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September 19th, 2012
03:37 PM ET
Report: 'Worrisome' levels of arsenic in riceEating rice once a day can increase arsenic levels in the body by at least 44%, according to a new study from Consumer Reports. The study surveyed more than 60 different rice products ranging from infant cereals to rice pasta and rice drinks and found “worrisome” levels of inorganic arsenic in most of the products. Others suggest, however, the levels are not cause for concern. According to the Centers for Disease Control, inorganic arsenic has been linked to liver, bladder, and lung cancer. Urvashi Rangan, Consumer Reports lead scientist on the study, said the study isn’t meant to scare people from eating rice, rather “our investigation of arsenic in rice is supposed to inform consumers.” Rangan said, “We wanted to help consumers at least be able to take action for themselves in terms of moderating themselves. We asked the government to set standards.” The Consumer Reports study found that white rice had lower levels of arsenic compared to brown rice, and that rice grown in Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas, generally had higher levels of arsenic. Currently, there are no federal standards for arsenic levels in food, but the Environmental Protection Agency has a federal standard for arsenic in drinking water. New Jersey has even more stringent standards, allowing just half the amount of arsenic allowed by the EPA. Almost 40% of the products tested exceeded the New Jersey limits, but all were in line with federal limits for drinking water. But "the levels are low," said Jim Coughlin, an independent toxicologist who has consulted for the USA Rice Federation in the past. "If we're going to eat, there's going to be arsenic in all our foods. It's found in fruits, vegetables and grains, and rice falls in the category. You've got to eat, and I think rice is a safe and nutritious food." “Rice has always been considered a nutritious food and an important part of a healthy diet," the USA Rice Federation said in a statement. "We’ve been made aware of concerns about the level of arsenic in rice, but are not aware of any established studies directly connecting rice consumption and adverse health effects.” The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday released preliminary results of arsenic levels in more than 200 rice and rice sample products. The agency said it expects to finish collecting and analyzing more than 1,200 samples by the end of the year. Once the samples are analyzed and completed, the FDA will determine if additional recommendations are needed. Currently, the sample levels of arsenic the FDA found are in line with what the Consumer Reports study found. “Based on the currently available data and scientific literature, the FDA does not have an adequate scientific basis to recommend changes by consumers regarding their consumption of rice and rice products," the agency said in a statement. However, the Consumer Reports study recommended people eat no more than two servings of a quarter-cup of dry rice a week. For children under 5, the group advised against drinking rice drinks as part of their daily diet. They also recommended no more than one serving of infant rice cereal a day for babies. Dr. Frank Greer, a pediatrician and former chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics nutrition committee, said that the data on arsenic in food is limited. “Yes, the numbers are concerning. But we don’t really know what arsenic means when it's in food ... it’s present in all foods. This includes organic fruits and vegetables." However, he suggested that concerned parents follow the Consumer Reports suggestions. “No mother wants to take any chance with an infant. So if she feels that way about it, and Consumer Reports is all we have, I think that’s what she should follow.”
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CNN is eager to point out the bad in foods, but ignores the numerous, effective, and simple detoxification techniques to expunge toxins from the body.
"Detoxification" is bullsh!t. The body does detoxification on its own.. if you want to help the process I would say sufficient water intake and exercise are the most effective actions you can take.
Why does Jimbos post make me think of an old James Bond movie where his bosses complain he is getting fat and needs to go to some sort of weigh loss and conditioning program. As he leaves the office Money Penny asks Bond what his next mission is and he tells her gravely, "I'm to eliminate all free radicals". Money Penny replies "Oh, sounds dangerous, do be careful James".
Jimbo's comment is about as inane.
daniel...Thank you, thank you. All this detoxification stuff is just horse manure. You are also right in that the body does provide some nature mechanisms ...think liver and kidneys for starters. Still, the body it is not designed to filter huge amounts of toxins and they can build up over time if we aren't a little careful. Colonics and detox "procedures" are just money-making nonsense. T
Risotto is rice
What toxins, pray tell, are you trying to expung?
Please, this is BP's Corexit.
Let's Purge Them instead.
What other foods have this chemical in them?
We are all going to die!
What foods dont is a better question
Are the Chinese poisoning our fields? We should nuke them to be safe.
Yes, we are all going to die. No escaping that.
