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Arsenic on the Menu: Is Your Rice Making You Sick? · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hello there and welcome back to
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  Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for everything soilless cultivation.
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  I'm your host, Dr. Russell Sharp, and as I said at the end of yesterday's episode,
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  my doctor, my GP, has asked me whether white rice is a source of arsenic,
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  whether that's true or not.
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  And so I thought I'd go into arsenic and where you
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  can get it from crops and what
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  you can do about it so there are
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  two forms of arsenic arsenic is well let's talk about
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  arsenic to begin with arsenic is a heavy metal it's in
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  it's a it's on the periodic table so it's an element
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  so you can't create it or destroy it
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  that's important because when you pollute soil it's it's.
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  Going to stay around for a long time it's not going to decompose or
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  rot away said in a previous episode that
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  people often get confused between arsenic and cyanide because they're
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  sort of those sort of poisons that
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  you find in you know Hercule Poirot or
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  Agatha Christie novels whereas they're completely different
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  cyanide is an organic compound that can be broken down
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  whereas arsenic is is always around and so
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  when it comes to contamination of soils then
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  arsenic is much more of a bigger deal and there's two
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  crops where it's a big issue the first is in
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  rice and it occurs
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  in two types forms in rice well in
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  all crops really inorganic arsenic which is
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  just the the the compound itself or
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  organic arsenic where it's combined with like sugars
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  into a form that can be moved around
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  the plants now it there's naturally occurring arsenic
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  in soil and groundwater and most of the
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  time the it's going to be in an unavailable form
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  so even though it's in the soil your plants can't
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  actually absorb it so you might analyze the soil and
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  find there's high levels of arsenic but it doesn't necessarily mean that
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  it's going to be in the crop so how does it get into rice
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  well when grown in paddy fields.
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  The flooded conditions can mobilize the arsenic making
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  it more bioavailable when the oxygen levels
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  decrease and it becomes anaerobic or anoxic that's
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  another word for it lack of oxygen then they
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  can the arsenic level can be can turn into
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  a form that's absorbed it can be reduced into a
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  reduced form and then that's taken up
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  by the plants so chemically reduced if you don't know what that is then you
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  know it's basic chemistry have a look up so that's why you get more arsenic
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  in rice than you would any other crops because that's a crop that where the
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  roots are routinely exposed to flooded conditions so maybe like water chestnuts would be another crop.
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  Perhaps, or maybe cranberries.
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  I don't know what arsenic levels are in cranberries. If you know, let me know.
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  And then there are some countries with higher levels of arsenic around,
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  like Bangladesh, India, parts of the US even.
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  And all three of those will be areas where they grow rice.
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  The US is a big producer of rice. And then in some areas, especially in the
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  south of the US, in cotton fields, arsenic-based chemicals have been used traditionally
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  to control pests and disease.
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  And there'll be elevated levels. just like in
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  some country gardens large manor houses here
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  in the uk there's high levels of mercury from mercury pesticides used
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  in the past so mercury is is is there's a risk of it in in rice there's if you've
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  got really high levels you get nausea and vomiting and diarrhea and abdominal
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  pains or skin lesions things like this but the real thing with arsenic is it's
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  it's a carcinogen And so you could get lung, bladder,
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  skin cancers, cardiovascular diseases.
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  Neurodevelopment effects, and pregnancy risks.
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  The thing about this is if you're anything like arsenic or any sort of carcinogen in your gut,
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  if you were to get a cancer anywhere in your digestive system,
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  so bowel cancers, stomach cancer, things like this,
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  then the toxins you eat will be a big issue.
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  But so is the sort of transit time of your food.
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  So a lot of people now are talking about high protein diets,
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  low carbohydrate diets, and things like this.
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  But they're forgetting the very important role that fiber has in your diet.
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  And if you look at the countries where people have a very high intake of dietary
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  fiber, then the levels of cancer from bowel cancer is very low.
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  In those countries. So, you know, people talk about, you know,
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  fruits and vegetables from like a protein or a vitamin perspective and healthy
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  eating from that perspective, but don't forget fiber.
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  A lot, especially people who do a lot of fitness and bodybuilding and gym work
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  and things like this, they often forget fiber.
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  And that's just, this is my theory about why a lot of people are getting,
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  a lot of gym goers get serious illnesses because things like arsenic could have
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  a long time in your digestive system, especially if you're eating healthy rice
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  and things like this and you're not sure.
