Arsenic, rice and your baby's diet

[WhiteTara]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/25/health/arsenic-rice-cereal-baby/

CNN)Ask any mom or dad to name their baby's first food. The likely answer? Rice cereal. What's a common go-to "healthy" snack for toddlers and kiddos? Rice cakes.
Yet a growing amount of scientific evidence is pointing to an alarming connection between inorganic arsenic in brown and white rice and harm to children's immune systems and intellectual development.

Concentrations of arsenic were twice as high in the urine of infants who ate white or brown rice than those who ate no rice, according to research published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. Arsenic levels were highest in babies who ate rice cereal, often given several times a day to introduce babies to solids.

In April, the FDA proposed a limit of 100 parts per billion of inorganic arsenic in infant rice cereal. That proposal is still in the public comment phase. The European Food Safety Authority has already moved to limit inorganic arsenic in rice products to that level.

"Arsenic is a known carcinogen that can influence risk of cardiovascular, immune and other diseases," said Margaret Karagas, an epidemiologist who studies the effects of toxic metals at Dartmouth College, and the lead researcher on the new study. "There's a growing body of evidence that even relatively low levels of exposure can have an adverse impact on young children."


Arkansas rice is grown in un-remediated cotton fields that were doused with arsenic to kill pest in the cotton. The brand name is Riceland.

[KamaAina]

1. So California rice would be okay?

[WhiteTara]

5. Lundberg is good rice.

[KamaAina]

6. They don't seem to make a rice cereal, however.

http://www.lundberg.com/products/

[WhiteTara]

7. Too bad!

[DawgHouse]

2. Where did you get the information about Arkansas rice?

I had read that TX rice had the highest concentration of arsenic in testing.

[WhiteTara]

3. Texas also had massive cotton fields.

I live in Arkansas and know the area. Also, somewhere on the internet there was an article.

[DawgHouse]

10. I don't live in AR now but I'm familiar with the Stuttgart area.

I thought arsenic was naturally occurring in soil and water, to some degree anyway.

[WhiteTara]

12. It was also used extensively in growing cotton.

My uncle had several thousand acres and it was a common practice.

[Drahthaardogs]

13. Cotton = arsenic

They used to use it heavily for the cotton weevil back in the day. It is persistent and too wide spread to really remediate. It also occurs naturally in high concentrations in the soils out west.

[Greybnk48]

4. There seems to be poison in much of our food supply!

It's one thing after another, mercury in fish, bpa in canned veggies and fruit, chemicals in our meat supply.

[bhikkhu]

8. Because many "poisons" exists naturally in the soils, and then in the water

with some variation in levels, area to area. Your body actually needs some arsenic to function, and all drinking water can be assumed to contain some arsenic.

[DawgHouse]

11. +1

[ronnie624]

14. Therefore

one can't be "poisoned" ( ) by arsenic?

[bhikkhu]

15. Therefore we have standards for acceptable levels

Too much of anything can kill you, and it doesn't take very much arsenic.

It would be nice if people were more aware that we are part of an environment that is inherently very impure, as there is often a delusional emphasis on "purity" for the sake of health. One of them more interesting factoids is that if your whole body was sifted down to DNA, and then that DNA was analyzed, only 10% of it would be human. What we think of as a person is really a biome. Not that that has anything to do with arsenic...

[ronnie624]

17. You're right,

it has nothing to do with arsenic or the underlying implication of your other post, which is that anyone concerned about arsenic poisoning, is subscribing to 'woo'.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_poisoning

[Major Nikon]

18. FDA testing confirmed about half were already within the new standard

78% were within 10% of the new standard.

Basis for Proposed Limit and Consumer Advice

On April 1, 2016, the FDA released data that had been gathered to complete its review of arsenic in rice and rice products. The data were needed to enhance the agency’s understanding of arsenic in infant rice cereals. The data show the levels of inorganic arsenic in 76 rice-only cereals for infants and almost 36 multigrain and non-rice infant cereals and other foods commonly eaten by infants and toddlers. The FDA also tested 14 categories (more than 400 samples) of other foods commonly eaten by infants and toddlers. These new samples are in addition to the approximately 1,300 samples of rice and rice products that the FDA previously tested in 2013.

The FDA’s data show that nearly half (47 percent) of infant rice cereals sampled from retail stores in 2014 met the agency’s proposed action level of 100 ppb inorganic arsenic and a large majority (78 percent) was at or below 110 ppb inorganic arsenic.

The agency expects manufacturers can produce infant rice cereal that meet or are below the proposed limit with the use of good manufacturing practices, such as sourcing rice with lower inorganic arsenic levels. The FDA takes an action level into account when considering an enforcement action.

http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodborneIllnessContaminants/Metals/ucm367263.htm

[JEB]

9. K&R for exposure.

[laundry_queen]

16. My oldest daughter used to projectile vomit the rice cereal

I was following the guidelines and fed her the rice cereal mixed with breastmilk as her first solid. It was instant reaction - projectile vomit. I tried it again the day after that. Same reaction. So I thought maybe it was solid food? I tried her on strained vegetables. Nope, that was fine. Tried fruit. that was fine too. Tried rice cereal again. Instant reaction again. I took her to the doctor the day after the third reaction (since she didn't seem to be having an allergic reaction) who agreed it wasn't an allergic reaction but some kind of 'intolerance'. She also said she had never ever seen it happen with rice cereal, that rice cereal was the 'healthiest' and least likely food to provoke any issues.

So the good dr told me to try different brands. That didn't help. She told me to try different grains. The reaction wasn't quite as severe but it was there. So, after awhile, with some discussion with some friends who were nurses or midwives I decided to do away with the stupid rice cereal. My oldest daughter from that point on just had fruit and vegetables, and meat when she got older.

I had 3 more kids, and none of them even tried rice cereal (I breastfed, delayed solids until they wanted to try finger foods, and they ate 'real' food, not processed starch flakes for their first food). Now I'm glad. My kids also don't care much for rice cakes. We don't eat much rice at all (I try to stay away from most grains, have health issues). So yay for us. I'm sure there is something else, though, that we are eating that is killing us. Oh, and apparently my mom added rice cereal to my bottles when I was 2 months old and up to help my colic. So I'm doomed, lol.

[Holly_Hobby]

19. Chickens are fed chicken feed full of arsenic too

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/foodanddrink/foodnews/finally-the-fda-admits-that-nearly-over-70percent-of-us-chickens-contain-cancer-causing-arsenic/ar-AA8cWca

[LeftyMom]

20. Rice cereal is garbage anyhow. Infants need variety and nutrient dense foods.

Mashed avocado and sweet potato are widely cited as good choices- personally I'd start with avocado because infants need a lot of fats. There's also some evidence that kids started out on more flavorful foods rather than bland food eat more varied diets as they get older.

Also the recommendation these days is not to start solids until 6 mos, at which point kids are physiologically ready to eat mashed up identifiable food and not vitamin supplemented reconstituted starch flakes

If you really feel the need to feed a single grain food to a baby here's a cheap, easy way to do it: pulse dry oatmeal in a blender or food processor to produce a powder, then prepare it in the usual way.

The only reason to give a baby rice cereal is to thicken bottle feeds due to reflux if instructed to do so by a doctor.