Sure...lets subconsciously malign China (as a great many people in the U.S. identify rice with Asians) and badmouth brown rice. Yeah healthy protein sucks, America. This is propaganda.
Isolotus, seriously? Rice is a global food. It's certainly not propaganda, imbecile.
Anyway...this article fails to mention anything about organic rice. Why?
A lot of us associate rice with Mexican food, or perhaps a yummy Italian dish called risotto that requires and Italian strain of arborio rice to do correctly. Try it, it is fast and easy to make and you can put all kinds of things in it.
But if rice was as bad as the lunk-heads at CR claim Asians should be dropping dead by the millions. Rice three times a day in a traditional Asian diet. Sounds like a bunch of hooey to me.
Propaganda? Propaganda by whom? The "Americans Against Rice Group(ARRG!)
Really?: Thanks for participating in International Talk Like a Pirate Day
risotto is a pasta, not rice.
Risotto is rice, not pasta. So who's the "cheesehead?"
My recollection is that most rice in the US is domestic....when I think Rice I think Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Texas, which account for 34 percent of U.S. produced rice. 85% of all rice consumed in the US is grown in the US (Source: USA Rice Federation). So I don't think of China at all.
@To Cheese Head: you obviously don't get out much. Risotto is not a pasta dish, it is made with rice, Arborio rice.
when i thin of rice it is true i think of china, but i think of india, mexico, spain, vietnam(idk why.....probably because i have a lot of vietnamese friends) AND then china. that is the order of countries i thought of when i read this article...........
my point is east asians arent the only people who eat rice, many cultures have it as a staple.
To "To Cheese Head",
You are a moron.
Read the article. Its not all rice. Its rice from Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas mostly.
Here's a handy memory aid in case you ever forget if Risotto is pasta or rice:
Think of the word as "Rice-otto" and you will remember that it is rice!
PS: Dear supermarkets: would it be so difficult to put the risotto in the same aisle as the other rice?
Hah, now I'll bring this up when my wife criticizes me for choosing white rice over brown rice 🙂
I guess we can try to eat sunshine for a day or two.
who funded this study? The beef industry? Chicken farmers of America? Without full disclosure this information is suspect...nothing proper about this propaganda.
it's clearly stated in the first line of the article.
Consumer Reports. Their policy is: "To remain independent we accept
no outside advertising, pay for all the products we test, and, as we are a not for
profit organization, we have no shareholders. "
Potato Industry Association
Consumer Reports received a huge grant from Pew.
FROM NOW ON I EAT ONLY AIR.
hopefully only in Colorado
Nobody tell him about air pollution then, or he'll eat even less than air.
i hope you dont live near LA, Cincinatti, Pittsburgh, New York, Chicago, Houston, San Diego, New Dehli, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Prague, Berlin, Seoul, London, Toronto, Rio De Janiero, Cape Town, Mexico City, Lagos, Karachi, Cairo, Detroit, Panama City, Buenos Aires, Rome, Nairobi, Tehran, Moscow, Tokyo, Sydney, St. Petersburg, Bucharest, Budapest, Toledo, Barcelona, Seattle, Islamabad, St. Louis, Kuwait City........etc
i hope u dont live down wind of or in a major city is what im trying to say lol 😛
Air is good for you, but if you eat only air, every time you cough people will think you are bulimic.
Gee, just when I thought the food pollice were going to order us all to live on rice, cardboard, and water.
Jesus. We are surely poisoning ourselves by polluting this planet. I remember when you could catch a fish in a lake and eat it, too. What is this world coming to?
Yep, great idea Tea Party / GOP we need less regulation on everything.
ridiculous and unacceptable....so what is the FDA doing to improve this problem? nothing, just trying to give more people cancer.
Hey chieatfetus,
The Rethuglicans in Congress and on Faux News argue that the EPA and FDA are ruining the USA by over-regulating things. (Case-in-point: Republicans in Congress stating that they are lifting any junk food bans on Capitol Hill, and/or calling pizza a food group). The FDA has enough trouble keeping their powers as they are - and not losing the ability to protect Americans from contaminants and abusive corporate pollution. You're angry at the FDA for not doing more?
LMAO!
Ah yes, our poisoned planet. Gotta make a buck before the Rapture come!
this report is B.S
Blame the Chinese for the rice. I know we are talking about rice grown here in southern states but the Chinese probably invented rice farming so they are the source of the problem.