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  Now, often thought that white rice is less healthy than brown rice,
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  but actually when it comes to arsenic, brown rice has more arsenic because the
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  arsenic accumulates in the bran.
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  And then rice from Southeast Asia, Bangladesh, India, and parts of the US tend to have higher levels.
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  And then rice from California and Pakistan and India, apparently basmati so yeah.
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  That's something to consider. Now, the way to get around this is to rinse thoroughly
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  and cook in excess water.
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  So six to one water to rice ratios will help alleviate the arsenic, drain the arsenic away.
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  And then also think about using other grains like quinoa, millet,
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  oats, barley, buckwheat, things like this. I'm a big fan of millet.
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  I think millet is a really good one.
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  And then obviously choose basmati or jasmine rice.
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  They tend to have lower arsenic levels. and then
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  the other food that is very high in arsenic is seaweed
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  and i go to a lot
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  of conferences on seaweed and people say oh in the uk we
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  eat the lowest amount of seaweed in the developed world and this is why we have
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  you know such issues with health here in the uk and look at japan they live
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  for a long time and and look how how long people in japan live for and their
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  life expectancy and And that's true,
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  they do have a long life expectancy if they don't die of bowel cancer in the meantime.
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  And Japan has a very high level of bowel cancer, and it's thought that it's
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  due to the arsenic in the seaweed.
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  And so if you combine their staple foods, two of their staple foods there of
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  rice and seaweed, there's two staple foods there that are high in arsenic.
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  So the Japanese diet might not be all it's cracked up to be.
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  And then obviously in when the fukushima plant
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  went into meltdown there was also radioactive compounds in the seaweed and i
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  was looking at i was studying led growth lights over in japan when they were
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  first kicking off back in the early noughties and i went over there to study
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  chinese yams and they were growing chinese yams instead of.
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  As a substitute for seaweed because of all the toxins that
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  came that were thought to be in the seaweed due to fukushima
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  and also natural levels so certain seaweeds
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  are higher in arsenic than others sargassum has
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  a very high arsenic level compared to other species sargassum is the
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  one that is a nuisance
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  it's almost like a weed in the caribbean sea
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  caribbean ocean sea caribbean sea and Mexico
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  and places like this the Gulf of Mexico and rots on the beaches and things like
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  this and they're always looking for a use for it and often cheap biostimulants
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  contain sargassum whereas actually you want to use ascophyllum nodosum as a
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  that's the best biostimulant seaweed extract and so yeah seaweed is another source of arsenic.
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  I'm going to do another episode on cadmium because there's lots of in lots of
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  news on cadmium but I'm not going to do it straight after this one because two
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  episodes about pollutants is not great.
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  Obviously, if you're growing hydroponically, what are the key takeaways here?
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  The first key takeaway is if you do not aerate your growing media and you're
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  growing hydroponically and your roots are suffering from lack of oxygen,
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  then they could be absorbing heavy metals and toxins like arsenic from your growing media.
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  So especially if you're using a soil-based system or anything that potentially
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  has arsenic in it, then you need to be careful that you don't produce these
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  conditions that would reduce the arsenic and make it available to the plants.
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  So always make sure you have good aeration, which I'm sure you do because your
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  plants would suffer if you didn't.
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  So as I say, we'll do another episode on cadmium because there's a lot of issues
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  around landfill, water that comes off landfill tips in the UK.
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  And this horrible gunk is
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  being used on farmland which is a bit of
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  a shocker really it doesn't
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  happen in france but happens in the uk and needs to be exposed
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  and so i'm going to be talking about that in a future episode but this
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  one is specifically about arsenic and arsenic will
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  be in residues from pollutants and things like this so in this in this toxic
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  gunk that's coming off the landfills that they're sprayed onto the fields that
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  that will be a source of arsenic as well so unfortunately if you want to make
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  sure your food doesn't contain a lot of toxins.
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  You can't just rely on the government nowadays to make sure that that's the
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  case. You're best to grow your own.
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  You know what you're putting on it, as always, and that is the beauty of hydroponics
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  and home cultivation anyway.
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  All right, that's been Hydroponics Daily for today. If you've got any comments
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  about arsenic, you know anything else about arsenic, then let me know.
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  And as always, thank you very much for listening. If you found any usefulness
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  in this, if it wasn't the worst podcast you've ever listened to,
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  then please leave an Apple podcast review, and that would shoot us at the charts.
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  Thank you very much for listening. Until next time, goodbye.