I just had a big fight with the wife.
I am worried about arsenic in my food.
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You might get a big serving of brown rice for supper...
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Another thing to remember is that young children (who are small) eat more food per pound of body weight than adults while they are young. As a result, the arsenic consumed in rice and through other means can be even more impactful. Dartmouth has a public education website called ArsenicandYou.org, which includes information about arsenic in food, arsenic and children, etc. In the spirit of disclosure, I did work on this with Dartmouth, but do think is valuable info! https://www.dartmouth.edu/~arsenicandyou/health/children.html
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I have babies and I've never given them rice cereal. Not because of arsenic, but because has no nutritional value. I'm not even sure why people give their babies this. There's nothing unique about rice cereal that makes it a good first food. I know it's fortified, but when babies get their first foods around 4-6 months they are still mostly eating breast milk or formula, which contains all nutrients they need. So there is no need for fortified foods. Seems like with the arsenic issue you could just cut rice cereal out entirely.
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What about organic grown rice?
From what this article says, the rice picks it up from the soil/environment (unlike, for example, Roundup, which is actually sprayed on food crops). Where it is grown is probably more relevant than how it was grown.
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Why give your baby rice as a first food? It has very little nutritional value, besides the fortification. It was recommended to me to instead start with foods that are nutritious, like well cooked and puréed pears, butternut squash, turkey, peas, and cauliflower. Mashed avocado and bananas were also in the mix. Eventually I added oatmeal, but rarely gave them rice. My children happily ate these foods, and many more, before moving on to more complex flavors by the age of one.
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No. I'm done with baby food. I'm not worried
Not a shred of good evidence that such tiny amounts are harmful.
I have seen many cases of chronic arsenical induced skin lesions and cancers when examining patients' skin, but the amounts and types of exposures were quite large - and went on for a long time.
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If arsenic in rice is problematic, then why haven't Asian countries where rice is the overwhelmingly dominant grain reported significant problems with their kids? Our bodies are remarkably adept at dealing with low levels of potential toxins, so I doubt that the amounts found in rice would be problematic even if kids eat very large amounts of rice.
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How do you know that? Do you have any studies? You posted none.
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Worry? Who's worried? But seriously, I just heard about this. I'm still not worried. I'm angry and if any of my kids were still of that age I might get homicidal. Arsenic in baby food? The phrase is enough to make me forget Trump for a second. This is about as upsetting as a story could be. Shane on someone.
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It occurs naturally in the ground and in water. Rice plants are very good at taking it in when they are growing. No one did it on purpose.
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This isn't new, just relatively unknown. I read an in-depth study of this over a year ago.
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As a tangential note, the headline of this article exhibits all the characteristics of "Click-bait." It's alarmist in nature, while the article tackles the issue with careful moderation.
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I remember our son when he was a few months old (this was forty-odd years ago). He started to take an interest in our food and we had been feeding various bits. My wife served up his baby food as usual. With a grunt he swept the whole thing aside hitting the floor and nearby furniture. That was the last baby food.
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Generally speaking white rice has less arsenic than brown rice since rice concentrates arsenic in the husk. So is arsenic used by rice to reduced pests impact from eating the grain? Could be but it's not really understood. It could just be there since it's an analogue of phosphorous (chemically) and phosphorous is one of life's limited nutrients, the arsenic comes along for the ride that's meant for phosphorous.
Rice from certain locations has higher arsenic than you'd expect too. Organic rice farmers in the central valley of California published an article in the NYT just a little while back when their rice was found to have higher than expected bamounts in it.
Eating white rice may not be as cool as brown rice but I've never had much trouble getting fiber. Beans and cornbread, rice and beans, bean and rice burritos...
Check the source's growing regions for reports of arsenic in their water. It's not possible for East Asian sources, and maybe others but you'd be surprised what and where our growing regions show high levels.
The standards for arsenic are probably too high too. Experiences in India have shown that it's been too high after wells were dug to provide safer drinking waters. Turns out the wells were high in arsenic but some met allowable standards then caused health troubles anyway.
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I guess everything in moderation. Not too much of anything. Sadly millions of us are sensitive to many foods and everyday products.
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Besides not giving your baby rice cereal, I've also heard that you should never feed your baby turkey gravy at Christmas. This advice is of course heard second hand. At no time did my brother ever feed his baby daughter turkey gravy and watch her quickly projectile vomit that back out all over the table. However, this is a good retort to keep in your back pocket in case your brother ever gives you grief at Christmas. During the next few decades.
A marvelous article. I have sent it to all the families I know that have small children. In this unfortunate age of Trump when government is turning a blind eye and deaf ear to the dangers of unregulated and unsupervised surroundings-- we are lucky that our trustworthy news media (which --like the environment--is also being attacked by he Trump administration) is able to point out some of the areas where we might be able to protect ourselves.
