Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

Was just watching the morning news, and they had a report about arsenic levels being high in rice. Consumer Reports has an article about the study. They said brown rice was actually worse than white since the arsenic stays in the hull.

Does anyone know the details?

I think you meant this link to the report veggiecat.

Arsenic in Rice

I'm wondering too if this is something to really be concerned about?

Yes, it sounds worrisome. I read the report. I hope Dr. McDougall or JeffN have some more encouraging thoughts on it.

Similar articles came out a few months ago about arsenic being in brown rice syrup.

Maybe Dr. Fuhrman is behind this! (just kidding)

I've been eating about 10 pounds of uncooked rice a week. I have it almost all 3 meals a day.

But I've been buying it from an Asian store recently, and I believe it's from China. So I researched (i.e. I spent two minutes on Google) and found this article from 2010 detailing the relative safety of rice from different countries.

http://www.foodsmatter.com/allergy_intolerance/cow_milk_all_management/articles/rice_arsenic_1_03.10.html

"Which Rice is Best?

Professor Andrew Meharg from Aberdeen University has worked with the FSA on this issue. He is quoted as saying: “Between different growing regions/countries, total As [Arsenic] content can vary by fivefold, with Himalayan (N. India, N. Pakistan, and Nepal) rice being the lowest and US, EU and As-groundwater impacted Bangladesh rice being the highest.”

Despite such a high-rice diet in China, the Chinese population has a surprisingly low intake of arsenic because they have the best arsenic controls for rice of any country. This rather suggests rice from China would be a safer bet for us too.

Another Professor Meharg study suggests that rice from the US, France, Italy and Bangladesh had the highest levels of inorganic arsenic tested, with about 30 per cent of American long grain rice samples found to contain levels above the Chinese strict standards. He suggested that rice from India and Egypt had the lowest levels, with basmati rice the best type."

danmc, thanks for the post. I eat a lot of rice also. It's my favorite grain.

Interesting report, though I doubt it will cause me to eat less rice; I love the stuff . Some of Jeff's thoughts are here.

As I was reading the links on this thread this morning, NPR just mentioned arsenic levels in rice on their news program, but ended with some expert saying there was no evidence that rice consumption poses a threat. Since we McDougallers eat so much of it, we should find out what Dr. McDougall thinks of this.

From Jeff's forum...this topic has been around for several years.

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=28718&hilit=arsenic

danmc wrote:Despite such a high-rice diet in China, the Chinese population has a surprisingly low intake of arsenic because they have the best arsenic controls for rice of any country. This rather suggests rice from China would be a safer bet for us too.

I guess it's time to find out where an Asian store is in my city.

And here I've been increasing my use of brown rice because I'm contemplating doing an elimination diet.

Thanks... I hadn't heard about this before, or if I had in the past, I didn't take notice because I didn't eat much brown rice before I discovered this WOE. I think I'll just vary my grains a bit more... I need to expand my horizons anyway. But I'm concerned that this will be "ammunition" for the meat-loving crowd, not to mention Dr. F.

slow news day. Nothing frightening in the world of terrorism, ponzi schemes, train wrecks or airplane crashes, so they had to find something ELSE to freak us out about.

bunsofaluminum wrote:slow news day. Nothing frightening in the world of terrorism, ponzi schemes, train wrecks or airplane crashes, so they had to find something ELSE to freak us out about.

Haha... so true.

I'm beginning to think the only good news is no news.