Rethink Rice: Arsenic Concerns in Brown Rice Prompt Global Health Strategies

August 27, 2025
Rethink Rice: Arsenic Concerns in Brown Rice Prompt Global Health Strategies
  • The main takeaway: adapting farming and cooking practices, including considering white rice over brown rice to reduce arsenic-related health risks while still recognizing brown rice’s nutritional value.

  • A 2025 Lancet Planetary Health study links rice arsenic exposure to a broad rise in cancer risk, estimating China could see the largest increase with about 13.4 million cancer cases tied to rice arsenic.

  • Climate change is driving higher arsenic uptake in rice because warmer, CO2-rich flooded paddy conditions make arsenic more mobile and easier for rice roots to absorb.

  • Arsenic is a toxic element in the environment and in rice, and long-term inorganic arsenic exposure is associated with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, adverse pregnancy outcomes, lung disease, and kidney failure.

  • Global strategies highlighted include improved water management with alternate wetting and drying to cut arsenic uptake and breeding efforts that study multiple rice genotypes to reduce arsenic in grains.

  • Mitigation efforts include washing and rinsing rice, and a Science Direct-backed cooking method: pre-boil for about five minutes to remove arsenic, discard the water, then finish cooking with fresh water to preserve nutrients.

  • Recent data indicate brown rice contains substantially more inorganic arsenic than white rice—roughly 72–98% more in the bran layer—making white rice safer in terms of arsenic exposure.

  • Associates from Columbia University note that rice consumption in southern China and parts of South and Southeast Asia already contributes to dietary arsenic and cancer risk.

Summary based on 1 source


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