Be careful of arsenic levels in rice

What do you think is the common ingredient in both conventional and organic rice and rice-based food? It is arsenic.

Arsenic is toxic and it is found in high concentrations in rice. Rice is unique among plants in that it will absorb large amounts of arsenic from the soil. Rice-based food consumption can account for almost 50 percent of daily arsenic consumption. Unfortunately, neither the United States nor the European Union has set any meaningful standards for arsenic levels in rice.

There are two forms of arsenic, organic and inorganic. The inorganic form is significantly more toxic than the organic form. However, in the body, the organic form can be converted into the more toxic inorganic form. The inorganic form of arsenic is classified by the European Union as well as the International Agency on Research for Cancer as a class I carcinogen.

All plants absorb arsenic from the soil, but rice excels at this. Although arsenic does occur naturally, human activity (mining, manufacturing and pesticides) releases the most arsenic into the soil. The United States leads the world in the use of arsenic. Since the 1900s over 1.6 million tons of arsenic have been released into the environment in the U.S. alone.

Arsenic also enters our food chain through animal feed. Arsenic-containing compounds are fed to animals (not certified organic), especially chickens, to prevent disease as well as promote growth. The levels of arsenic in chicken feed can be high enough to make the fertilizer from poultry waste arsenic “toxic.”

Rice is the staple food of the world and many of the products that are consumed in the United States contain rice, especially baby formula and baby food. Although rice by itself only contributes to about 18 percent of our exposure to arsenic, rice is ubiquitous in cereals. This can contribute to up to 50 percent of our total daily intake of arsenic.

It does not matter whether rice is organically or conventionally grown, if there is arsenic in the soil, even if it has been there for decades, it can find its way into the rice. In one study involving over three thousand participants, those who ate one rice food per day had urinary arsenic levels forty-four percent higher than those who did not eat any rice. More alarmingly, those who ate two or more servings of rice food per day had a seventy percent increase in urinary arsenic.

Not all rice grown in the United States has the same level of arsenic, and brown rice has higher levels of arsenic than white rice. The highest concentration of arsenic is in rice grown in the South Central area of the United States, but this area produces almost 80 percent of all the rice grown in the U.S. The best way to avoid arsenic is to eat less food made from rice or consume rice grown in areas with less soil arsenic, such as California.

• Patrick B. Massey, MD, PH.D., is medical director for complementary and alternative medicine at Alexian Brothers Hospital Network and president of ALT-MED Medical and Physical Therapy, 1544 Nerge Road, Elk Grove Village. His website is www.alt-med.org.