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Why you should know:

Arsenic is a carcinogen and has various other negative health effects; enough to warrant exposure limits in various jurisdictions. A five minute boil-and-discard step before cooking is a simple way to reduce your exposure, especially if you eat a lot of rice.

Details are in the study, linked in the title of this post. Here’s a diagram from the abstract:

  • Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com
    0·
    4 months ago

    Wow, lot to unpack here.

    1. “Ain’t nobody got time for that.”

    2. How much arsenic are we talking about here?

    3. “Saving time, water, and energy” is apparently short for boil water, stand around, drain, re-boil more water using more energy, and finish cooking rice. Where is all this time saving happening?

    4. “The margin of exposure [to arsenic] is increased to desired levels”. Hmmm I guess if you really think about it that is a true statement, but one heck of a roundabout way to say it.

    • explore_broaden@midwest.social
      1·
      4 months ago
      1. This seems to mainly be a concern in places where a lot of rice is consumed and there is no legal limit for arsenic in rice (many parts of Asia), not necessarily in the US where there is an FDA limit and most people don’t eat rice every day.
      2. It saves time, water, and energy compared to other ways of reducing arsenic, like using the excess water method with large excesses of water. Parboiling in with 4 times the water by weight and then cooking in 2 times the water by weight uses less water than cooking once in 10-12 times the water by weight (half the water). Heating half as much water to boiling reduces energy use and time (assuming constant heating power in W from the stove). Of course it’s still slower than cooking rice using the absorption method common in many places (this is not necessarily how people in some countries cook rice).