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from the chew-on-this...-at-your-own-risk dept.
from the "damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't" dept.
Ars Technica provides the scoop on a new study that should alarm practitioners of gluten-free diets--especially the 1% of Americans that suffer from celiac disease and thus are gluten-sensitive. While admittedly a small study, the researchers found many of the blood and urine samples of the gluten-free participants had elevated levels of mercury and arsenic.
Those just happen to be toxic substances that often accumulate to high levels in rice, a food that is naturally gluten-free. Rice flour and other rice products are often used as substitutes for gluten-containing ingredients in foods.
Exposure to high levels of mercury and arsenic is linked to risks of cardiovascular disease, cancers, and neurological problems.
The study is very small, and it’s unclear if the elevated levels are directly linked to the participants’ self-reported diets or even if the mercury and arsenic levels are high enough to cause health effects. But the researchers say the findings raise concern.
“These results indicate that there could be unintended consequences of eating a gluten-free diet,” Maria Argos, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago and lead author of the study, said in a statement. But it’s impossible to draw firm conclusions “until we perform the studies to determine if there are corresponding health consequences that could be related to higher levels of exposure to arsenic and mercury by eating gluten-free.”
Argos and colleagues reported their findings in the journal Epidemiology.
High accumulation of mercury and arsenic in rice is not a new thing. Previous research as shown that rice plants are at least ten times better at accumulating toxins from the soil than other grain plants. However, it seems that people are putting together the evidence that a high rice diet has its own set of unfortunate consequences too. In 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration proposed new regulation restricting the allowable arsenic levels in rice cereals for infants. Chew on that organically grown, fat-free, sugar-free, low salt, gluten-free, flavor-free, nutrition-free, non-GMO, PETA-approved, recycled cardboard for a while.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by termigator on Tuesday February 14 2017, @05:34PM
Since some cultures consume rice in large quantities, are there studies measuring arsenic and mercury in these groups?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DECbot on Tuesday February 14 2017, @06:04PM
I think this is interesting. However you have to consider the source of the rice. I would imagine rice from centuries old rice paddies would have lower toxin yields than new paddies or paddies planted next to industrial sites. So you would need to monitor if your study participants are buying US/new world rice or rice from established Asian farms far from mining and industry. I can't find it now, but I once saw that many Japanese families buy mostly US rice due to price. So I would expect that there will be a difference between the present population and the historical population.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 1) by Guppy on Tuesday February 14 2017, @09:52PM
Part of the arsenic comes from naturally occurring traces found in some alluvial sediments. However, another sources comes from arsenic-based pesticides that used to mostly be used in cotton-growing regions, and arsenic-containing coccidiostats given to poultry.
As far as domestic-grown rice goes, this means stay away from rice from the Southern parts of the US, and stick to California grown rice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 15 2017, @05:51AM
mod that guy up
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday February 15 2017, @03:56AM
Where in southeast Asia is not near a coal fired power plant? Florida receives more mercury from Mexico's power plants than from the local ones that run better (but still far from perfect) scrubbers.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 15 2017, @06:24AM
Whatever it is, rice from the USA tends to have higher arsenic than rice from India or Thailand:
http://www.consumerreports.org/content/dam/cro/magazine-articles/2012/November/Consumer%20Reports%20Arsenic%20in%20Food%20November%202012_1.pdf [consumerreports.org]
The exception is the California Basmati tested seems relatively lower in arsenic.
Brown rice tends to be higher in arsenic.