Your daily bread

Ever thought of changing your daily bread? Now is the time to really assess whether eating the same type of bread is working for you or your constitution? Given that many gastrointestinal tract (GIT) disorders are on the increase and conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and the gamut of symptoms that accompany many of the wheat intolerances, perhaps it is time to review some of the wide array of choices on the market where bread is concerned. Of course, many of the symptoms may be attributed to the wheat and grain type itself (is it GM? Can we be sure? See my previous blog post on the risks of GM here: http://yaso-shan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-truth-about-gmo.html) A number of other problems are also associated with bread such as bloating, fatigue, headaches, allergies and headaches to name but a few. Here is a selection of alternative choices if you wanted to switch; it may well give your system a refreshing change to the routine and who knows, perhaps prove to be far more compatible with your system and constitution:

Name of Bread	Type of Bread	Country of Origin	Description
Bammy	Flatbread	Jamaica	Made by frying a mix of cassava root and salt in coconut oil, dipped in coconut milk and then refried.
Banana Bread	Banana Bread	Not known	Dense, made with mashed bananas, often a moist, sweet, cake-like quick bread, but some recipes are traditional yeast breads.
Bannock	Flatbread	UK (Scotland)	Modern types are made with baking soda or baking powder as leavening agent, giving a light, airy texture. May be baked or fried. Some Native American peoples in North America prepare their own versions of bannock.
Bara Brith	Flatbread	UK (Wales)	Sometimes termed 'speckled bread', raisins, currants and candied peel are added to dough.
Barotta (or Parotta)	Flatbread	South India	A common layered flatbread of Southern India. This is not to be confused with the North Indian Paratha. Parottas are usually available in restaurants and road side shops across Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, southern Coastal Andhra and the Middle East.
Beer Bread	Yeast Bread	Not known	Made with regular beer or other types such as stout or dark beer.
Belgian Waffle	Waffle	North America	A type of waffle popular in North America, but not common in Belgium. Compared to the standard American waffle, it is identified by its larger size, lighter batter, larger squares, and a higher grid pattern that forms deep pockets.
Black Bread	Rye Bread	Not known	Made of rye grain, usually dark colored and high fiber, ranges from crispy in texture to dense and chewy.
Chapati	Unleavened Flatbread	South Asia	Thin in size and made with wheat flour; usually eaten with cooked dal (lentil soup), vegetable curry, chicken and mutton curry dishes; pieces are used to wrap around and pick up each bite of the cooked dish.
Chickpea Bread	Leavened	Albania & Turkey	Made from chickpea flour. The most significant difference of this type of bread is, instead of using regular yeast, they use a yeast made with chickpeas.
Cornbread	Cornbread	Americas	Can be baked or fried, has a golden appearance, usually has a moist interior
Dosa	Pancake	South India	Fermented crêpe or pancake made from rice batter and black lentils. It is also served with variety of fillings like potato, coconut, paneer, vegetables, dry fruits etc.
Flatkaka	Unleavened Rye Bread	Iceland	Soft, round, thin and dark with a characteristic pattern from the frying pan; traditionally fried in small, heavy cast iron frying pans.
Green Onion Pancake	Flatbread	China	Savory, non-leavened flatbread folded with oil and minced scallions (green onions). Unlike a true pancake, it is made from dough instead of batter.
Kisra	Fermented Bread	Sudan & South Sudan	Spongy flatbread made from sorgum or millet with each batch being created with a starter from an older batch almost like a generational bread.
Massa Sovada	Sweet Bread	Portugal	Made with milk, sugar or honey, subtly sweet lightly textured loaf, traditionally made for Christmas and Easter (when hard boiled eggs often baked in) times, today made year round.
Miche	Leavened	France	Rounded loaf, often sourdough based
Puran Poli, also called obbatu, bobbatlu, bakshalu	Flatbread	India	Sweet dessert served for special occasions and festivals, stuffing of boiled chickpea lentils, turmeric, sugar, and spices, cooked on hot griddle, served with ghee and lentil broth soup.
Pane di Altamura	Leavened	Italy	Made from durum flour, often odd in shape.
Panettone	Sweet	Italy	Fluffy, base round, octagon or star section, takes days to make to cure acidic dough like sourdough, contains candied citrus, raisins, sliced vertically, served with cider or champagne, esp. for Christmas, New Year.
Paratha	Flatbread	India & Pakistan	Unleavened, made by pan frying whole wheat dough, ghee or cooking oil usually in dough and on done loaves, usually stuffed with vegetables or cheese, served with butter, chutney, spicy sauces or curries of meat and vegetables.
Paximathia	Diced bread	Greece	Also referred to as rusks, it is prepared with whole wheat, chick pea or barley flour and is a common bread in Greece.
Pita	Flatbread	Eastern Greece	Round with inner pocket
Potato Bread	Leavened or Unleavened	Not known	Potato replaces part of usual wheat flour, ratio of potato to wheat varies much, leavened or unleavened, may have many other ingredients baked in, varied cooking methods.
Potato Waffle	Waffle	UK	A potato-based savory food in a waffle-like lattice shape. They are common in the UK and Ireland and are also available in some other countries.
Rice Bread	Rice Bread	Japan	Made from rice flour
Sourdough Bread	sourdough	Western Asia, Nile Valley & Nile Delta (Egypt)	A bread product made by a long fermentation of dough using naturally occurring lactobacilli and yeasts. In comparison with breads made quickly with cultivated yeast, it usually has a mildly sour taste because of the lactic acid produced by the lactobacilli.
Sprouted Bread	Sprouted	Not known	A type of bread made from sprouted (germinated) whole grains
Spelt Bread	Yeast bread	Not known	Made predominately with spelt flour or coarse meal.
Tiger Bread	Rice Bread	Netherlands	Rice paste bread made with sesame oil and with a pattern baked into the top made by painting rice paste onto the surface prior to baking. The paste dries and cracks during the baking process, creating a two-colour effect similar to a tiger's markings, hence the name.

