New steps for cooking rice can reduce the health risks of consuming too much arsenic in the diet.
Rice contains the highest amounts of arsenic than any other cereal crops which can lead to lung and bladder cancer based on evidence from FDA’s Total Diet Study.
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Cooking rice in a certain way removes over 50 percent of the naturally occurring arsenic in brown rice, and 74 percent in white rice, according to new research.
Rinsing is a method to reduce arsenic levels in rice but at the expense of washing away essential health nutrients like enriched iron, folate, thiamin and niacin.
The Institute for Sustainable Food team found parboiling the rice in pre-boiled water for five minutes before draining and refreshing the water, then cooking it on a lower heat to absorb all the water retained micronutrients and lowered arsenic levels.
While brown rice has higher arsenic concentrations, white rise is considered more of a risk due to a higher consumption rate.
Arsenic is a carcinogen that accumulates in rice and affects almost every organ in the body leading to skin lesions, cancer, diabetes and lung diseases when consumed over long periods.
According to the FDA, eliminating rice and rice products from the diets of infants and children under 6 years old lowers the chance of developing lung or bladder cancer from arsenic contamination by approximately 6% over their lifetime.