Dangerously high levels of arsenic and cadmium found in samples of store-bought rice from more than 100 different brands purchased in the US.
Dangerously high levels of arsenic and cadmium found in samples of store-bought rice from more than 100 different brands purchased in the US.
archive.ph
archive.ph
DangerousNormal levels of arsenic and cadmium found in samples of store-bought rice from more than 100 different brands purchased in the US.The highest levels described was 129 parts per billion. The FDA limit for 2-year old infants (for 'rice cereal') is 100ppb. The 'purest' rice in the study is 55 ppb.
There is no study to suggest 129 ppb of Arsenic is dangerous. The headline just baselessly asserts this. The methodology for 'arsenic exposure' also doesn't account for what they mention - that the majority of arsenic in rice actually leaches into the water, which many people throw away. Even people eating the 'worst' US rice are getting more arsenic from fruit and vegetables.
Lying headline. Rice is fine. These shitty headlines hurt people more (by instilling anxiety while also turning them away from healthy options like rice) than they help.
PPB you say?
One hundred and twenty nine of them.
No amount of heavy metal exposure is healthy and this is just one of the many ways people are exposed to it. Limiting potential exposure, especially in children under two, is pretty serious. Rice is the largest single exposure food of any food type, and for communities that eat rice for multiple meals a day, rice accounts for up to 50% of their children's exposure to arsenic, not to mention other heavy metals. If switching to a different grain is all it takes to greatly reduce that number, it seems pretty silly to hand wave the research.
In a world where exposure to heavy metals, PFAS, microplastics, formaldehyde and other dangerous substances is both a daily occurrence and being monitored less rigorously by the state organizations designed to keep exposure low, it's definitely good to be aware that staple foods which billions rely on every day can be settings kids up for a lifetime of adverse health outcomes. Edit: also want to add that consistently getting covid fucks your immune system too so adding all the virus and sickness we are collectively dealing with to carcinogens and heavy metal exposure... It's just good to limit what you can when you can
Edit: also, who throws away rice water? You steam the rice in the water which is absorbed by the rice. The article suggests cooking rice like pasta and tossing the water to reduce arsenic but to suggest most people already do this is absolutely false
Don't people rinse rice before cooking it? I believe that is the rice water that is thrown away, not after cooking.
But also that rinsing water is often used in many parts of the world as a baby formula substitute. So, that's not great if that's where most of the heavy metals are going.
I do not disagree with literally anything you've said here, so I'm not sure why you're presenting it as such.
Nor am I 'hand wave'ing the research, I'm reading it and seeing what it actually says, like you also have. What the cited research definitively does not claim (or even imply) is "Dangerously high levels of arsenic and cadmium found in samples of store-bought rice from more than 100 different brands purchased in the US.".