
Simple cooking methods flush arsenic out of rice (2015) - Guereric
https://www.nature.com/news/simple-cooking-methods-flush-arsenic-out-of-rice-1.18034
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lefty2
Cooking rice that way makes it taste worse. Better to use rice that doesn't
have arsenic in it in the first place. Asian grown rice has the lowest amount
of arsenic: [https://nutritionfacts.org/video/which-brands-and-sources-
of...](https://nutritionfacts.org/video/which-brands-and-sources-of-rice-have-
the-least-arsenic/)

~~~
gnicholas
TLDW: US-grown rice is among the worst for arsenic, except California. The
South is especially bad because of prior use of arsenic-based pesticides used
for cotton. Lundberg brand (based in California) has taken a strong stand to
be good and transparent and has lots of info on their website.

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clircle
I 'wash' my rice several times before it goes in the rice cooker. I wonder
what percent of the arsenic I'm removing.

~~~
gniv
> I 'wash' my rice several times before it goes in the rice cooker. I wonder
> what percent of the arsenic I'm removing.

Very little apparently:
[https://youtu.be/H_Lui1v2A1M?t=135](https://youtu.be/H_Lui1v2A1M?t=135)

~~~
youeseh
To add to that video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LOVLoWqD7E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LOVLoWqD7E)

Btw, the parts pertinent to our discussion in this video is about arsenic and
other contamination in rice and other foods.

He also goes on to make observations about dietary changes in populations in
East and far East, but knowing what we know about low-carb diets, those bits
may be more controversial. He isn't wrong, he just provides a strong opinion
without commenting on other methods of eating healthy =)

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amelius
Why doesn't my rice nutrition facts label indicate the amount of arsenic in my
rice?

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delinka
Because it isn't a significant source of dietary arsenic.

~~~
DoctorOetker
the article states:

>Billions of people eat rice daily, but it contributes more arsenic to the
human diet than any other food.

so that is in direct contradiction to your claim, according to you, what are
then the more significant sources of dietary arsenic? then we can start
comparing levels...

~~~
InitialLastName
Given that (as I have to assume) most human diets are optimized to some extent
around the parameter "Doesn't contain much arsenic", something could be the
largest contributor of arsenic while still providing too little arsenic to
have an effect on health.

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eBombzor
Can't find the paper but hasn't this been found to degrade the nutritional
profile as well? Using large amount of water works both ways.

~~~
kingbirdy
At least in the US, the initial processing of rice removes some nutrients,
which is why white rice is required by law to be enriched by coating it with
certain vitamins and minerals. If you rinse your rice or cook it in excess
water such as the paper recommends, you'd be removing the enriched coating,
which could put you at risk of certain nutritional deficiencies if you ate a
mostly rice-based diet.

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philliphaydon
Rice contains arsenic??? I just found out a few days ago my favourite vege,
bamboo shoot, contains cyanide... and is sold pre boiled to remove it...

~~~
sjg007
Broccoli contains cyanide too. The rice arsenic thing is a bigger deal though.
Some enterprising entrepreneur needs to come out with a percolating rice
maker.

~~~
philliphaydon
It’s clearly a sign. Vegetables are tying to kill us. :( apparently bamboo is
deadly to humans and only pandas and lemurs (spelling) can eat it raw. It must
be boiled for a period of time for human consumption.

~~~
jayalpha
"Vegetables are tying to kill us."

Of cause they try to. It is normal evolutionary behavior of plants. And co-
evolution of humans to being able to tolerate this toxins.

~~~
gpm
We kinda fucked that up now though. The most successful plants are now that
ones we like to eat instead of the ones we don't like to eat.

~~~
jayalpha
This is another evolutionary strategy.

In fact, milk and wheat may have compounds, that are addictive.

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option_greek
I wonder if arsenic in rice is even a true concern. Billions of people across
Asia eat it as staple food and the incidence of cancer is usually lower (could
be due to low reported cases though).

~~~
hedora
It depends on the country. The study mentions Bangladesh and (American) rice
based baby food.

Not sure about Bangladesh, but arsenic was commonly used as an insecticide in
US rice fields in the south, so rice from that region still has some of the
highest arsenic concentrations on earth.

In the US rice is less of a staple food (except for infants), so it matters
less, I guess.

~~~
tomxor
> In the US rice is less of a staple food (except for infants), so it matters
> less, I guess.

If it's that way around it's likely to matter more, infants tend to be far
more sensitive to toxins than adults. Specifically it can seriously affect
brain development, same with lead.

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witten
I wonder how the boiling method ([https://www.saveur.com/perfect-brown-rice-
recipe](https://www.saveur.com/perfect-brown-rice-recipe)) fares in regards to
arsenic, given that: 1. You can use a higher water-to-rice ratio than with
traditional methods, and 2. The remaining cooking water is discarded at the
end.

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deegles
> “The team then cooked rice in an apparatus that continually condenses steam
> to produce a fresh supply of distilled hot water”

What device is that?

~~~
DanBC
\---begin---

Cooking rice in where percolating cooking water is recycled through
condensation

Here all 41 samples of bought rice were cooked in a standard Soxhlet
apparatus. Rice grain, fresh from the packet, was accurately weighed (2g) into
a VWR Soxhlet thimble and was then placed into an 25cm long and 3.5cm diameter
Quickfit Soxhlet which was attached to a 250ml receiving flask at one end and
a dimpled Vigreux 25cm condensing tube (14 rows of 3 dimples = 42 dimples in
total), with the receiving flask sitting within an electrically heated mantle
and supported by a retort stand and clamps. At the start of the experiment the
flask was filled with 200ml of double-distilled, deionized distilled water.
Rice cooking was timed as per number of Soxhlet reflux cycles, with 3 cycles
sufficient to fully cook the rice. At the end of the 3rd cycle the thimble
containing rice was removed and rice freeze dried and milled as described for
the cooking volume experiment.

\---end---

~~~
DanBC
I guess I should have included the plos link.
[https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0131608)

I use ---begin---/\---end--- because HN has sub-optimal quoting, and pasting
from PDF is often terrible.

bleep bloop.

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systematical
had no idea rice had high arsenic content. Its a stable of my diet, I eat it
probably 2 or 3 times a week.

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ggm
Where beriberi comes from? Rice bran is needed. Polished rice is nutritional
emptyness

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jayalpha
Wow. Nature. But then, really?

Sounds to me like a terrible idea.

1\. Consumes much more water than needed now.

2\. Consumes much more Energy than needed now.

3\. Yes, you leach out part of the Arsenic for sure, sounds like a "continuous
extraction process". Rice contains nutrients and vitamins. How about them?

~~~
patrickg_zill
Consumes water? What is the water changed into at the molecular level,
exactly?

~~~
jayalpha
Waste water? You realize there is a difference between drinking water, "Grey
water" and waste water?

Sure, just a few liters of drinking water wasted. Now lets 1.5B Indians, 1.2 B
Chinese and a bunch of other Asian countries do this, where people eat rice
every day.

