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”.

[Tilly2]

What do you eat, Willbe?

[willbewhatiwill]

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

I got t eat food produced somewhere. I assume food produced in EU, Australia, New Zealand, Canada & few others are safe.

[DTCwordfan]

just give up eating willbewhat, more rice and nuts plus all your other foodstuffs for the developing nations, after all.......

[willbewhatiwill]

Tilly2: "What do you eat"

Most things made in EU.

[Tilly2]

My Tilda rice is produced in Australia, so I should be okay.

[EcclesCake]

So food miles and the environmental impact don't worry you in any way?

[woofgang]

but the rice arsenic link said that rice produced in the EU had more arsenic than rice produced elsewhere?

[willbewhatiwill]

woofgang,
I did not eat rice from anywhere.

[woofgang]

just pointing out that eating EU produced food does not guarantee safety.

[Tilly2]

You did eat rice up to a year ago.

[THECORBYLOON]

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recommends an intake of 2.5 litres of water for men and 2.0 litres of water for women per day, via food and drink consumption.

Of this, they suggest that 70-80% of the daily water intake should come from drinks, and the remaining 20-30% should come from food.

This means folk could consume as much arsenic in about two days by drinking water as they would in 100g of rice.

As a matter of interest , how many folk in the UK are known to have been affected in the UK by arsenic in the last few years?

[willbewhatiwill]

Tilly2: "You did eat rice up to a year ago"

I suffered, but yes (eaten zilch rice) for a year now.

[DTCwordfan]

Hope that you have given up The chopsticks too.

Think of all those bamboos cut down, or trees if wood ones, or the oil used to make plastic ones, or the metal ores (like silver if you are an imperial fan) extracted.......and they probably have arsenic and mercury in to begin with.

[willbewhatiwill]

THECORBYLOON: "This means folk could consume as much arsenic in about two days by drinking water as they would in 100g of rice".

Good calculation & point which I shall bear in mind. But I definitely will not be eating rice (& its products, like rice flour) anytime soon.

[THECORBYLOON]

"I did not eat rice from anywhere."

"I have stopped eating rice (and its products like rice noodles, rice flour, etc) for nearly a year now."

Eh?

[willbewhatiwill]

THECORBYLOON,

I meant in my above post: I suffered, but I definitely have not eaten no (zilch) rice for a year now.

[gingejbee]

^^ after five hours, I think we've got the message!

[Tilly2]

My rice is ready but I'm watching Mo!

[diddlydo]

Is this whole post a wind-up in order to be able to claim the most responses????

[Tilly2]

Possibly, Diddly.