Arsenic in Rice

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Ways to decrease one’s arsenic intake from rice.

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What about white rice? Came free with the broccoli in garlic sauce you just ordered. Better than nothing? And the answer is no. Put some brown rice in your rice cooker, and it will be done by the time the delivery person arrives.

If brown rice is so good for you, and white rice is pretty much a waste of calories, why not just eat rice bran, which is part of what is taken away from brown rice to make white rice? Bad idea? Doesn’t matter either way? Or, great idea—you get all the good stuff concentrated together?

Unfortunately, you also get the bad stuff concentrated together as well. Plants grown in waterlogged soil can absorb arsenic found naturally in the environment, and it concentrates in the bran.

Does that mean we shouldn’t eat brown rice? No. But if you eat a lot of rice, I would encourage you to buy U.S.-grown rice, as it tends to have lower arsenic levels than Asian- or European-grown rice.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Image thanks to Calgary Reviews via Flickr.

What about white rice? Came free with the broccoli in garlic sauce you just ordered. Better than nothing? And the answer is no. Put some brown rice in your rice cooker, and it will be done by the time the delivery person arrives.

If brown rice is so good for you, and white rice is pretty much a waste of calories, why not just eat rice bran, which is part of what is taken away from brown rice to make white rice? Bad idea? Doesn’t matter either way? Or, great idea—you get all the good stuff concentrated together?

Unfortunately, you also get the bad stuff concentrated together as well. Plants grown in waterlogged soil can absorb arsenic found naturally in the environment, and it concentrates in the bran.

Does that mean we shouldn’t eat brown rice? No. But if you eat a lot of rice, I would encourage you to buy U.S.-grown rice, as it tends to have lower arsenic levels than Asian- or European-grown rice.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Image thanks to Calgary Reviews via Flickr.

Doctor's Note

Here are some more videos on rice:
Kempner Rice Diet: Whipping Us Into Shape
Power Plants

And check out my other videos on rice. 

For further context, see my associated blog post, How Much Arsenic In Rice Came From Chickens? 

Update: I did a deep-dive into the arsenic issue in summer 2017. Here are the 13 videos in that series:

If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my videos for free by clicking here. Read our important information about translations here.

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