this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2024
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You Should Know

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122
YSK rice commonly contains arsenic, but most of it can be removed by boiling in water (4:1 ratio) for 5 minutes, and discarding that water before starting the regular cook cycle. (www.sciencedirect.com)
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
39 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Why you should know:

Arsenic is a carcinogen and has various other negative health effects; enough to warrant exposure limits in various jurisdictions. A five minute boil-and-discard step before cooking is a simple way to reduce your exposure, especially if you eat a lot of rice.

Details are in the study, linked in the title of this post. Here's a diagram from the abstract:

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[–] [email protected] 130 points 4 months ago

The microplastics in my body laugh at arsenic's petty attempt on my life!

[–] [email protected] 90 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Oh boy, someone better go back and tell all of Asia for the last 10,000 years

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago

This is a growing problem due to climate change (higher temperatures seem to increase arsenic uptake) and pollutants, so this doesn’t make any sense.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Wow, lot to unpack here.

  1. "Ain't nobody got time for that."

  2. How much arsenic are we talking about here?

  3. "Saving time, water, and energy" is apparently short for boil water, stand around, drain, re-boil more water using more energy, and finish cooking rice. Where is all this time saving happening?

  4. "The margin of exposure [to arsenic] is increased to desired levels". Hmmm I guess if you really think about it that is a true statement, but one heck of a roundabout way to say it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)
  1. This seems to mainly be a concern in places where a lot of rice is consumed and there is no legal limit for arsenic in rice (many parts of Asia), not necessarily in the US where there is an FDA limit and most people don’t eat rice every day.
  2. It saves time, water, and energy compared to other ways of reducing arsenic, like using the excess water method with large excesses of water. Parboiling in with 4 times the water by weight and then cooking in 2 times the water by weight uses less water than cooking once in 10-12 times the water by weight (half the water). Heating half as much water to boiling reduces energy use and time (assuming constant heating power in W from the stove). Of course it’s still slower than cooking rice using the absorption method common in many places (this is not necessarily how people in some countries cook rice).
[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Haha guess so. Misleading graphic taken out of context. That makes more sense. I never tried the excessive water method. It sounded interesting, but I refer to my point #1 above.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

You were being generous going past (1.) I rather just die or stop reading rice

[–] [email protected] 65 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The only reason I started eating more rice in the last decade or so, was one click cooking. If you want me to use a process more complex than “dump equal rice and water in rice maker then click start”, I’m afraid the alternative is potatoes

[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Im with you.

Sorry, everything these days causes cancer. Let me have a quick easy dinner so this life is worth it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Yeah, I'm getting a prop 65 warning tattooed on my ass one of these days. That way I can just enjoy life knowing I've been told.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Let's do the math. Rice contains about 0.4 mg/kg As by weight. The "bad" rice in Louisiana or whatever contains about 75% more - about 0.7 mg/kg. Let's round up to 1 mg/kg to make the math easy. Chronic exposure limits for a 50 kg adult are about 5 mg/day (on the low end).

So you'd have to choke down a full 10 lb bag of rice every day (about 110 cups of cooked rice) to start to tip the scales. Other sources of arsenic, like groundwater, are likely far more significant.

Comment stolen from reddit

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Challenge accepted.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Soooo it's safe to eat without throwing the eater out?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Well, if you were previously throwing anyone who ate the rice in the garbage, then yes, not doing that would be safe.

^sorry,^ ^I^ ^couldn't ^ ^resist.^ ^yes,^ ^it's^ ^safe^ ^to^ ^eat^ ^rice^ ^without^ ^throwing^ ^out^ ^the^ ^first^ ^batch^ ^of^ ^water.^ ^see^ ^rest^ ^of^ ^this^ ^thread^ ^for^ ^nuance.^

[–] [email protected] 41 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

How much arsenic water would you need to distill down to get a useful amount of arsenic?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Asking, for science

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago

Of course.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

The real question. Apple seeds have naturally occurring cyanide, but you would have to eat something like 30 to 300 apples worth of seeds to maybe have a health issue.

It's the dose that makes the poison.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Aren't you better off with plum or peach seeds?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Best not to eat any, but it's still a matter of dose. Plum/peach seeds may be more a choking hazard than any other.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

How much arsenic do you define as useful? I had a similar thought and could probably figure it out, but I really don't want to dig my old chem and bio texts out of my garage.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago (2 children)

You can actually buy parboiled rice which have been dried. It's very close in price to white rice and not as sticky as regular rice.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

It takes just as long to cook, and has the texture of parboiled rice.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Helpful advice? Who ARE you?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

Ysk your body can naturally get rid of arsenic so this is pointless.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It takes 40 mins to fully cook brown rice plus the 5-8 mins it takes for it to boil. This will add 15-20 mins more to overall cooking. As someone who eats rice almost everyday, I’ll probably want to start doing this, but man that’s a lot more time and water wasted 😞

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

This will add 15-20 mins more to overall cooking.

Are you counting 5-8 minutes to heat water + 5 minutes parboiling the rice + 5-8 minutes to heat fresh water? If so, you're double-counting one of those steps, because you already have to heat water when cooking rice. Using your figures, the overall cooking time would only increase by 10-13 minutes.

You could reduce that to ~5 minutes by heating your cooking water during the parboil step, rather than after, so it's ready to go when the parboil is done. In a kettle or second pan, for example.

You could further reduce it to <1 minute (the time it takes to replace the parboil water) by taking 5 minutes off the cooking time, since the newly added 5 minute parboil is cooking.

I hope the fediverse doesn't cook meals one step at a time. That would take ages. :)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I’m asian and grew up in Asia cooking rice without a rice cooker. This is how we do it:

  • 1:2 rice to water ratio
  • Wash rice
  • Put rice and water in a sauce pan(?) or whataver you call that pan with deep sides.
  • Turn on stove to high heat until water boils (This is the initial 5-8 mins)
  • Once boiling, turn down heat to low and simmer for 40 mins (for brown rice. White rice is 20-25, broken rice is 12-15)

If I was to boil the rice for 5 mins and throw the water out, that means I need to boil water first (5-8 mins), throw in the rice and wait 5 minutes, then throw out the water. Only then will I do the above steps. The fresh water needs to boil again (5-8 mins) before I simmer for 40 mins.

Good point on heating the new batch of water while doing the initial boil. I can’t say I’ve ever cooked rice by throwing it into already boiling water though, so we’ll see how it turns out.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I can’t say I’ve ever cooked rice by throwing it into already boiling water though,

Do you mean when replacing the parboil water? At that point, the rice would already have been brought to a boil gradually. Discarding the parboil water and pouring in fresh boiling water wouldn't be like throwing dry rice into a boiling saucepan.

Or are you thinking of changing your process, by no longer bringing the water to a boil with the rice already in it, but instead waiting to add the rice until after the parboil water has reached a full boil? I realize that's what the infographic shows, but I don't think it's necessary to do it that way. If anything, I would expect your way (bring rice & water to a boil together) to pull out more arsenic.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

And bananas are radioactive. Best leave them a few halflives before scraping the mouldy gunky remains from your fruit bowl.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

I've been parcooking rice like this for about 3 years now. It's very little effort and doesn't change the rice enough to matter.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

is that why that one british lady Uncle Roger was roasting drained her rice?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Give me the arsenic because there is no way I'm overcooking my rice to remove it

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

This is not suggesting the rice be overcooked, just cooked using a different process.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Do you "discard" the water by... just letting it into the sink? How long before aresnic is everywhere?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Arsenic is a naturally occurring element.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Does it come with old lace?