this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
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[–] SootySootySoot@hexbear.net 53 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (11 children)

~~Dangerous~~ Normal levels of arsenic and cadmium found in samples of store-bought rice from more than 100 different brands purchased in the US.

The highest levels described was 129 parts per billion. The FDA limit for 2-year old infants (for 'rice cereal') is 100ppb. The 'purest' rice in the study is 55 ppb.

There is no study to suggest 129 ppb of Arsenic is dangerous. The headline just baselessly asserts this. The methodology for 'arsenic exposure' also doesn't account for what they mention - that the majority of arsenic in rice actually leaches into the water, which many people throw away. Even people eating the 'worst' US rice are getting more arsenic from fruit and vegetables.

  • Is reducing heavy metal ingestion good and ideal? Yes.
  • Is it also incredibly normal and natural for trace heavy metals to be in food? Yes.
  • And is it true that ALL the studied rice were significantly under "dangerous" levels? Yeah.

Lying headline. Rice is fine. These shitty headlines hurt people more (by instilling anxiety while also turning them away from healthy options like rice) than they help.

[–] Jabril@hexbear.net 27 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (7 children)

No amount of heavy metal exposure is healthy and this is just one of the many ways people are exposed to it. Limiting potential exposure, especially in children under two, is pretty serious. Rice is the largest single exposure food of any food type, and for communities that eat rice for multiple meals a day, rice accounts for up to 50% of their children's exposure to arsenic, not to mention other heavy metals. If switching to a different grain is all it takes to greatly reduce that number, it seems pretty silly to hand wave the research.

In a world where exposure to heavy metals, PFAS, microplastics, formaldehyde and other dangerous substances is both a daily occurrence and being monitored less rigorously by the state organizations designed to keep exposure low, it's definitely good to be aware that staple foods which billions rely on every day can be settings kids up for a lifetime of adverse health outcomes. Edit: also want to add that consistently getting covid fucks your immune system too so adding all the virus and sickness we are collectively dealing with to carcinogens and heavy metal exposure... It's just good to limit what you can when you can

Edit: also, who throws away rice water? You steam the rice in the water which is absorbed by the rice. The article suggests cooking rice like pasta and tossing the water to reduce arsenic but to suggest most people already do this is absolutely false

[–] OgdenTO@hexbear.net 14 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Don't people rinse rice before cooking it? I believe that is the rice water that is thrown away, not after cooking.

But also that rinsing water is often used in many parts of the world as a baby formula substitute. So, that's not great if that's where most of the heavy metals are going.

[–] Jabril@hexbear.net 29 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Rinsing before cooking does not reduce arsenic amounts. If you soak it over night and dump that it will help, especially if agitated during the soaking, but the research cited in this article explicitly says rinsing without at least a 30 min soak doesn't do it. The best method is to cook one cup of rice : 6-10 cups of water and then draining that water, adding fresh water and finishing the cooking

[–] OgdenTO@hexbear.net 11 points 2 weeks ago

Thanks for the clarification, I did not see that part.

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