Warning! Eating Brown Rice Can Increase Your Risk of Cancer; Here’s How

Brown rice has higher levels of arsenic, which includes the more toxic inorganic kind – than white rice

“While we found that choosing brown rice over white rice would result in higher arsenic exposure on average, the levels should not cause long-term health problems unless someone ate an enormous amount of brown rice every day for years.”

What is arsenic?

Arsenic is a naturally occurring element in the environment with rocks, soil, water, air, plants, and animals – all containing some level of it. Experts say arsenic combines with inorganic and organic substances to form many different compounds.

Arsenic poisoning occurs when you ingest or consume high levels of arsenic—both short- and long-term exposure. It can happen through contaminated groundwater, air, soil, or food. Arsenic poisoning occurs most often in major areas of agriculture and industrialisation.

Experts say that as compared to other cereal grains, rice contains significantly more arsenic, taking up nearly 10 times as much. And that is mostly due to how it is grown.

Rice is often cultivated in flooded paddies, and the wet conditions make it easier for arsenic in the soil to be absorbed by the plant. While the nutritional benefits of brown rice are well documented, white rice is still the more commonly eaten variety, both in the United States and across the world.

The results showed clear differences in arsenic levels between brown and white rice and revealed regional patterns, pointing to where health risks might be higher. The amount of inorganic arsenic – the more toxic kind – in rice varied significantly by region. For US-grown rice, researchers found that 33 per cent of total arsenic in white rice was inorganic, compared to 48 per cent in brown rice.

“This exposure assessment is only one side of the equation when examining the potential trade-offs between brown and white rice consumption,” said Prof. Wu.

“Even if arsenic levels are slightly higher in brown rice than white rice, more research is needed to demonstrate if the potential risks from this exposure are mitigated in part by the potential nutritional benefits provided by the rice bran,” she added.