Rice has arsenic in it — don't freak out, here's the science

yes arsenic in rice is a real thing it's not some hippie blogger conspiracy theory this poison and known carcinogen is commonly found in hazardous levels in one of the world's most popular staple foods but how dangerous it is to you depends enormous Leon how much rice you eat what kind of rice you eat how you cook it and whether or not you are a baby as a non baby American who eats rice maybe once a week I don't worry about this at all in my own diet but you may be a different kind of person known by the chemical symbol AS arsenic occurs naturally in organic and inorganic forms it can be acutely poisonous in large doses with symptoms ranging from abdominal pain to rapid death within a day or two it was quite popular as a discrete means of murder until the 19th century British chemist James Marsh invented a forensic test for arsenic and the jig was up organic arsenic is considered less dangerous and it's commonly found in some seaweed and some shellfish where it's generally not a very big deal inorganic arsenic is more dangerous chronic exposure via Rice may be a cause of cancer lung and bladder cancer in particular also heart disease and type 2 diabetes as you can see in this risk assessment from the US Food and Drug Administration the cancer correlation is almost directly proportional to how much rice you eat if you eat rice three times a day this is something that you might want to be thinking about how does arsenic get into rice because it's in the water this is not rice nobody grows rice anymore in the American state of Georgia where I live this is grass growing in a puddle on a farm thing is that's basically what rice is it's the seed of a grass that grows in artificial puddles called paddies it's the only major food crop grown in flooded ground it sits around in the water all day long and it absorbs and concentrates way more of whatever is in there so how does inorganic arsenic get into the water and soil it comes from many sources it depends one throat you are that's biochemist Andrew McHargue at Queen's University Belfast he's probably the most prominent english-language scientific voice on this topic it can't be naturally geo genic arsenic it can be in irrigation water sand that's known over large parts of Southeast Asia it can be it can be added as pesticides as was used in the US and until very recently so vice cops followed cotton crops so they were allowed to use arsenic Oh pesticides on cotton and then of rifle notation it would obviously have or stick to hoods indeed much of dr. mahadji research is on rice grown here in the American South in particular Arkansas Louisiana and Texas the south-central region there's a lot of rice grown there and it tends to have a lot of arsenic maybe it's just part of the natural geology maybe it's due to the pesticides used on cotton fields maybe it's due to industrial pollution coal has a lot of arsenic in it maybe all of the above nobody knows for sure let's tell the farmers let the studies be conducted and we pull over source into it you will find out what the sources are so unless somebody's doing that work I can't do that work for multiple reasons sitting here in Ireland but don't think I'd be very welcome into the paddy fields of the south central region nah man they love you in Texas the other big rice growing region in the u.s. is California and California rice has way less arsenic globally this problem varies a lot from place to place dr. McHargue other main area of concern is Bangladesh in contrast rice from India and Pakistan tends to be a lot better Chinese rice has problems with both arsenic and cadmium this is generally something that you can pretty easily google if you want to find out about your rice problem is you might not know where your rice came from it is a global commodity crop after all they're not growing this Kroeger rice in cincinnati that's just where the company is headquartered if you're willing to pay for it you can get Rice's with some kind of regional or national origin certificate on them this cost about four times the kroger brand rice it also matters what type of rice you get aromatic Rice's like jasmine and basmati tend to have less arsenic and this is also probably the only respect in which white rice is actually healthier for you than brown rice brown rice has way more arsenic is Ted as a constant fit and was a cold download which is rather technical name for their rice which is included in brown so when you take off the bran you will take off about 50% of their artistic loading for the rice there's also ways of cooking rice that can minimize the arsenic and we'll get to those moment but first you might notice something different about my fibrous outer brand coating I got new clothes from BOM Feld sponsor of this video BOM Phil is a personal styling service for men that makes it easier for guys to shop and to dress better you go to the website and you take a style quiz no I do not need fancy clothes for work I basically only ever put on pants when I'm gonna be on camera a real human stylist at bomb fell picks out clothes for you you can preview the choices before they ship out the clothes arrived in the mail you get a week to try them on and anything you don't like you throw in this bag and send back for free you only pay for what you keep note the tape measure so that I can send my stylist more accurate measurements I absolutely hate clothes shopping and thinking about my appearance generally so if I'm gonna replace any of my old ratty stuff it's gonna be because somebody else does it for me and my bomb fell stylist sent me these classy new slacks that my wife is very happy about it's clearly higher quality fabric than what I usually buy should hold up a