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Healthy Babies Bright Future: i would like to know who your private donors are. You know it's always about money and grabbing some market share.
after 50 years of feeding our babies rice cereal we are told we have to be careful? What has changed if anything? My son is 44, my daughter 38 as are all their friends all raised on rice cereal; all tall healthy very smart with MBA degrees thriving adults. Asians? Eat rice with every meal. They seem to live very long lives. Japanese women? Healthiest hearts on earth. So what exactly are you saying? Why does America always have to negate another food? Let's see: butter, eggs, meat, even lettuce and now rice has been on the list of "bad for you". Rice is delicious; easy to cook, versatile. Please just leave us alone to eat what we like. And yes, who is your non profit and private donors? I'm sure some cereal companies.
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@Zeldie Stuart
http://grist.org/food/theres-arsenic-in-your-rice-and-heres-how-it-got-t...
It is NOT the rice itself that is the problem.
I think where and when you got your rice based food. Contamination is increasing with modern farming practices. The Asian farmers until recently did not use modern farming pesticides etc.
Talking about your individual family members is not valid proof- it is called anecdotal evidence in scientific research- interesting but useless.
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Who they are and who backs them is easy to research. And you want them to leave you alone to eat what you want to eat? It's just information, you can eat whatever you want - who are you to tell them not to give other people information?
https://hbbf.org/about
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I heard on the BBC that rinsing uncooked rice, soaking it and discarding the soak water, will reduce a large amount of the arsenic because it is water-soluble. It also comes out a bit fluffier.
Indian white basmati rice and California rice tested relatively lower in arsenic, while rice from the South tested higher. The origin is often indicated on the label.
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Rice grown in the south is more prone to have arsenic in it, mainly in the outer coating. They have tried to remove the arsenic but cadmium content gets higher which is worse. Multigrain cereal other than rice is perfectly fine. There are some babies who are allergic to rice so it is not as benign as most of us believe it to be. Rice grown in California and Southeast Asia are better due to different soil content. Hope the FDA does their job soon to set limits.
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Can someone tell me why populations that for thousands of years have used rice as a staple have no problems growing exponentially and are not reportedly dying in droves from the effects of arsenic poisoning? Where are the double blind studies saying this is a problem?
Every few years the NYTimes warns us of the deadly effects of things like coffee, eggs, cheese, milk, fats, meat, and sundry other things that taste good, only to publish a year or so later an Emily Litella “never mind” article. I have learned to disregard the NYTimes writings on the deleterious effects of this or that food as they have no more credibility than one of Donald Trump’s “people are saying” tweets. When I start seeing some science, balance, and answers to common sense questions in them that belie faith based science (i.e., faith in assertions that everything we eat that comes through a factory is bad for us) no more reliable than that pushed by evangelical republicans, I will start taking them more seriously.
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the need to bash religion and political opponents in a response to an article on rice reveals more about you than you can imagine...
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You might have noticed that the title of the article is a question. Should you be worried about the arsenic in your baby food? The article goes on to provide INFORMATION and opinions with a suggestion to "eat a variety of foods, not too much of any one thing."
Hardly the "dying in droves" that you seem to have extracted from the article. the NYT is in the business of supplying information to its readers. It trusts them to make the best decisions they can with that information, including ignoring it if they want.
As people farm rice and other crops in places like California and Texas where there's a limit on water they can use well water and when well water gets drawn down the alkalinity of the water goes up.
When the alkalinity goes up the solubility of arsenic increases as well. Therefore there's more arsenic in crops that are grown during droughts than when there's normal precipitation. Or in the later stages of drought. The central valley there has been sinking because of the use of ground water.
I prefer to get rice from states where there's still strong environmental checks and balances, but even so California has often fallen sway to a party that cares little for facts and tests.
This is why I stopped eating baby food. No more arsenic for me!
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Moral to this story should be, if you can, breast feed the child until he/she is 2 years old or decides he/she is no longer interested. Don't tell me about teeth, if you explain to baby that a bite to the breast terminates future meals via the breast, you won't get bitten. My little boy had 8 teeth by the time he was 4 months old and I explained it to him. He never bot me and I was able to nurse him for 18 months. Babies are not stupid or foolish.
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And for those of who cannot, then what?
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Your 4 month old understood all that? Some women can't breast feed for that length of time or may need to leave their child with someone else. What happens then?
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I know that there is a study of Brown and White rice, that said that location and country of where rice is grown, is what determines the amount of arsenic that the plant takes in from the ground...am sorry I can not point to the name of the study.
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Rice is first cereal because easily digested and well tolerated and few if any allergies. So it is chosen for good reasons.
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Other cereals are also easy to digest and (not to be gross) they are less constipating than rice. So, other options are available if folks are concerned and their pediatricians are on board. We started with oatmeal (mixed with pureed prunes - yum!) rather than rice cereal at our pediatrician's recommendation because our daughter was prone to constipation, and that was the best option for us. If your child is prone to allergies, then your pediatrician is the best resource to inform and weigh costs and benefits.
