Is Eating Rice (With High Arsenic Levels) Safe?

[willbewhatiwill]

I have stopped eating rice (and its products like rice noodles, rice flour, etc) for nearly a year now. I do no feel good and healthy after eating rice, as rice contains more arsenic that any other crops grown for food.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/high-levels-of-arsenic-in-rice-why-isnt-it-regulated-in-our-food-9836900.html reported, “Rice has, typically, ten times more inorganic arsenic than other foods and, as the European Food Standards Authority have reported, people who eat a lot of rice are exposed to worrying concentrations. What sets rice apart is that it is the only major crop that is grown under flooded conditions. It is this flooding that releases inorganic arsenic, normally locked up in soil minerals, which makes it available for the plant to uptake. Chronic exposure can cause a range of health problems including developmental problems, heart disease, diabetes and nervous system damage. However, most worrying are lung and bladder cancers. Bottled water in the EU is around 50 times lower in inorganic arsenic water concentrations than rice. Therefore, you would need to drink five litres of water to get the equivalent arsenic dose of eating a small 100g (dry weight packet) portion of rice. Brown rice is higher in inorganic arsenic than white as arsenic is concentrated in the bran that is removed by milling to produce white rice. Sourcing rice from regions with lower grain inorganic arsenic concentrations – for example, basmati rice is two to three-fold lower in inorganic arsenic than rice from the European Union or from the US. Cooking rice in a large excess of water also helps to remove inorganic arsenic”.

[Old_Geezer]

See, if you'd have eaten up your rice like your mother told you, you'd be immune to those small doses by now.

[Khandro]

marval; //I am having an Indian takeaway tonight,//

Good luck, I think arsenic in the rice is the least of your problems!

[Hopkirk]

I hope you are not still eating Brazil nuts, they are radioactive.

[Tilly2]

Is anything safe to eat. How about a nice piece of bread and butter?

[woofgang]

wheat and animal fat!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sqad]

" I hope you are not still eating Brazil nuts, they are radioactive."
Washed down with a glass of "Peckham Spring Water."

[Tilly2]

Toasted cheese?

[willbewhatiwill]

Hopkirk: "I hope you are not still eating Brazil nuts, they are radioactive".

I have stopped eating Brazil nuts for years, as they are often grown in an area in South America that contains Uranium.

Some for (my favourite) cashew nuts, as they are poisonous until rendered non-poisonous in processes in the factory! That is one of the reasons cashew nuts tend to be more expensive than most nuts.

[Mamyalynne]

I think we should actively encourage foods that make us glow in the dark, save on fuel costs.

[willbewhatiwill]

Oops I meant: SAME for (my favourite) cashew nuts, as they are poisonous until rendered non-poisonous in processes in the factory!

[Mamyalynne]

Have you tried Marmite Cashews?

[Tilly2]

Willbe, are you a 'clean food' eater?

[woofgang]

cashew nuts may not poison you but may not be good for the workers who harvest them. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/11577928/Blood-cashews-the-toxic-truth-about-your-favourite-nut.html

[willbewhatiwill]

Mamyalynne,

I also tend to avoid foods produced in Vietnam - as foods from Vietnam, where US military spread 'agent orange' remained toxic (& cytotoxic) in the soil for decades.

[Tilly2]

Do you grow your own food?

[237SJ]

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger..

[Tilly2]

Why are you not answering my questions, Willbe? How rude that you just keep making statements and ignoring other people's queries.

[willbewhatiwill]

Tilly2: "Do you grow your own food?"

Nope, (1) I am too lazy, (2) do not have 'green fingers' techniques and (3) the soil I grow any crops in may be contaminated industrial soil (who knows, 'jumping from the fat to the fire').

[EcclesCake]

So how do you have confidence in where you do procured your food from?

There is more than an air of paranoia in some of your posts.

Perhaps living off grid and learning about self sufficiency would help you.

[anneasquith]

Had jasmine rice last night, lovely :-)/