Is Rice Safe?

The nutritionist at the meeting is a celiac herself and had, in fact, attended one of my cooking classes last year. Rather than giving a speech, she asked if anybody had any worries or issues that they wanted answered.

Daniel asked about good food for endurance athletes and she gave him good advice regarding that.

Then somebody asked about rice. There have been reports recently that rice has large amounts of arsenic in it and should not be eaten too much. However, we all use rice flour in our cooking and many of us drink rice milk if we have problems with dairy.

The nutritionist acknowledged that it is a problem with many areas of the country that used pesticides during the seventies. She suggested that people limit their use of rice milk and rice, if they also use it as flour in baking. However, she said that as with all things, moderation is the answer and that we do not really have to worry unless we are using rice excessively.

I have to say, that since the meeting I have changed to eating quinoa (one of the ancient grains that she recommended) instead of rice with our stir fries and I am using almond and coconut milk as well as rice milk for Daniel's smoothies. But that could be because I really like quinoa and just needed an excuse to feed it to the family!

One thing I was surprised about was when one of the attendees said that she always used brown rice to try to improve her fibre intake but the nutritionist said that brown rice has minimally more fibre than white rice and that she would be better off just eating beans for fibre. In fact, she said that when she has patients, she encourages them to eat beans regularly for very good fibre intake.

I really enjoyed the meeting and got a lot of good information. Even if you are gluten free for a long time, it is good to attend these support meetings every now and then. New information is always emerging and new products arriving ready to be discussed. The meetings take place in the cafeteria of Rex Hospital on the third Thursday of every month. Hopefully I will see you there!