So first it was juice and now it’s rice. Arsenic has been found in very high levels in all types of organic and non-organic rice products that we eat and feed our children every day and it’s a very troubling finding.
As a follow up to its juice research, Consumer Reports has found that arsenic levels in rice are quite high and possibly more troubling for children due to the fact children have ample amounts of rice products in their diet. Think about it – rice cereals when they are infants, rice crispies for cereal when they are older, rice as a side dish, rice in cereal bars, rice milk even – and it all can add up to large amounts of rice.
So why is rice so susceptible to arsenic?
Rice absorbs arsenic from soil or water much more effectively than most plants. That’s in part because it is one of the only major crops grown in water-flooded conditions, which allow arsenic to be more easily taken up by its roots and stored in the grains. Source
Here are some of the findings from the study that I found particularly interesting:
- Brown rice has higher levels of arsenic than white rice; that’s not at all what I expected.
- 76% of the U.S. rice is grown in the South and the rice grown there has higher amounts of arsenic than rice grown elsewhere.
What’s the deal with arsenic – I mean what happens if you are overexposed?
Arsenic not only is a potent human carcinogen but also can set up children for other health problems in later life. The Environmental Protection Agency assumes there is actually no “safe” level of exposure to arsenic while federal laws mandate products have less than 10 parts per billion. Source
So what can you do?
Limit your exposure to rice products. Here is a handy table of recommendations from Consumer Reports:
As always, when it comes to food and what we put into our bodies, be sure to think about what you eat and where it comes from. Knowing a food source is your best bet to eat the healthiest you can.
Here is the Consumer Reports PDF with complete details of our test results.
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