I am assuming that you know about "worrisome" levels of arsenic in rice, but do you know how arsenic

[No Elephants]

gets in rice?

To begin with, inorganic arsenic is considered a level one carcinogen, linked to lung and bladder cancer.

Arsenic is in the soil. How does arsenic gets in the soil? Well, supposedly, some arsenic is in the soil "naturally." But the rest is in the soil because they feed it to turkeys (happy holidays), chickens and pigs, then they use their arsenic-laced poop for fertilizer for the crops we eat. (Arseic makes them grow faster or some such profit motive.)

Rice just has more than other crops because it is grown underwater and absorbs the water efficiently. So, if you have, say, chicken and rice, you are getting a double whammy.

The rice industry denies that the levels of arsenic in rice are unsafe. The chicken industry denies that chickens raised as food for humans get arsenic anymore. Consumer Reports takes issue with that. saying there are about 100 arsenic based products still being used.


If you eat rice with most of your meals, I would read this article carefully and take denials with a grain of salt (a very tiny grain because salt is not that great for you, either). And I include denials by our industry protective government agencies, like the FDA and the EPA. Among other things, if my son were still on baby food, I would definitely think thrice before giving him rice.

Better yet, read the Consumer Reports article because rice is not the only problem crop.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/11/arsenic-in-your-food/index.htm

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Meanwhile, rice grown in California supposedly has the least arsenic, with the rice have the most being grown in Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Texas. Because white rice is polished, it contains less arsenic than brown rice, though white rice is also less nutritious. The exception is brown rice organically grown in California, which has the lowest arsenic levels of all rice tested, white or brown. http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/best-ways-avoid-arsenic-rice-besides-not-eating1

Rinsing and then boiling rice in a 6 to 1 water ratio removes about 30 percent of its arsenic. But, I assume it also removes a lot of its nutritional value, too. It's a high calorie item, so I would want to get good nutritional value from it.


http://abcnews.go.com/Health/arsenic-rice-report-finds-worrisome-levels/story?id=17267872#.UNL8FHdn0eN

I am going to buy organic rice so I can feel better about making Hoppin John on New Year's Day!

[formercia]

1. An aquaintance who worked for EPA in the area that regulates additives like Arsenic told me...

that it causes more blood vessels to grow, thus making the meat Pink and supposedly attractive to consumers. It's also used to kill off mites in the chicken houses. She also told me that Perdue doesn't use it, rather, they feed Marigold seeds to the poultry along with their regular diet. I kills Mites and gives the chicken skin a pleasing golden color. A Brother, who is in the upscale Meat business told me that he only sells Perdue because they never freeze the birds, so the Meat cooks better.

[formercia]

2. It was the FDA..my bad. n/t

[No Elephants]

3. Perdue should advertise straight out that they don't give their chickens arsenic.

I was never into this until a few years ago.

Meat is not my favorite food, but being a straight up vegan always seemed like too much trouble to me. A few years ago, it suddenly struck me that I eat a lot of eggs, more than most people, so maybe I should start eating organic eggs. Then, little by little, I started checking ingredients in foods and googling whatever I did not recognize.

There are so many chemicals added to so many foods and many of them are carcinogens. And they are often added for no good reason. Like a chemical is added to most canned chick peas for frickin' color, ffs. Comparing labels, I learned that Rienzi does not add anything to their canned chick peas besides water and salt. Their canned chick peas are a little bit paler (Less yellow) than other canned chick peas. Big deal. I'd rather have slightly paler chick peas than ingest carcinogens.

But I never thought to check something like raw chicken for getting fed arsenic.

Every time I google an additive, wiki tells me the amount added to a food is considered safe. However, I don't eat just one serving of food a week. Who tests the cumulative effect of all the additives most people get in a week? No one.

Thanks very much for the info about Perdue, though. I'll pass it on to a dear friend who just loves him some chicken, but says that he cannot afford to buy organic.

[Enthusiast]

4. Remember when the Republicans lost their minds

when someone, a Democrat I'm sure, proposed the food labeling law? Where would we be now if we listened to those knuckle draggers?

Since I have celiac disease I must carefully check the chicken label. Yes, they actually add wheat gluten to chicken! We do find chicken that is labeled "gluten-free". Turkey and ham too.

[No Elephants]

7. Of course they lost their minds. They didn't want us to know how many

carcinogens they were adding to our food.

Turns out, most people don't read the label anyway, or don't bother to look up the side effects of words they don't recognize or don't care.

At that, most organic cream contains a carcinogen. Why? To make it whip easier or whippier or something. Cah-ray-zee!

[Enthusiast]

5. Thanks for the information, No Elephants. nt

[No Elephants]

6. You're most welcome.