According to a recent report, toxic heavy metals such as toxic heavy metals have been found in high levels across the country, but experts say there are ways to reduce your exposure.
The report comes from a healthy baby, the bright future, is a tissue focused on baby exposure to toxic chemicals.
The report said a quarter of rice samples also exceeded the one-billion arsenic-arsenic-arsenic-set federal limit set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for 2021. Currently, although the Environmental Protection Agency has marked the carcinogen of inorganic arsenic A, there has been no restrictions on the rice itself in the United States.
While children are more susceptible to arsenic toxicity than adults, Sung Kyun Park, professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, was not involved in the report, telling CBS News that expanding federal news restrictions on rice, not just baby rice grains, is an important future step.
"Arsenic is very important for the regulation of rice, but the FDA is not doing that right now," he said.
Meanwhile, for those looking to reduce exposure, here are some options:
Parker said the most practical advice is to diversify your diet to include other grains. He said it was important for Korean Americans like himself to eat rice every day.
“It’s important to reduce your dependence on rice as a staple diet,” he said. “Whenever I cook rice, we add rice, quinoa and other whole grains.”
HBBF's tests found that the total heavy metal levels of alternatives, including quinoa, barley and couscous, were significantly lower than those of rice. The team tested 66 samples of rice alternatives.
Parker said while arsenic pollution in rice has been famous for years, one of the most interesting findings in the latest report is data on how levels vary in the growing regions. For example, any rice grown in California was found to have lower arsenic contents in California.
"So whenever you buy rice at (A) grocery store, check the back," Parker said.
"Study shows that the 6 to 10 cups of water in every 1 cup of rice draining excess water before eating can eliminate a lot of arsenic," HBBF reported.
But Parker admits: “Cooking rice like pasta is not easy”, which may discourage people from such choices.
But if you are willing to put in the work, the FDA says cooking methods can reduce arsenic content by 40% to 60%, depending on the type of rice.
In addition to the location where the planted is, the HBBF report also found that some types of rice have higher levels of heavy metal than others. For example, white rice is usually lower than brown.
Other low-end options include jasmine rice from Thailand and Basmati rice from India, the report said.