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The Free From Fairy

The Free From Fairy

Home » Health » Arsenic in Rice And The Gluten Free Diet

29th November 2013 ·

Arsenic in Rice And The Gluten Free Diet

Free From Fairy Opinion· Health

This week I finally did some research into arsenic in rice.

Arsenic in rice and the gluten free diet

Sometimes I wonder if I can ever do anything right.

If it isn’t the children chastising me for something, then it is my mean internal voice.

Or another article I read that tells me I shouldn’t be feeding my children something, or taking my children somewhere…or perhaps even bothering to breathe.

Most of the time I let all of this wash over me like a giant tidal wave.

I dive under my metaphorical fluffy duvet and only coming out again when the coast is clear.

Today, however my duvet isn’t working.

I have known for a while about there being arsenic in rice but have somehow managed to shrug it off and not turn to google to find out more.

I am not sure what was different about yesterday but I decided to type those dreaded words into the search box.

What I discovered about arsenic in rice…

Arsenic is a naturally occurring element that is found in the environment (water, soil etc).

The amount of arsenic in rice varies from one part of the world to the next.

Rice absorbs more arsenic from the environment than any other crop, depending on how it is grown and where.

The arsenic found in rice is the more toxic form, called inorganic arsenic.

Organic rice still contains arsenic because the arsenic is present in the soil and water that rice grows in.

Arsenic has the potential to increase the risk of illnesses in humans, including cancer.

If you are following a gluten free diet you are likely to be eating a lot of rice.

Not just as rice but in the form of rice flour which is in most processed baked goods.

Where was I going wrong?

In my misguided belief that I was doing the best for my kids, I have been feeding them brown rather than white rice.

I discovered that there is twice as much arsenic in brown rice.

Not only have I been doing that a couple of times a week but I have been baking goods with flour made almost entirely out of rice (often brown again).

I’ve been feeding my daughter rice cakes for lunch (brown rice again so doubly bad).

Giving them rice crispies or some other rice-based cereal (most are when you are gluten-free).

And of course, feeding them brown rice pasta (again in my misguided belief that brown rice pasta must be better so that my little coeliac gets her fibre intake – tricky for coeliacs).

All in all I have been well and truly poisoning them.

I spend the majority of my time thinking about food or making it.

Developing exciting new things for my children to try.

Considering how I can make it more healthy and full of important nutrients.

Concocting something from scratch to mimic a gluten and dairy-containing favourite.

I avoid giving my kids processed foods and things with too many preservatives or strange ingredients.

But to what end?

Providing my daughter with a gluten-free diet for her coeliac disease may avoid her from getting certain types of cancer and osteoporosis in the long term but what I am exposing her to instead?

Cancer, developmental problems, cardiovascular disease, neurotoxicity and diabetes is what the WHO says long term exposure to arsenic can cause.

Which ever way you look at it we are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

How can you reduce your exposure to arsenic on a gluten free diet?

I’ve written an article about how to deal with this issue on a gluten free diet for Metro. You can read that here.

I’ve also written and article on my website that you can read here. In it I outline how to eat a healthier gluten free diet.

Finally if you’d like to reduce your intake of rice then I’ve developed my own unique rice free wholegrain gluten free flour blend.

Rice free wholegrain gluten free flour blend by the Free From Fairy

It is made from a blend of teff, buckwheat, sorghum, potato and tapioca flours and works in all cooking and baking.

You can buy it from my gluten free flour shop.

Some links for further reading about arsenic in rice:

The University of Manchester – Health risks from arsenic in rice exposed

Metro – How Your Gluten Free Diet Could Be Increasing The Amount Of Arsenic You Ingest And What To Do About It

Food Standards Agency – Arsenic in Rice

European Food Safety Authority – Scientific Opinion on Arsenic in Food

BBC – Should I Worry About Arsenic in My Rice?

The Week – Dangerous Levels of Arsenic Found In Baby Rice Products

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. freefromfairy says

    2nd December 2013 at 1:52 pm

    Thank you so much for all of your help! I really really appreciate it. My daughter cannot tolerate gluten-free oats but I will see how she gets on with quinoa porridge! It is time I put in a huge order for some alternative flours and make my own mixes without rice…just more expense that I was hoping to put off but obviously cannot do any longer!

  2. Margie says

    29th November 2013 at 8:55 pm

    Wondering about making vegan, GF muffins for breakfast, or to take in their lunch, as a healthy alternative.

