Arsenic in Rice

digitalcanuck

Hi All,

Since my celiac diagnosis, I have had to become much more informed about food and nutrition. The learning curve has been huge. I still work hard to keep up with all of the information out there.

I just finished a blog post discussing the recent findings and recommendations regarding arsenic in rice.

Since we are all endeavouring to be more health conscious, I thought others here would find value in the information.

Lisa

RodaRose

Yes.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es702747y

California rice has less than Texas and Arkansas rice
White rice as a general rule has less than brown rice.

Also this:
http://www.pnas.org/content/105/29/9931.full

CarrieCans

The earliest date i see in those articles is 2008. I wonder how far back this really goes. My daughter was born in 2004 and i was told then (by her pediatrician) to avoid feeding her rice containing foods until she was at least 2.

AJ_G

I'm not too worried about it

SonicDeathMonkey80

I'm still eating rice. And if I could boil it in Aspartame, I'd do that too.

digitalcanuck

@RodaRose You are right about the California rice. It is lower. The problem comes with the fact that we accumulate the arsenic in our systems. Thanks for passing on the additional link. Very interesting.

@CarrieCans Your pediatrician was on the mark. The concerns have been known for a while, but full on studies to this extent were not done. The other factor that brings this into the fore is that people are now consuming a lot more rice in the form of starches, syrups, and flour. It is also being included in so many other products that do not present as obviously having flour in them.

I hope you found the information helpful. I think that it is so much better to be able to make decisions about what we eat when we at least know all the facts.

Lisa

ninerbuff

Practically any plant or fruit we eat contains some arsenic. What really matters is the level of it ingested.
Looking at it objectively, countries that consume rice as a staple should be dropping like flies if arsenic is poisoning them.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

apparations

AJ_G wrote: »

I'm not too worried about it

+1. Still eating all the brown rice, there are worse things out there.

RebeccaChemmy

I eat brown rice at least 5 times a week. I'm not even worried.

dbmata

digitalcanuck wrote: »

Hi All,

Since my celiac diagnosis, I have had to become much more informed about food and nutrition. The learning curve has been huge. I still work hard to keep up with all of the information out there.

I just finished a blog post discussing the recent findings and recommendations regarding arsenic in rice.

Since we are all endeavouring to be more health conscious, I thought others here would find value in the information.

http://lifestylereset.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/am-i-worried-about-arsenic-in-rice-you-betcha/#more-305

Lisa

Advertising is against community rules.

TheDevastator

Rice is worthless compared to amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa.

ninerbuff

TheDevastator wrote: »

Rice is worthless compared to amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa.

Yeah, I'm probably not eating sushi if those are the replacements for rice. Worthless is a subjective term when speaking of enjoyment of food. You're relating it to nutritional value.
Brussels sprouts are great nutritionally over lettuce, but not everyone will choose brussels sprouts over lettuce because of the taste.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

TheDevastator

ninerbuff wrote: »

Yeah, I'm probably not eating sushi if those are the replacements for rice. Worthless is a subjective term when speaking of enjoyment of food. You're relating it to nutritional value.
Brussels sprouts are great nutritionally over lettuce, but not everyone will choose brussels sprouts over lettuce because of the taste.

For enjoyment and nutritional value I feel it's worthless except when I eat Asian dishes. Maybe the grains I listed would be better substitutes.
Have you ever tried sushi with those grains? Who knows they could taste good with sushi. Rice is used because it is cheaper and possibly stickier.

Lasmartchika

I've been eating rice since the day I was born. I ain't dead yet... and it won't be cuz of rice. (Unless I choke on rice and no one is there to save me.)

taunto

TheDevastator wrote: »

Rice is worthless compared to amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa.

I think its in poor taste to call any food, specially one that gets consumed on a nearly daily bases by the majority of the world population, "worthless".

I like rice. I like bread too but as a non-far east Asian, my carb intake is 50%-50% consisting of rice and bread. I won't lie and say I know much about Arsenic and what it does but I do know that many people eat rice almost daily and haven't died. And neither do they find it worthless

TheDevastator

taunto wrote: »

I think its in poor taste to call any food, specially one that gets consumed on a nearly daily bases by the majority of the world population, "worthless".

