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#259: If your family eats rice, you can modify the cooking method to help lower arsenic. In this episode we look at the pasta water cooking method for making rice lower in arsenic. By cooking your rice in a lot of water you can reduce arsenic without compromising too much other nutrition, particularly if you’re doing brown rice. 

Other podcast episodes covering the topic of heavy metals in baby foods you might want to check out include:

• Episode 246 - Arsenic in Baby Food with Charlotte Brody, RN and Jane Houlihan

• Episode 160 - Why White Rice Cereal Should Not Be Your Baby's First Food with Alan Greene, MD

• Episode 208 - Heavy Metals in Baby Food with @consumerreports James E. Rogers, PhD

• Episode 232 - Tuna Talk: Is it Safe for Babies to Eat Canned Tuna with @consumerreports Michael K. Hansen, PhD

Healthy Babies Bright Futures’ report “Is Homemade Baby Food Better?” is located here. Download their two-page parent tip sheet with advice on arsenic foods not to feed babies here.

Need more starchy food ideas to offer your baby beyond rice? Get your copy of the 100 FIRST FOODS list on Katie’s free BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS workshop: https://babyledweaning.co/workshop

Follow @babyledweanteam on IG: https://www.instagram.com/babyledweanteam/

Shownotes with all the links mentioned in this episode are here: https://blwpodcast.com/259

Thank you for being a part of this amazing baby-led weaning community. If you like this BLW podcast, please would you kindly leave me a review on Apple Podcasts? This really helps the podcast get found by other parents, caregivers and healthcare professionals and I get my best future episode ideas from your reviews. Click here to leave a review on Apple Podcasts and Happy Feeding! -Katie

SUMMARY OF EPISODE

In this episode we’re talking about:

• How you can lower the arsenic content of rice by cooking rice in a lot of water…similar to how you would for pasta. This can lower arsenic by up to 60%.

• Why even though rinsing your rice lowers the nutrition content, the risk reduction from arsenic is more important than losing some iron and B vitamins. Nutrient retention is higher with brown rice because the nutrients are inside whole grain brown rice and not sprayed on like we find with enriched white rice foods.

• What types of rice to look for and where to source your Basmati rice from for the lowest arsenice levels

LINKS FROM EPISODE

I’ve covered heavy metals and arsenic in baby foods in a number of other episodes on the BABY-LED WEANING MADE EASY podcast…here are some of those:

• Episode 246 - Arsenic in Baby Food with Charlotte Brody, RN and Jane Houlihan

• Episode 160 - Why White Rice Cereal Should Not Be Your Baby's First Food with Alan Greene, MD

• Episode 208 - Heavy Metals in Baby Food with @consumerreports James E. Rogers, PhD

• Episode 232 - Tuna Talk: Is it Safe for Babies to Eat Canned Tuna with @consumerreports Michael K. Hansen, PhD

RESEARCH from episode

Here is a list of the citations used in creating this episode:

• Raab A, Baskaran C, Feldmann J, Meharg AA. Cooking rice in a high water to rice ratio reduces inorganic arsenic content. J Environ Monit. 2009 Jan;11(1):41-4.

• Gray PJ, Conklin SD, Todorov TI, Kasko SM. Cooking rice in excess water reduces both arsenic and enriched vitamins in the cooked grain. Food Addit Contam Part A Chem Anal Control Expo Risk Assess. 2016;33(1):78-85.

• Rahman MA, Hasegawa H, Rahman MA, Rahman MM, Miah MA. Influence of cooking method on arsenic retention in cooked rice related to dietary exposure. Sci Total Environ. 2006 Oct 15;370(1):51-60.

• Carey M, Jiujin X, Gomes Farias J, Meharg AA. Rethinking Rice Preparation for Highly Efficient Removal of Inorganic Arsenic Using Percolating Cooking Water. PLoS One. 2015 Jul 22;10(7):e0131608.

TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE

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