Hello, I'm Monica Reinagle, welcome to the Nutrition Diva podcast, where we take a closer

look at nutrition trends and headlines, explain what the latest research means for you, and

answer your dietary questions.

Speaking of which, Ali wrote in this week, I was recently telling a friend how much I

preferred brown rice over white rice, both for its taste and nutritional value, and she

told me that she read somewhere that brown rice is full of carcinogens, and another friend

told me he read that brown rice has arsenic in it.

Is this true?

Is white rice better for you now?

Okay, let's all just take a deep breath.

Yes, brown rice may contain arsenic, and yes, arsenic is classified as a carcinogen.

That does not mean that eating brown rice once or twice a week will give you cancer.

So if like Ali, you much prefer brown rice, there's no need to switch to white rice.

On the other hand, if you actually prefer white rice, the nutritional differences may not

be as big as you think.

Let's start with the whole arsenic thing.

In larger amounts, of course, arsenic is a rather notorious poison.

In fact, slipping a dose of arsenic into someone's cup of meat or grog was a popular way

of offing political rivals back in the day of meat and grog.

These days, we're not as worried about an accidental or intentional overdose of arsenic.

Rather, we worry about chronic exposure to levels that aren't enough to make you feel

sick right away, but over time might cause serious health problems.

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