OH NO! Now not even our ultimate comfort food RICE is safe to be eaten?!
Consumer Reports has just found out that many brands of rice contain arsenic. Say WHAT?! This is particularly bad for us Latinos, who grow up eating rice like it's our job (at least I certainly did)–and now we may not be able to do it anymore?! The worst news, though, is that the poisonous rice isn't just hurting you but it's particularly bad for your baby's brain development.
Read more ¿Qué más? Moms, think twice before giving your kids fruit juice!
According to Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the study found that "rice with the highest levels of arsenic is from Texas and Louisiana, and along the Gulf coast where fields were used to grow cotton a century ago," which is why the arsenic is entering the rice when it is growing, according to CBS News.
However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) isn't warning consumers against rice just yet. Instead, they're admitting that "the FDA does not have an adequate scientific basis to recommend changes by consumers regarding their consumption of rice and rice products," they said in a statement.
Read more ¿Qué más? Gerber baby formula recall proves FDA should monitor kids food more closely
They may be being cautious and wanting to conduct their own study first, but with arsenic causing lung, skin, and bladder cancer PLUS it being extremely harmful to babies' brain development, Dr. Philip is recommending that people "stay with California rice, stay with Asian rice or when in doubt go with barley, go with oatmeal." But if you're REALLY concerned, he's recommending that his patients avoid rice.
To be honest, though, I don't think I could avoid rice if the FDA and Consumer Reports PAID me, but I am DEFINITELY rushing home tonight and checking all of the labels on the rice in my house! If it's from Texas or the Gulf coast states, then it's very unfortunately going in the trash. After all, I don't want to risk it for me or my family.
Image via arsheffield/flickr