I like rice. I like bread too but as a non-far east Asian, my carb intake is 50%-50% consisting of rice and bread. I won't lie and say I know much about Arsenic and what it does but I do know that many people eat rice almost daily and haven't died. And neither do they find it worthless

Worthless is a bit harsh. I have eaten and will eat rice in the future regardless of it's arsenic levels but rice is nutritionally inferior compared to amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa.

ninerbuff

TheDevastator wrote: »

ninerbuff wrote: »

Yeah, I'm probably not eating sushi if those are the replacements for rice. Worthless is a subjective term when speaking of enjoyment of food. You're relating it to nutritional value.
Brussels sprouts are great nutritionally over lettuce, but not everyone will choose brussels sprouts over lettuce because of the taste.

For enjoyment and nutritional value I feel it's worthless except when I eat Asian dishes. Maybe the grains I listed would be better substitutes.
Have you ever tried sushi with those grains? Who knows they could taste good with sushi. Rice is used because it is cheaper and possibly stickier.

I don't even like brown rice sushi......yuck.
Reality is, if you're reaching your micro nutrient values on a daily basis, then I wouldn't be worried about eating quinoa, etc. I'd rather enjoy rice for the taste and texture.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

TheDevastator

ninerbuff wrote: »

I don't even like brown rice sushi......yuck.
Reality is, if you're reaching your micro nutrient values on a daily basis, then I wouldn't be worried about eating quinoa, etc. I'd rather enjoy rice for the taste and texture.

lol, I've never heard of brown rice sushi, maybe there's a reason they have sushi rice.

paperpudding

I think this whole thing is a non issue.

The amount of arsenic in rice is so small as to be of zero harm to anyone who eats rice.

Perhaps in theory if one were to eat 50 kg of it a day for 20 years or something ridiculous - but in practice in real life - non issue.

RllyGudTweetr

There's arsenic in apples, too. The amount of arsenic in these foods is minuscule.

As to the 'people are now consuming more rice' bit, that smacks of a cultural bias to me, as folks have already noted how rice has been a staple of certain cultures' diets for hundreds of years.

digitalcanuck

I apologize for providing my link. I was not advertising as my blog is not a commercial endeavour. It is just a way of documenting new information coming down the pipe.

Whether you decide to include rice in your diet is absolutely your choice. I just wanted to make everyone aware of the research so that they can make informed decisions.

In the future, I will refrain from including external links.

Have a great day.

ndj1979

why aren't people in asia dying of arsenic poisoning????????

more food fear mongering….

CarrieCans

ndj1979 wrote: »

why aren't people in asia dying of arsenic poisoning????????

more food fear mongering….

I believe the rice with arsenic is a US issue. In Asia they have to deal with radiation in their rice.

I still eat rice when i can, my rice issues have nothing to do with anything the gov't or anyone else says.

JenniDaisy

Everything is poison and we're all going to die.

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ithrowconfetti

Now that we've all established that you'd need to eat mountain loads of rice for an extended period of time before the arsenic levels can do you any harm, I think we should divert our attention to the toxicity that is baking soda. Sodium bicarbonate? More like So long bye it's too late.

Sabine_Stroehm

There's arsenic in many foods (yes including rice, beer and apples). And other things in other foods (like sulfur, mercury...). Unless you're eating tons of it, I wouldn't sweat it. I'd focus my energy elsewhere, personally.

angelexperiment

TheDevastator wrote: »

ninerbuff wrote: »

I don't even like brown rice sushi......yuck.
Reality is, if you're reaching your micro nutrient values on a daily basis, then I wouldn't be worried about eating quinoa, etc. I'd rather enjoy rice for the taste and texture.

lol, I've never heard of brown rice sushi, maybe there's a reason they have sushi rice.

sushi rice is a short grain rice and it is alot stickier than any other kind of rice and it rolls together better than other kinds. Plus I think it has a higher starch in it.

angelexperiment

ithrowconfetti wrote: »

Now that we've all established that you'd need to eat mountain loads of rice for an extended period of time before the arsenic levels can do you any harm, I think we should divert our attention to the toxicity that is baking soda. Sodium bicarbonate? More like So long bye it's too late.

Lots of people use baking soda just dont ingest too much bc it will kill you. It is used as a alternative therapy for cancer patients. It is used to brush teeth. Try baking alot of certain foods without it and see what happens. They are talking large quantities!

cwolfman13

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