Arsenic. It’s in your rice. And if you’ve been following the recent hooplah over the high (and potentially cancerous) levels that have been detected, you might be tempted to never eat rice again. What food IS safe these days??
My response – just don’t eat it (or any food for that matter) at high levels. Ditto for red meat, saturated fat, soy, milk, wheat, and chocolate! We are so conditioned (or is it human nature?) to go to extremes when we learn something is either good or bad for us. Flax seeds are good so they’re now cropping up in our cookies. Chia seeds (also high in omega 3) are floating around in our iced teas and sprouted nuts have just been given ocean front property in the bulk section of my Whole Foods.
I can’t imagine living without rice. For starters, I LOVE –scratch that– cant’ live without, salmon/brown rice/avocado sushi rolls. But the passion goes back long before I found sushi. I have fond memories of Sunday evenings when my Mom would go on strike in the kitchen, open up the fridge, line up the leftovers on the counter and say, “Dinner’s ready!” One of the favorite things we would make with the leftovers was Fried Rice – since rice was always one of the offerings on the counter. It was the healthy version – meaning it was always loaded up with whatever veggie leftovers were around and a couple eggs were tossed in. The other two essential ingredients were soy sauce (lots of it) and ginger. Actually, I’m not sure we added ginger when I was little – I think that was a later addition, but I recommend it. Highly.
So since we’re not going to stop eating the stuff, here are a few tips I’ve come across that might help lessen the arsenic levels…..
- Rinse it thoroughly. It won’t eliminate all the arsenic but it could reduce the levels by 25 % or so.
- Cook and drain it (like pasta). This seems to be even more effective than the rinsing. But do both.
- Choose aromatic rices. Basmati or Thai jasmine rices have the lowest levels of arsenic and the imported ones seem to have even less arsenic than that grown in the US.
Get the recipe for Healthy Fried Rice
Has the arsenic news affected your rice habits? Fave ways to eat rice?
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