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Simple cooking methods flush arsenic out of rice (2015)

nature.com

41–50 of 64 posts

Re: Simple cooking methods flush arsenic out of rice (2015)

#41
post #40
post #6

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

> 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

To add to that video: 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 =)

Re: Simple cooking methods flush arsenic out of rice (2015)

#42

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?

Might be prohibitively expensive but a recycling percolating cooker with an arsenic filter could be created.

Re: Simple cooking methods flush arsenic out of rice (2015)

#45
post #22

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...

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.

Re: Simple cooking methods flush arsenic out of rice (2015)

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All Asians do AFAIK. Also, Indians (and perhaps a lot of south-asians) cook a lot with (ground/) parboiled rice.

Do you mean poha?

There's "raw" rice and there's parboiled rice. Parboiled rice is more nutritious. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parboiled_rice

Poha is flattened or beaten rice. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flattened_rice

Re: Simple cooking methods flush arsenic out of rice (2015)

#48
post #22

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...

It might be lower in arsenic, but you still have to watch out for other heavy metals. For example:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4690941/

Re: Simple cooking methods flush arsenic out of rice (2015)

#49
post #47
post #6

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

I wonder if rinsing it helps remove the bacterial spores that can contaminate improperly cooled rice, too?

Very few medically significant bacterial spores survive boiling temperatures. Clostridium botulinum (botulism) is the common one, and it prefers an anaerobic environment (and other requirements: low salt and low acidity[1] — which is why home fermentation, done properly, avoids the risk) and not a lot of microbial competition, in order to get a foothold.

Even if you ignore the standard recommendations, to refrigerate within 1-2 hours, and to toss refrigerated food after 4-5 days, contamination with less-hardy bacteria is far more likely if the food isn't sealed. You tend to have to go out of your way with unsafe canning[2] or fermenting[3] to get botulism poisoning.

Food contamination is generally the result of airborne or insect-borne or utensil-borne microbes that are far less robust than botulinum. Typical contamination tends to occur after the food has been removed from heat, and has cooled enough so the microbes won't be killed almost instantly. Or, of course, if the food was improperly cooked and wasn't uniformly heated to sufficient temperature in the first place.

[1] https://jfoodprotection.org/doi/pdf/10.4315/0362-028X-42.3.2...

[2] https://www.cdc.gov/Mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6429a6.htm

[3] https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5032a2.htm

Re: Simple cooking methods flush arsenic out of rice (2015)

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"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.

Also see various methods of cooking.
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