Don't cook with a microwave. Is rice actually so hard to make that this product even needs to exist.

I eat microwave brown rice all the time. Regular brown rice takes too long to cook on a weeknight. I just take it out of the bag and put it into a non-plastic bowl to microwave it. I avoid eating anything that's been heated in plastic.

Rice cooker. It's Cuisinart, with a nonstick pot. Before I was given the rice cooker, I microwaved white rice, ordinary white rice from the supermarket.

Occasionally I microwaved brown rice, too, mostly organic brown rice from the co-op, but since it didn't save time the only advantage was that I didn't have to keep checking on it.

We eat enough rice to make arsenic a concern, so I've gone back to washing the rice three times before I cook it. Enriched rice may lose most of its vitamins in the process, but I'm not worrying about that right now. Nothing's perfect.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, it takes 15 minutes from absolute start to absolute finish, but, typically meal prep ALSO takes that long if you are honest and including things like setting the table, pouring drinks, searing the meat/tofu, etc.

What in the world are you using for rice? The Uncle Ben's processed rice? I'm Chinese and even with the rice cooker, standard rice takes about 25 minutes and brown rice takes about 35-40 minutes to cook. Same for on the stove.

If you are using the converted rice, than you might as well just do the microwave rice, it's the same thing, just precooked so .

1. Basmati rice or jasmine rice. Very rarely parboiled brown rice.

2. No, it's not "the same thing" because microwaved-in-a-plastic container or bag rice introduces leached endocrine disruptors that aren't a factor in stovetop rice. Both may taste like crap, however.

Anonymous wrote:My husband researches toxin exposure for the EPA and we do not eat any hot food that has come into contact with plastic or store food in plastic. The worst example would be a Saran wrapped sandwich under a warming lamp at 7-11. So . . . We do not eat any foods you microwave in a bag. No worries about aluminum though. We are also trying to limit rice to once a week though because of arsenic. Arsenic is reported in US grown rice, but it is likely in all rice and other countries don't test.

If you really want brown rice, do an Internet search on how to cook ahead and freeze it.

I responded previously regarding arsenic in rice. Doctors issued at warning to people with Celiac to be careful about how much rice and rice flours you eat. I really worry about my child's intake of rice flours.

Anonymous wrote:What about aluminum and alzheimer's? that is what I'm worried about with the rice cooker.

While I can only attest to empirical data and not to scientific studies, I am Chinese and have known many hundreds of Chinese families who have use the rice cookers with aluminum pots. They are among the longest lived group of people and of the ones that I know who have lived longer than average age (into their 80's, 90's and 100's) there is a very low instance of Alzheimer's. I'm not sure whether it's just that there is an otherwise low exposure to aluminum, but I have seen a much higher instance of dementia type ailments in the non-Chinese that I know relative to the Chinese who use the aluminum rice cookers. I personally would not consider that a reason not to use the rice cooker. I think it is a much lower danger than other potential health risks from other sources. Just my personal experience.

Anonymous wrote:My husband researches toxin exposure for the EPA and we do not eat any hot food that has come into contact with plastic or store food in plastic. The worst example would be a Saran wrapped sandwich under a warming lamp at 7-11. So . . . We do not eat any foods you microwave in a bag. No worries about aluminum though. We are also trying to limit rice to once a week though because of arsenic. Arsenic is reported in US grown rice, but it is likely in all rice and other countries don't test.

If you really want brown rice, do an Internet search on how to cook ahead and freeze it.

I agree. We never microwave plastic.

Lots of very good cooks have an achilles heel when it comes to rice. My mother acts like it is a sign weak moral character not to be able to make rice perfectly each time.

The secret to rice on the stove is a very low simmer (lowest possible) and don't keep removing the lid while it's cooking as this causes the steam to escape.