In short – Yes.

As I’m sure many of you have read, there are an increasing number of articles about arsenic levels in rice.  I’ve never been a huge rice eater myself, but as I started thinking about it, I realized that rice (and its various components) are in A LOT of foods, including baby foods.

Here are a few foods that contain rice that many people eat regularly:

• Infant rice cereal
• Rice cereal (Rice Crispies and others)
• Sushi
• Rice noodles
• Rice crackers
• Egg roll wrappers
• Dumplings
• Rice bran oil (you won’t know you’re eating it, but because of its high smoke point, it is used for frying)
• Rice vinegar (used in many salad dressings and marinades)
• Rice starch (used for thickening, many times in baby formula)

So, is it really true that there is arsenic in rice?  Yes.  Is it in both traditional and organic rice?  Yes.

What is arsenic?  It’s a toxic trace element – here comes the science part…it can be organic (basically a living version found in plants and animals) or inorganic (in rocks, dirt or water).  The inorganic version is the most toxic version and a known carcinogen.  It’s this inorganic version of arsenic that seems to be most apparent in rice, which not only is cause for concern, but moreso because this grain is a basic food staple for much of the world’s population.  How did the arsenic get in the soil?  There are small trace amounts of it in the earth’s crust, but the majority of it today is a result of contamination from pollution as well as widespread use of pesticides.  And, unfortunately, the EPA has shown that arsenic can stay in soil for up to 45 years.

Studies have shown that rice is the single biggest food source of inorganic arsenic (several studies have been conducted by the US National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health).  Because rice basically soaks in water and soil, the inorganic arsenic is absorbed by the rice plant almost continuously, regardless of whether the rice is grown conventionally or organically.  This has become such a concern, that the FDA actually started investigating arsenic levels in rice several years ago, and released some disturbing data and results in 2016.  It has a summary of its findings on “Arsenic and Rice Products” on its website (I included a link).  In reading the summary, the alarming part to me was the statement that “rice intake, primarily through infant rice cereal, is about three times greater for infants than adults in relation to body weight.”  In fact, it appears as if the reason behind the entire study was to understand better arsenic levels in infant rice cereals.  So what did they find?

In studying 76 infant rice cereals and 38 multigrain cereals, the infant rice cereals “were found to have an average level of 103 parts per billion (ppb) inorganic arsenic.”  The FDA then uses come cute language and says that 47% of the samples were below the 100 ppb level, a level set by the European Union for infant cereals.  Wait…so if I can do simple math, this means that 53% WAS OVER THE LIMIT.  Yikes.  And even the FDA with it’s muted language stated “the FDA found that inorganic arsenic exposure in infants and pregnant women can result in a child’s decreased performance on certain developmental tests that measure learning, based on epidemiological evidence about arsenic, including dietary exposures.”  While I didn’t appreciate it several years ago, our San Francisco pediatrician told me to never feed my baby rice cereal.  She didn’t mention arsenic, but I’m glad I still listened.

So what do we do?  Eat less rice – for those of you with sushi addictions, take it down a notch (if not because of the arsenic, for the potential mercury in the fish).  But, what about this of us who still like to eat rice?  There are ways to reduce the amount of arsenic in rice during the cooking process:  cook the rice in extra water (instead of the usual 2 or 3:1 ratio, use 6 – 10:1 water to rice) and drain the excess water – this has been shown to reduce arsenic levels by 40 – 60% (as cited by the FDA in its report).  Unfortunately, this process of cooking rice can also reduce the nutritional value of the rice. Rinsing rice beforehand does nothing the reduce arsenic levels, instead it reduces key mineral content of the rice (iron, folate, thiamin, niacin).  And what about for babies and children?  Many pediatricians and friends continue to recommend rice cereal as one of the first baby foods.  Unless your pediatrician tells you there is a very specific reason to only give your baby rice cereal, I vote to steer clear of rice altogether – there are so many other infant cereals out there with different grains like quinoa, millet, oat and barley (we used Earth’s Best Organic Whole Grain Multi-Grain Cereal).  Also, check any infant formula for rice and its variants (if the FDA, which in my view is way to tame on these issues, is advising us to not feed our infants much rice cereal, I take that to mean almost avoid it).  And, look at those fun kid snacks – many of the crunchy snacks that we give our toddlers have rice as a main ingredient.

As I always say, let’s try to stick to whole foods and items with minimal ingredients.Here’s to eating a wider variety of grains!

Love & Peace,

The Almost Green Mom

Amy Smith is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com