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Rice Bran & Arsenic - Safety
Fact:
Arsenic is found in most soils on earth. Rice uptakes arsenic from the soil at a much higher rate than occurs with most other plants. The result is that arsenic is found in much higher amounts in rice than in most other foods. Most of the arsenic that rice uptakes from soils goes into the bran part of the rice, and not in the starchy, white interior. It is conjectured that arsenic in the outer layers of rice helps it to be more resistant to mold and fungus that tend to exist in wet soils where rice grows.
Because arsenic exists in the bran and RiSoTriene is made from rice bran it follows that arsenic will exist in RiSoTriene, too. Tests show that there are .00061 milli grams of inorganic arsenic per gram of RiSoTriene. This amount is significantly lower than for other rice bran products since our rice bran comes from non-pesticide treated crops (and fields) in California and Montana and therefore, is only uptaken from the soil and not from those pesticides, too like many rice products.
Is the Amount of Arsenic in RiSoTriene a Concern For Those of Us Who Eat RiSoTriene Regularly?:
Answer:
To answer this question we have to compare the amount of inorganic arsenic that is in a serving of RiSoTriene with the PTWI (provisional tolerable weekly intake) maximum for Arsenic and see if sufficient inorganic arsenic would be consumed in RiSoTriene to exceed that limit.
- The amount of inorganic arsenic in RiSoTriene is .00061 mg/gram. Therefore, a 12 gram serving of RiSoTriene contains 12 * .00061 mg or .00732 mg.
- The PTWI (provisional tolerable weekly intake) for arsenic, which is the amount of arsenic that a person can continuously eat over a lifetime, without any appreciable harmful effect on the body) is .015 mg per kilogram of a person’s body weight.
- That means for an average sized female adult, the maximum weekly intake could be calculated to be .015 mg * 60 kg (equivalent to 132 pounds) = .9 mg. That amount (.9 mg) divided by .00732 mg (the amount of inorganic arsenic in a serving of RiSoTriene) means that a person would have to consume 122 servings per week of RiSoTriene (or 17 servings per day) to approach that PTWI amount. Obviously, that’s never going to happen. That means that the body can easily handle the amount of arsenic in RiSoTriene. Even for a very small child, the amount of arsenic in RiSoTriene is well beneath the PTWI.
Finally, to keep all this in perspective, it is important to recognize that every naturally occurring food contains some kind of element that the body will have to detoxify. In fact, detoxifying our food is the main purpose of our largest organ, the liver. For instance, apples have cyanide in them, which the liver detoxifies and makes harmless so that we can get the nutrients from apples, but not be harmed by them. Also, green leafy vegetables and herbs always have natural pesticides and irritants in them to make them a less desirable food for insects. Again, the liver detoxifies those natural pesticides and irritants very handily, so that we get the nutrition, but not any damage from the chemicals used to protect them from predators. And, it’s just the same with arsenic — our body is designed to handle quite a bit of arsenic, much greater amounts than we could ever ingest in the RiSoTriene supplement.
And, many of us who have consumed RiSoTriene for decades in large daily amounts have never had arsenic show up in our bodies in amounts that exceed general populations. This is consistent with the above thought process.
So, is the amount of dietary, inorganic arsenic in RiSoTriene significant? The bottom line answer is no!
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