What CAN I eat? Rice... or maybe not

Consumer Reports Arsenic in Rice Investigation

When people make the move to gluten-free eating, the focus tends to be on what can't be eaten as opposed to what can.  Bread products are out.  Crackers are a no-no.  Wheat-based pastas go the way of the dinosaur.  And let's not even talk about desserts!  Thankfully, there are many quality substitute products in the gluten-free world that can take the place of those longed for foods or snacks we're missing.  If you're an avid ingredient reader like me (and if you're eating gluten-free you just about have to be), you probably have noticed that rice in one of it's many forms is often on the list.  Rice, rice flour, brown rice flour, sweet white rice flour, rice syrup, rice bran, etc. etc. etc.  Rice is a healthy alternative, right?  I mean, just think how many cultures in the world use rice as THE main staples of their diets... the majority of the world population can't be wrong!  For us personally, we're a big rice eating family and many of the gluten-free products we enjoy also contain mainly rice plus I bake heavily with rice flours.  We choose to use mostly brown rice and brown rice flour because all the bran is good for you and the bleaching process of white rices is supposedly a little suspect. 

So here I sat feeling smugly superior about our family's healthy diet... until early this month when Consumer Reports investigations released their findings about the levels of high arsenic in various kinds and brands of rice and in rice based products.  Take that smug superior feeling!  Little did we know in our push to eat as healthy a gluten-free diet as possible we might actually be slowly poisoning ourselves with arsenic.  Brilliant! 

So what's a health-conscious, gluten-free eating person to do?  Here are a few of our suggestions and things we're implementing in our family's diet to decrease arsenic exposure.

1.  This may seem obvious but eat rice varieties and brands with lower arsenic levels.  For us, this meant switching from brown rice to white basmati or jasmine rices.  Our first choice is to buy organic rice from California and at the very least, avoid rice from the southern United States.  We also limit the number of servings of rice we eat in a week and we rinse and soak our rice thoroughly before eating.

2.  Avoid highly processed rice based products such as cereals, crackers, and other snack foods.  Something about the processing seems to concentrate the arsenic.  Even though many of these products were below the "safe" level used by Consumer Reports, the accumulative effect of eating many of these products could lead to a higher level of arsenic exposure.  Plus anything processed is probably not that great for you anyway (high sugars, the chance of containing GMO, various evil additives, etc.) ~ better just to avoid or limit.

3.  Switch from rice pasta to another kind of gf pasta.  We've eaten Trader Joe's rice pasta for years because it cooks up nicely, holds a sauce well, tastes good and is one of the cheapest on the market.  Gotta like more bang for your buck especially when you're getting a quality product - except when it's higher in arsenic.  Unfortunately, rice noodles have some of the highest levels in CR's tests so we're choosing to use another kind of gf pasta.  We've switched to Trader Joe's corn noodles which are GMO free (made in Romania!), tasty and inexpensive.  If you do switch to another kind of noodle, do read the ingredients because many of the so-called quinoa or other kinds of pasta still have rice flour as a main ingredient.

4.  Use other sides instead of rice.  Potatoes.  Quinoa.  More veggies.  The possibilities are endless.

5.  If you use a dairy substitute for milk, choose something other than rice milk.  There are lots of other options if you're avoiding dairy including various nut, coconut and soy milks. 

6.  Use alternative gluten-free flours besides rice flours and limit rice based gf baking and bread mixes.   Since going "primal" in my eating style I've been experimenting with a lot more almond and coconut flours in my baking (sometimes to my family's chagrin).  Other options include tapioca flour, quinoa flour, various nut flours, potato flour, bean flours and many other choices ~ I'm looking at it as an opportunity to be adventuresome.  We still use Pamela's Bread Mix and Pamela's Baking Mix which both contain quite a bit of rice flour, but I limit how often we eat these things.

7.  We don't drink apple juice.  I know, what does that have to do with rice?  In case you missed it, here is Consumer Reports investigation on arsenic levels in apple juice.

8.  Just don't eat rice.  Go primal.  Or paleo.  Or just say no to rice.

For more suggestions and an excellent condensed explanation of the CR article see the Environmental Work Group's blog post on Getting Arsenic out of Your (and Your Kids') Diets.