Arsenic On The Menu Today

The recent studies that have come out showing that there could be dangerous amounts of arsenic in all kinds of foods, including anything that contains rice and rice syrup, is very alarming.

So how does arsenic get into our rice and rice syrup? Rice is particularly efficient at taking up arsenic from the soil. As most of the rice crops in the US are grown in soil that was formerly used to grow cotton, there is a big problem because of pesticides. In particular, a pesticide called arsenical pesticide, was used for many, many years for cotton crops. As is the case with almost any chemical compound we pump into and onto the Earth, it never really goes away. So now even organic rice, is drawing up this dangerous chemical from deep down in the Earth and we’re getting too much of it in our diet.

The real bummer is that apparently brown rice is worse than white – so there goes my lovely brown rice syrup and weekly servings of nutty brown rice.

Apparently, we don’t need to be totally freaking out though. There’s arsenic in drinking water and other kinds of foods too. The main concern is baby formula that contains brown rice syrup, because their tiny bodies cannot process and excrete chemicals in the same way as adults.

Rice syrup is the main cause for concern because it contains concentrated amounts of arsenic, and since it’s used to sweeten everything from cereal/energy bars, to infant formula, we need to really watch out. It’s ironic that even the most healthy conscious among us – athletes, and new moms, are the most affected. Also, it makes little difference if your rice or syrup is organic or not.

Health effects of too much arsenic (I mean, it is a poison,) include stomach pain, nausea, numbness, blindness and cancer of the skin, bladder and kidneys.

Make sure that you:

Read your labels, as brown rice syrup is now in all kinds of foods, from bread to cereal bars – check!

If you eat a lot of brown rice, consider quinoa as a great alternative.

If like me, you use brown rice syrup in baking, switch to either date syrup, coconut palm sugar or raw agave nectar.