That's probably the dumbest comment I've seen all day. Yeah, only the Chinese eat rice in this world. Blame them! Oh, let's blame the French for our french fries! By the way, the Chinese are probably blaming Americans for bringing obesity into their country. Thank you fast food places like McDonalds and KFC.
That's pretty funny, but it sounds like we should more correctly be saying American grown rice has a high rate of arsnic. Now I wounder, how does it compare with soy beans, corn, wheat grown in US soil? Maybe the problem is not rice, but rather our poluted soil?
@ Lejaune: Um, you are joking, right?
Oh no! Me no rikey. I rikey eah fry rice alla time. Now whah I do? Whah I eah?
Tomorrow we are going to hear about problems with the brakes on Toyotas. I wonder how much McDonalds and Ford pays for these stories?
Can you imagine the outrage that would ensue if the media posted something negative about the Atkins diet?!? Everybody and their mother is still eating low carb. What a joke, that is a transitory diet fad that won't die!
just read the Georgia Guidestones.
Answer me this- why do we bother having the FDA since they seem incapable of protecting us from poisonous food and incapable of keeping us informed about potentially dangerous foods. Processed foods are stuffed full of chemicals, and everything is sprayed with poisons (pesticides which are designed to kill living things- aren't we living things?)
What would you suggest? No Regulation?
The FDA is around to tell us that Monsanto foods are safe.
Seriously. You have to have limits as to how much is acceptable. If you simply say NO TOXINS then no food is safe. The feds set the limit to be what they consider safe and this rice is under the limit.
And stay away from Southeast Asian rice especially Thailand. They sanitary conditions are horrible and bug sprays and chemicals are pervasive.
Umm.... I hope these people tell all the Asian (including myself) to only eat rice twice a week, umm... thats going to put half of the worlds population in starvation... wow and I eat rice three times a day... heck my mother whose 89 eats rice five times a day all her life.
Some people have more options than others. Are we supposed to pretend we don't know anything about food because not everyone has the same access to it?
JGA Phillip Anthony Biondo for President 2012 of the Fraternity Party! Kegs party at the White House! Free College like k-12. Free Healthcare. All safe drugs over the counter. Evolution, big bang, god of Milky Way. Fraternity party: I'm suing the supreme court Apes for freedom of Religion, I suffer from severe depression because holy medicines, primarily thc, psilocybin, mescaline, lsd, and dmt are illegal, in fact I committed suicide. I work for God so don't tell me it's not freedom of religion. Kill the DEA! Superhuman AI: 2045. Navy Nuclear Spaceships. Meditate. I'm a Sapien, what are you? Does Obama or Romney believe in global warming? We are like deer in the headlights.
You didn't do your suicide correctly, try again.
Oh great, now the "Modern" food chain is poisoning us vegans, first I quit poultry, pork and beef and now I have to quit rice...please Aliens get me off this sick planet.
The global elite are planning to kill us all – this story doesn't surprise me in the slightest to be honest. If they cared – there wouldn't be fluoride in the water, which a Harvard study has connected to brain damage – just look it up, BPA wouldn't be used in can-linings, plastic bottles, etc – and GMO's would be labeled and avoidable if desired versus being pushed on everyone as if we were nothing more than test-animals. Don’t even get me started on vaccinations and the mercury / contaminations that have shown up in a number of samples / tests… point being, they think the world is overpopulated and they are going to soft-kill as many of us that they can … those that survive have the right to be here through genetic superiority – the others no one will miss. God bless America.
Sounds like you need a tinfoil hat fitting as well...
Boy and nothing about all the additives and artificial ingredients in our canned soup?
ugh canned soup is disgusting. so much salt
I like the taste of yellow #5...
When are you all going to finally realize this is part of their depopulation agenda. I mean how much more has top happen for all you morons, yes all of you morons to finally realize the depopulation agenda is true. All you have to do is your research, read United Nations Agenda 21, Liten to Bill gates speech at T.E.D. There is so much info even from The Rothchilds and Rockafellers about the need to get rid of 2/3 of the entire population or eventually all resources are going to be used up. That is their thinking whether they are true or not but the fact is THEY believe it and they are so stupid that they even put their plans on paper for the last 80 years. Wake the hell up people. Grow your own food if you can. I mean how many different reports about everything we buy ends up with some sort of poison before you people will finally get smart and realize their agenda is real.