You say "...brown rice, which tends to absorb more inorganic arsenic from the environment,..." as if brown rice and white rice are different varieties. White rice is simply brown rice that the exterior brown portion has been milled off of. More of the arsenic is in the exterior portion. I also have to agree with the many previous commenters who raised the pesticide residue problem. So many diseases have gone up as levels of pesticides have risen in the environment and in our food and water supplies -- obesity, Type 2 diabetes, bowel cancer, attention deficit disorder -- not to mention that the average sperm count has dropped by half. It seems likely that pesticides and herbicides are a much bigger threat than arsenic. Lets see a study showing the levels of those in baby food (and everything else).
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You shouldn't be feeding the baby in that photo any kind of cereal! That looks horribly dangerous. A baby should be able to sit on his/ her own and express interest in the food offered. Suggest you try again on an appropriate graphic.
Editor’s note: This comment has been anonymized in accordance with applicable law(s).
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The standard pediatric advice in the US is to start introducing solid foods like cereal at four months. The baby in the photo is easily four months, and most four-month-olds cannot sit up yet.
You may chose to believe that the advice is wrong, but the photo is perfectly appropriate.
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Are rice cereals cheaper?
Do children who were exposed to lots of rice cereal as infants perform any worse than their barley/wheat fed controls?
Do they get more cancers?
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Breastfeeding (so you can introduce solids later), baby led weaning (and avoiding rice for it's poor nutrional value) avoids the whole problem.
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Also, one additional comment- what a weird photo to accompany this article. Looks like the child is lying down ?!?
Never, ever feed a child any type of food except milk unless they can sit up on their own-- they aren't ready. Feeding in any other position is dangerous.
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Is it really worth it to have an entire article based on non peer-reviewed data and conclusions?
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Or, how about we outlaw the pesticides that leave this arsenic residue on our food?
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They were already banned a long time ago, but traces of them remain in the soil.
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That is not enough. Arsenic is a naturally occurring element; some soils simply have high levels of arsenic. Arsenic is also released through smelters that refine metals like copper, from coal-fired power plants and garbage incinerators, and from volcanoes, The arsenic released by this process settles as dust on farmlands,
We already have standards for arsenic levels in drinking water; we need them for rice-based foods as well.
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And arsenic is found naturally in the soil.
Long ago, when this issue first was publicized, it was said that rice grown in California had less arsenic than that from the SE. Any more on that?
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It's not just arsenic-ridden rice cereal that poses a risk; think of fruits contaminated with pesticides. The list of the worst pesticide contaminated fruits appeared on the news a few years ago, and apples were No. 1 as the worst, 2nd was celery (although not a fruit), 3rd on the list was strawberries, 4th was peaches. While arsenic is found in the natural environment in the earth's crust, toxic pesticides are man-made. Very little in the food chain is safe for consumption.
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Or.... you could do "baby led weaning", where you introduce normal foods to your child and let them play and taste before really eating. Most people try to get their kids to eat a cereal before they are really ready. Kids are ready when they start becoming interested in your food and reaching for it- usually a minimum of 6 months old. Children have a built in gag reflex that is much more to the front of the mouth than adults and this gradually moves back. Shoveling in rice cereal right at the beginning tries to overcome this. Let your child go at their own pace and offer a variety of food (minus the salt, their bodies can't handle it).
And rice cereal often leads to constipation, not really sure why this is supposed to be a first food anyway.
Peel for your kids your fruit and veggies regardless even if you buy organic. Sweet potatoes, Avocados, Mangos, even a safe chicken bone (no splintering parts) are a great first start.
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Dr. Cottingham, says "if there are foods that are high in arsenic, just don't eat them all the time." Based on the Dartmouth study results, here are five foods that shouldn't make regular appearances in your daily diet because they contain arsenic
1. Brussels sprouts
2. Dark-meat fish
3. Rice
4. Chicken and other poultry
5. Beer and wine
for more healthcare articles visit https://www.medicostuff.com/medical-blogs/
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Cereal should not be your baby's first food anyway. Try homemade pureed fruits and vegetables. If the fruit or vegetable is hard, like apples or sweet potatoes, steam, roast, or boil them before pureeing. Also, beware of gluten free products for children because they often contain rice as a substitute for wheat.
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Rice cereal shouldn't be your baby's first food. Try pureed fruits and veggies. If they're hard, like sweet potatoes, steam them before pureeing.
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There is no safe level of human arsenic ingestion. The question is what level of risk is acceptable? Radon gas in homes has a "safe" level but that just means an acceptable risk. How do you establish an acceptable risk for baby food? Mothers want to know.
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Ten more things to know about arsenic and rice, from science writer and author of The Poisoner's Handbook: https://undark.org/2016/04/08/arsenic-rice-poison-children-fda/
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As this article indicates, rice or rice products may be found in various foods, making it necessary to read labels in order to avoid unnecessary arsenic exposure. It would be valuable to investigate and report on why alternatives to a known problem are not being used, not only for baby food (probably the most critical) but for all prepared foods where substitutes are available.
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