Welcome to Straight Talk on Health. I’m your host Dr. Chet Zelasko. Straight Talk on Health is a joint production with WGVU in Grand Rapids MI. I examine the practical application of health information. Nutrition. Exercise. Diet. Supplementation. I look at the science behind them, and let you know whether it’s something to consider or not. You can check out other things that I do on my website Drchet.com and sign up for my free emails.
I recently got a link to an article posted on a major news source whose health expert reviewed a study on the potential hazards of the arsenic content of long brown rice versus white rice. What immediately caught my attention is that the study was published from departments at my alma mater Michigan State University. I don't particularly eat a lot of brown rice or white rice but I decided to check it out to find out whether these hazards are real or not. Reading the experts analysis of the study involved interviewing the researchers who conducted the study. I think it revealed that both the health expert and the researchers may have unintentionally exaggerated the potential harms of eating brown rice. But you never know what the researchers thought until you read their research paper. So I decided to find out a whole lot more about brown rice.
I used artificial intelligence to do the initial search on the hazards of arsenic, forming the questions a number of ways. When I do that, I then check the references and if they are from a secondary source I don't consider that source. A secondary source would be something like a press release from a university research facility or purported health expert on other websites. I want to see the real research behind what the AI program came up with. Fortunately, I use a scientific-based artificial intelligence that separates the wheat from the chaff which is entirely appropriate as that is at least part of our topic for the day. In this case it's not wheat; It's rice.
The paper was published in the journal Risk Analysis in April 2025. As stated in the abstract of the paper, brown rice is pitched as being healthier than plain white rice. The researchers question revolved around the arsenic levels found in brown rice versus that found in white rice. They felt that over consuming brown rice, regardless of the potential health benefits, may be offset by the arsenic content. The relationship between arsenic content and rice initially was drawn by studies done in Asia where it is much more popular as a starchy component to the food supply. If you know how rice is grown, the famers flood areas with water in order to form rice paddies. However, depending on the source of that water, it can contain varying amounts of toxic minerals including in this case arsenic.
That left them with several questions. What is the arsenic content in brown rice versus white rice? What is the difference in arsenic content in brown rice grown in the United states versus white rice grown in the United States? What relationship is there between arsenic intake and the development of serious diseases especially cancer? How much rice do Americans eat? That's what they set out to find. The interesting thing is that they did not do any actual testing of rice or nutritional intake themselves. They relied on databases that already existed. This is a good approach if what you're trying to do is to get money to then conduct clinical trials to actually find out what the rate of diseases are in people that eat brown rice versus those that eat white rice. One could say that relying on already published data removes any bias that the researchers might have had.
The researchers examined virtually every study that analyzed the arsenic content of rice from many areas of the world. There is a higher content of arsenic in brown rice than there is in white rice. They assigned the increased arsenic content to the bran layer of the brown rice. For some reason, that layer that covers the actual rice underneath seems to absorb more arsenic then the actual rice grains underneath. The one problem the researchers found is in the variety of techniques used in assessing the arsenic levels in the rice. There was no consistency in the way that the rice was analyzed thus raising questions about the actual arsenic content. What I can tell you is that regardless of technique, based on the data published in their article, it certainly seemed like there was an increase in arsenic across the board in brown rice. So question one has been answered just probably not as well as we would have liked.
How much rice do Americans eat? Actually, not very much of either brown rice or white rice. I took 2 age categories, 2-year-olds and adults 18 to 60, and calculated their mean intake of brown rice and white rice per day. It turns out a 2 year old has about 2 grams of brown rice and 4 grams of white rice per day. Looking at the adults it turns out that brown rice is still 2 grams per day but white rice jumps up to 22 g per day. When you look at the average serving size for an adult as being 100 grams per serving of either brown rice or white rice, that's not a whole lot of rice eaten per day per person. To their credit, the researchers then calculated, based on food intake data from the US Department of Agriculture, the rice intake for those that eat only rice as their primary source of starch. As you might expect, that raises the amount of both brown rice and white rice intake in both the two year old category and the adult category. But there are very few people that are in that particular category to begin with as only rice eaters.
Their primary concern was that children who rely on rice cereal as well as other foods that may contain brown rice would be exposed to much more arsenic and thus cause an increase in health issues. I think that would be more of a concern in countries that rely a lot more on either form of rice then it is a concern in the United States. As it relates to children, there are restrictions on the amount of arsenic that's allowed in cereals designed to be eaten by children. I think the next logical step for them would actually to do an assessment of the arsenic content using cereals purchased off the shelves in stores throughout the United States. That's the only way we'll really know for sure, given the issues that they themselves identified when assessing how much arsenic is actually in the brown and white rice.
In the summary of the paper, the researchers still had concern about the exposure of infants and toddlers to the levels of arsenic in brown rice. They also stated that the levels consumed by adults, especially those people over 60, provide no apparent harm to the individual. They call for more research to study the impact of brown rice consumption as it relates to arsenic levels, intake levels, and the long term impact on health. Very admirable and I would support that.
Here's the thing that I found to be most interesting about arsenic in the body. There is a detoxification process in the liver that will help remove arsenic from the body. Actually it takes the toxic forms and converts it to an organic form which can then be excreted mostly in the urine but also in the feces sweat etcetera. Now here's the big wow moment if I've kept your attention up until now. The process for elimination by the detoxification system relies on methylation. That includes some nutrients that can be found in food and supplements. Folate, vitamin B12, methionine, as well as antioxidants and protein help with the methylation process and subsequently the detoxification of arsenic from the body.
In conclusion, after doing this deep dive into brown rice versus white rice, I don't really see any positive differences between them. The little bit of extra fiber in brown rice doesn't seem o provide all that much benefit versus white rice which happens to have more actual nutrients in it because it’s enriched for the most part. Eating either with plenty of vegetables as in a stir fry maybe provide the most benefit of all.
That’s it for this episode. If you like this podcast, please hit the like button and tell your friends and colleagues about it. Until next time, this is Dr. Chet Zelasko saying health is a choice. Choose wisely today and every day.
Reference: Risk Analysis. Arsenic content and exposure in brown rice compared to white rice in the United States. February 2025. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.70008
