Should I Worry About Arsenic in Rice?

After my recent post on toxic baby metals, a number of you asked what about rice? For adults, the same concentration of arsenic exposure is less concerning because you’re bigger and also your brain is already developed. But what if your baby eats a lot of regular rice with you?

Standard rice does have arsenic, but actually at lower concentrations than rice cereal (see some numbers buried in here). It’s also a bit easier to control your arsenic exposure in rice, if you are worried. Consumer Reports has some details here about which types of rice are better (white better than brown, rice from California better than Arkansas or Texas). And: you can remove a reasonable share of the arsenic in rice by rinsing it first.

Which is all to say that, first, I still wouldn’t stress about this and if your baby likes rice, that’s great. If you are worried, take the consumer reports steps as possible. Since there is no health benefit to arsenic, you aren’t losing out by washing your rice before cooking.

Here’s the original post on toxic baby metals.