Wanna come by my house and I'll help you fit your tinfoil hat?
:^) @ ItSoNlYmE
All fruits, vegetables and grains, no matter how they are grown, contain some elements or compounds that are potentially toxic. I eat a lot of rice and that's not going to change.
Uncle Ben is trying to poison us!
I don't eat rice so don't much care, didn't even read the whole article. Just thought I would post my meaningless comment.
I read you comment, then I kinda forgot about it. I wanted to reply anyway...
Between this manufactured panic, and the new Spinach-Panic that was announced today....it's a good day to be a carnivore!
So sick of hearing about poison food. Glad it is being reported on. Nothing is being done to solve it. The argument is based on that product. Not food as a whole. Makes me sick. No accountability whatsoever.
Well, since As is a natural component of many soils, we can call this rice "organic"
It's ok, most of us already have advanced heart disease from the transfat.
Today it's arsnic in rice and listeria in spinach. I'm going to start going back to junk food. No surprises there.
Risotto is rice, not pasta. Duh!
If we all knew what we ingested into our bodies on a daily basis, we would not eat or breathe.
If the levels are that bad, the products should be recalled until the problem is fixed. Just more foods they don't want anyone to eat. Let's see, any meat is bad. Potatoes are bad. Bread is bad. Now brown rice, which they used to tell us was a healthy low GI carb, is bad. What the heck is left? This is getting ridiculous. Either recall the products that we are supposedly forbidden by the food police to eat, or stop all of the food fear mongering.
Eat your fingernails. At least you know where they came from.
I eat lots of rice.Its so tasty.CNN should stop telling me what I should and should not put in my mouth.
Hi, I'm Hector Guerrero Lara and I eat rice all the time. Is there a difference between white and brown rice? Do I need to stop eating rice? I can't believe the FDA can't get their act together. Maybe it's just life – eat a little poison and hopefully your body will process it. Thanks, Hector Guerrero Lara
The difference between white rice and brown rice is the color of the rice. You see, brown rice has the color brown. White rice has the color white. After you eat it, however, both types end up being colored brown.
Let's see....eggs used to be bad for you. Now they are ok. Coffee used to be bad for you. Now it's ok. Know what? I ususally ignore stuff like this and enjoy things in moderation, eat right, lots of water and exercise. DONE.
So 3/4 of the earth's population is suddenly dead because of this headline? Seriously...???
I gave up on Consumer Reports a long time ago when I checked reviews of things I had already owned instead of what I was about to buy.
You know what 44% above nearly zero is? Still nearly zero. 44 is a big number, no?
Consumer Reports still has a good used car guide...
Ever since these companies started all the genetically-modified GMO food we see all these problems.
.
I didn't see people dropping dead in the streets when I was living in Asia.
Bookmark and start visiting naturalnews dot calm (paraphrased) if you want the truth about foods, corporations, pharma, organizations etc..that are working hard to poison us...and remedies available that the aforementioned also work very hard to suppress.
This article is a joke and attacked rice eating people of east asia. Tell the Americans to stop eating 10 – 20 cup cakes a day, more KFC, foods make people fat, jelly donut, and dozens of hawaii punch.
LOL
"However, the Consumer Reports study recommended people eat no more than two servings of a quarter-cup of dry rice a week."
Nobody eats dry rice, and nobody eats dry beans.... what's the equivalent cooked?
Wet and bigger...
guess we should use the Asians as a control group. When they start dropping off like flies then cut your consumption in half.
Now there's a nice racist suggestion....
Rice consumption has continuously been on the rise in America and the west in general. Competing with domestically grown wheat as sources for side dishes. At the rate of growth, it will soon become a main stay and more common at dinner tables. Economically translating to wealth shift to countries that grow rice, just like oil transfers American dollars out.
So who financed this study? The Wheat Board? Which other universities outside the west have come to the same?
You can't trust anything these days, there is always an interest behind everything that is thrown into public eyes....there is poison in almost anything...you can make a headline news of this
85% of of the rice consumed in the US is grown here.
it is not the people over seas trying to kill us with rice it is our on people read the article it is grown right here in the good old USA