Eating brown rice increases exposure to arsenic compared to white rice

Whether you buy rice at the grocery store or order one side of it while dining out, do you like brown rice or white rice? Or because brown rice contains more nutrients and fiber, do you only choose brown rice instead of white rice? Well, the answer to this question is not as simple as you think, as it ignores potential food safety issues.

New research from Michigan State University, published in the journal Risk Analysis, found that brown rice contains higher arsenic content and inorganic arsenic concentrations than white rice in the U.S. population.

Although there are no significant health risks for the general public in the United States, there is potential health concern for babies and children under the age of 5 because they eat more than adults relative to their weight.

“This study is important because it acknowledges the importance of considering food safety and nutrition when consumers choose food,” said the study’s senior researcher.. “While we found that choosing brown rice over white rice can lead to higher average exposure to arsenic, unless someone eats large amounts of brown rice every day for many years, levels should not cause long-term health problems.”

Research background and methodology

Arsenic is a natural component of the earth’s crust and it is highly toxic. Rice has significantly higher arsenic content than other cereal grains. In fact, rice has nearly 10 times the arsenic content of other grains.

This is because rice usually grows in the continuous flooding of Padid, and the conditions of wet soil are conducive to absorbing arsenic from the soil into the plants.

Although the nutritional benefits of brown rice are well documented, white rice is still consumed more in the United States and globally.

Therefore, Wu and Christian Scott, a postdoctoral research assistant and lead author in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, compared arsenic exposure and associated risks between brown and white rice in the U.S. population.

Specifically, after comparing the nutritional aspects of brown and white rice, Wu and Scott used a database that provided a database for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Joint Institute for Food Safety’s We Diet in the United States database and applied nutrition to calculate the average daily intake of brown and white rice rice.

The results provide insight into the differences in arsenic levels between brown and white rice, as well as more complex data on how levels vary by region, highlighting where people are and which populations may increase health risks.

Geographical Arsenic Differences

The concentrations of inorganic arsenic in white and brown rice are quite different. For rice grown in the United States, researchers found that the proportion of toxic arsenic in white rice was 33%, compared with 48% in brown rice. Among the rice grown worldwide, 53% of the total arsenic of white rice is inorganic, and 65% of the total arsenic in brown rice is inorganic. Organic arsenic is more common in seafood and other foods because it is easily excreted from the body, so organic arsenic is less toxic.

Some populations are also more vulnerable to injury due to increased consumption of rice or susceptibility to arsenic exposure. Specifically, this includes young children facing food insecurity, the Asian immigrant population and population.

The values ​​found by the researchers do show that brown rice has a potentially harmful risk of arsenic exposure to children under 5 years of age and 6 months of age.

Explain the results

It is important not to interpret these findings as evidence that brown rice is unhealthy, or that you should just consume white rice right now, Wu said. Brown rice does contain important ingredients such as fiber, protein and niacin, which all benefit consumers.

“This exposure assessment is only one side of the equation when examining the potential trade-off between brown and white rice consumption,” Wu said. “Even if the arsenic content in brown rice is slightly higher than white rice, more research is needed to demonstrate whether the potential risk of this exposure will be partially reduced by the potential nutritional benefits provided by rice bran.”

The researchers suggest that empirical analysis of the costs and benefits of social public health is completed by consuming brown rice compared to white rice. In the manuscript, they document other key differences between brown and white rice, including price, overall nutritional welfare, and environmental burden.

Potential policy changes

Long-term exposure to arsenic throughout life may increase the risk of cancer. Therefore, this study raises questions about consumer behavior and public health. If more and more consumers are aware of the arsenic problem, they may deliberately make different dietary decisions, especially when it comes to consuming rice. With water already under regulation, the FDA’s approach zero initiative will soon set the level of action for arsenic based on risk assessments for the U.S. population. It is important for all consumers to be aware of the arsenic levels in foods and to understand that brown rice is the primary source.

When Americans try to eat healthy and want to incorporate higher content content choices into their diet, the study challenges the idea that these choices are just black and white, or in this case brown and white.