Arsenic in rice & Asian dietary culture

[Anonymous]

I'm from Japan and we eat rice daily sometimes with every meal. As this is the way I grew up, I started feeding my DS rice almost every day too. If you grew up eating rice daily but now live in this country what are your opinions of the recent finding about the presence of arsenic in rice? Are you not feeding your DS any rice, or do you continue to feed him/her rice daily?

[Anonymous]

My kid loves rice. Hoping for the best. He prefers Asian rice to American rice, so we have no option but to feed him Asian.

[Anonymous]

I'm Chinese American and my mom has been (wonderfully) cooking dinner for our whole family most nights. Of course she cooks rice frequently, which my toddler daughter has been gobbling up. Rice is one of the few items she's willing to eat.

I read somewhere that the arsenic issue is mostly with rice grown in Texas, and I believe we usually buy California grown rice. Not sure it really makes a difference, but it makes us feel a little better.

[Anonymous]

I'm an ABC -- grew up here, parents from China.
Have eaten rice probably 70% of days in the past 40+ year.
We all seem fine.

Treating the kids the same way.

[Anonymous]

I thought it was only rice from china that was an issue? Something about runoff into the rice fields? California rice is supposed to be ok. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought it was only rice from china that was an issue? Something about runoff into the rice fields? California rice is supposed to be ok. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes, I think it's rice grown here that is worse.

http://www.fda.gov/food/foodborneillnesscontaminants/metals/ucm319924.htm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought it was only rice from china that was an issue? Something about runoff into the rice fields? California rice is supposed to be ok. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes, I think it's rice grown here that is worse.

http://www.fda.gov/food/foodborneillnesscontaminants/metals/ucm319924.htm

This is OP. Thank you for the link. I didn't know the difference in the arsenic level between short and medium grain rice. This was very useful.

[Anonymous]

I'm Chinese and I grew up eating Rice everyday. So far I'm not hearing in the news that droves of peoe in Asia are dying off and their deaths are linked to arsenic in rice. We still ear rice daily.

[Anonymous]

We don't buy US grown rice, as that is the worst (esp brown rice). We eat rice just about every day.

[Anonymous]

I read that brown rice is the worst, and that it doesn't matter if it's organic, a lot of the arsenic already exists in the soil.

[Anonymous]

Asian diets are generally far healthier overall than American diets, so if there is arsenic in the rice, I have a feeling that the other good aspects of the diet would outweigh the risks of eating rice.

[Anonymous]

I only buy basmati rice from India. And we eat rice every single day.

Not worried and not changing my habits.

[Anonymous]

Also, most Asian diets are centered around white rice and most Asians wash their rice thoroughly before cooking. These are both factors that will lead to much lower aresnic.

[Anonymous]

I'd worry more about diabetes than arsenic in rice.

White rice is pure carbs. Granted, in Asia, people eat a lot of vegetables with the rice (usually people eat a fistful of rice per meal).

It makes me wonder if Asians have some gene that let them eat rice that doesn't affect blood sugar.

I mean, I hear that most were not fat until western food was introduced. Probably rice isn't a major factor (high fat and even higher sugar content of western diet), but it does make me wonder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought it was only rice from china that was an issue? Something about runoff into the rice fields? California rice is supposed to be ok. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes, I think it's rice grown here that is worse.

http://www.fda.gov/food/foodborneillnesscontaminants/metals/ucm319924.htm

As this chart shows, it's primarily US rice that has the arsenic contamination, because a lot of rice is grown on former cotton fields, where they used arsenic-based pesticides.