    I know quinoa flour is very expensive (I’m surprised that no stores sell it where you live), but a bag of quinoa seeds does go quite far in a stir fry, for example, with celery, garlic, black beans etc, or can be eaten as a kind of porridge with raisins, walnuts (do you have access to gluten free oatmeal?), dried cranberries etc.
    However, I realize small children may not like any of what I just suggested…have you heard of the website ohsheglows? She has wonderful gluten free, vegan recipes for every occasion and meal. I’m sure you’ll be able to find some ideas from her recipes under the gluten-free tab.

    Here’s one of her pancake recipes that I copied and pasted from her website. Good luck.
    I agree health professionals know very little about GF nutrition (about all nutrition actually!)

    Vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, nut-free, oil-free, soy-free, sugar-free
    This
    dense and filling savoury chickpea pancake is packed with protein and
    fibre. Feel free to change up the mix-ins and toppings based on what you
    have in your fridge. To prevent it from sticking to the skillet, be
    sure to spray the skillet liberally with olive oil before pouring on the
    batter. Also, I suggest chopping the veggies finely so they cook
    faster.
    Yield
    1 large or 2 smaller
    Prep Time
    10 Minutes
    Cook time
    10 Minutes
    Ingredients:

    1 green onion, finely chopped (about 1/4 cup)

    1/4 cup finely chopped red pepper

    1/2 cup chickpea flour (also known as garbanzo flour or besan)

    1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

    1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

    1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

    1/4 teaspoon baking powder

    pinch red pepper flakes (optional)

    1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons water

    For serving: salsa, avocado, hummus, cashew cream (optional)

    Directions:

    Prepare the vegetables and set aside. Preheat a 10-inch skillet over medium heat.

    In a small bowl, whisk together the chickpea flour, garlic powder, salt, pepper, baking powder, and optional red pepper flakes.

    Add the water and whisk well until no clumps remain. I like to whisk
    it for a good 15 seconds to create lots of air bubbles in the batter.

    Stir in the chopped vegetables.

    When the skillet is pre-heated (a drop of water should sizzle on the
    pan), spray it liberally with olive oil or other non stick cooking
    spray.

    Pour on all of the batter (if making 1 large pancake) and quickly
    spread it out all over the pan. Cook for about 5-6 minutes on one side
    (timing will depend on how hot your pan is), until you can easily slide a
    pancake flipper/spatula under the pancake and it’s firm enough not to
    break when flipping. Flip pancake carefully and cook for another 5
    minutes, until lightly golden. Be sure to cook for enough time as this
    pancake takes much longer to cook compared to regular pancakes.

    Serve on a large plate and top with your desired toppings. Leftovers
    can be wrapped up and placed in the fridge. Reheat on a skillet until
    warmed throughout.

  3. freefromfairy says

    29th November 2013 at 8:15 pm

    Thanks for your reply. Even if I restrict our rice intake as rice to once a week there are all the other things made from it. Quinoa flour is not cheap and has to be bought online. As far as I know it is not available or prescription? Then there is the breakfast issue. I limit my kids to 1 bowl of cereal and make pancakes, but most cereals contain rice. I will start ordering buckwheat pasta on prescription now…and try to reduce her consumption of rice cakes, although that is what she loves for lunch…and the alternatives such as bread ( probably made from rice flour) or corncakes are high in salt!! I really dont know what I should be doing…and there is certainly no support from healthcare professionals!

Trackbacks

  1. Arsenic In Gluten-Free Food... - The Free From Fairy says:
    20th October 2014 at 12:22 pm

    […] It seemed to stand to reason, therefore, that coeliacs, and coeliac children in particular (due to their small size) were also at risk of consuming too much rice since rice flour is pretty much the basis of all processed gluten-free products (bread, cakes, pasta…you name it, rice is generally in it).  I wrote about this here. […]

  2. My Chia Seed Challenge - The Free From Fairy says:
    5th June 2014 at 1:03 pm

    […] cereal etc etc…a whole other issue that I touched on in a previous post that can be found here), along with a useful source of protein.  These little seeds provide us with a complete protein, […]

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Hi. I'm Vicki Montague, scientist and mum to 'Roo' (15) and 'Sunshine' (13). I'm a freelance recipe developer specialising in 'free from' food and spend many hours in my kitchen experimenting to create exciting healthy recipes that are all gluten-free & mainly dairy-free. In July 2016 I launched the world's first wholegrain, gluten-free and rice-free flour blends. In May 2018 I launched my first online programme to help people adapt to a gluten free life. I can be found at food festivals giving cookery demos and I love nothing more than teaching people how to cook and lead a positive wholesome life. Find out more about my story...

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