few more years if you need a new fibrous outer coating save $25 on your first bomb fell order by going to bomb fell calm slash Ragusa get 25 bucks off with my link in the description now again if you're like me in that you don't eat rice all that frequently this whole arsenic thing probably poses a pretty minimal risk to you but if you're somebody who eats rice every day there are things you can do in the kitchen to minimize your exposure doctor McHargue says rinsing your rice before cooking probably does not help very much soaking it overnight like you do with the beans that's better he says it opens up the structure of the grain but then you have to flush it clean through cooking the arsenic is relatively soluble within the rice cream and you can cook it out but most people trick the rice to dryness or just add enough water and then that water be absorbed or evaporate to join us and not just locks in the arsenic unfortunately it's quite mobile in your stomachs then there's him mobility allows it to be leached out from cooking water allows it to be leached out India but even so what to do instead cook your rice the way that you cook pasta a big pot of water the bigger the better for removing arsenic for making it taste good put in enough salt to make it taste like seawater just like pasta bring the water to a boil and dump in the rice once you get it in there it cooks fast it would add a simmer it takes about 12 minutes for white rice I find you can test it with a fork just dip the fork into the rice and a few nicely drained grains will come out that you can then tastes just like pasta I think you should drain it when it is still slightly crunchy it'll keep cooking as it cools some people put it back into the pan to cook off the remaining moisture I think it works better to just toss it in the sieve a few times and then let it steam off a lot of people prefer their rice like this anyway it's certainly fluffier rice if you're into that and doctor McHargue says if you soak your rice in a lot of water overnight and then cook it in a lot of water the next day you can remove about 80% of the arsenic there is a catch though which is that you'll be washing away some of the nutrients here in the States most of our rice is fortified that's what these extra ingredients on the bag are this is extra nutrition that they spray onto the exterior of the grains you will lose any fortified vitamins and mineral nutrients potentially in it and also rice is an important source of B vitamins which is soluble but I suspect us less relevant to an American diet and it is to Bangladesh for example yeah we eat a ton of meat here in the States and meat is full of B vitamins if you're eating or reasonably rich and varied Western diet with lots of vegetables this is probably a non-issue for you Europeans don't fortify their rice and they're still alive this leads us finally to the part of this that is really relevant to Westerners and indeed everybody the problem of arsenic and kids for generations all over the world this has been the most popular first solid food that parents feed their babies you mix it with water you have rice porridge you look at the concentration of my food specifically my package for children and the rice beer nuts for two reasons are relatively bland and also gluten-free babies it three times as much food bottom your pieces as an adult so for any particular source take it and three times more exposed to horse texture novelties and that means much greater cancer and diabetes risk there's also some research indicating that arsenic in food can be a neurotoxin with kids they lose IQ points by the way arsenic is also found in fruit juice that's the other big place this may be a relatively minor risk compared to all of the other risks in life but nonetheless I see no reason at all to give this to your baby not just this brand any brand there's just too many other good options we mostly fed our kids oat cereal the European Union in recent years has set standards for the maximum inorganic arsenic levels in foods particularly strict standards for baby foods though still not strict enough in dr. Mijares opinion here in the US as per usual were not as quick to regulate agribusiness this FDA risk assessment notes that if we adopted standards comparable to the EU limits that would knock out as much as 93% of rice and rice products in our market depending on the type of rice decide for yourself whether you think that's a good reason to not do it and it's important to note once again that arsenic in rice poses a relatively minor risk in our lives again quoting from the FDA 39 cases of lung or bladder cancer per million people are attributable to rice 39 cases per million people that's out of about 90,000 per million people who get those cancers so if you smoke a good Lord deal with that before you worry about your rice but you should worry about your wardrobe immediately especially if you're a schlub like me get 25 percent off your first bomb fill order by using my link in the description

Channel: Adam Ragusea

Views: 367,451

Rating: 4.9042997 out of 5

Keywords: arsenic in food, white rice, brown rice, arsenic in rice, is rice healthy, nutrition facts, is brown rice healthy, white rice vs brown rice, how to reduce arsenic in rice, arsenic in brown rice, arsenic rice study iq, arsenic in rice nutrition facts, arsenic in rice water, brown rice vs white rice, white rice healthy, is rice healthy or not, is rice healthy for you, should you wash rice, should you wash rice before cooking it, should you rinse rice

Id: EIM_zjCmQ5Y

Length: 10min 13sec (613 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 09 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/youlox123456789]

Why I flavor my arsenic with water, not rice.