the cutting down of rice consumption and incorporates in our diets a healthier substitute for white rice—spaghetti—that not only is a delightful meal itself but also has a higher rating in optimum health benefits and these valuable nutritional benefits:

1. Pasta is a low-fat, high carbohydrate food. The US Department of Agriculture’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend eating 6-11 daily servings of grain-based products that are high in complex carbohydrates—foods like pasta, breads and cereals—as the foundation of a healthy diet.
2. A typical two-ounce service of non-egg dry pasta contains valuable levels of iron, riboflavin, thiamine and niacin. The same two-ounce serving contains only one gram of fat, no sodium or cholesterol, and 211 calories.
3. Pasta is a good source of folic acid, a key nutrient in a woman’s childbearing years. Folic acid helps to prevent some birth defects that occur in the early stages of pregnancy.
4. Lycopene, a naturally abundant antioxidant found in tomatoes, is another benefit to eating pasta topped with the traditional sauce. Recent research suggests that lycopene helps inhibit certain cancers, including prostate and cervical cancer.
5. Pasta contributes six of the eight essential amino acids to the diet; however, when combined with dairy meat, or other complementary protein foods, the protein available is a complete protein containing all the essential amino acids, an important food for vegetarians.

To aid the campaign, The Old Spaghetti House has printed the slogan on streamers and shirts for its staff and managers. They also have shirts for customers, available at all outlets for P275 (with collar) and P235 (without collar). As an added incentive, customers visiting any The Old Spaghetti House outlet wearing these T-shirts with the slogan, get a discount voucher (good until December 11, 2008) on any cash purchase.

So why not? We all love pasta, anyway. Let’s help solve our country’s rice crisis in a healthier, more delicious, more enjoyable way at The Old Spaghetti House. If you want to try at home one of the restaurant’s best-sellers, here’s the recipe

More information on The Old Spaghetti House’ other offerings may be obtained through its corporate website: www.theoldspaghettihouse.com.