For more information visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_breads 

The History of Herbal Medicine & Cultural Contexts of Practice

The following is an excerpt from my book Modern Living, Holistic Health & Herbal Medicine: http://www.amazon.co.uk/MODERN-LIVING-HOLISTIC-HEALTH-MEDICINE/dp/1609106393

The development of herbal medicine and its practice throughout the world has a strong history, with each country forming its own tradition of herbal pharmacy. This has become incorporated into its culture and what is unique to each tradition has developed through many years of knowledge, skill and practice. Some of the older traditions remain very much intact throughout history and herbal medicine here continues to be practised in a manner of their ancestors and passed on through generations of healers.

Paracelcus (1493-1541); Physician, Botanist, Astrologer

Western herbal medicine as it is today is largely influenced by such history but is also influenced by other practices from other traditions through travel, folklore, colonisation and settlement. The relatively recent revival of herbal medicine in the West is really from the back of a decline in interest, partly due to the reputation and associations it once had with witches and witchcraft, astrology, mystical spirits and magical powers. Fortunately, modern science and drug development and the need to find new cures reignited interest in some of the traditions as well as to explore the rapidly expanding field of phytopharmacology (study of how plant chemicals can exert an influence in the body) and phytochemistry (study of the chemical constituents of plants, particularly medicinal herbs) in addition to current developments in modern medical science. Modern herbal medicine in the West is now very much a science and the art of good practice is to fully understand and respect these traditions as well as to respect the potency of some of the greatest medicinal herbs to benefit mankind.

Putting all this into context, it is important to start at the beginning and to examine the earliest records of how herbal medicine all began.  Wild plants have been used for food and medicines long before records were kept. Medicinal and other uses were undoubtedly uncovered by trial and error, which may not have always been pleasant with probably some disastrous and tragic consequences for some. The plants explored would have been mainly native to the country at first before any ‘foreign’ species being cultivated in herb gardens specifically for the medicinal use (the basis for some of the commercial business now). Establishing when all this began is somewhat difficult since early documented evidence of medicinal use is sparse.

The earliest indication of herbal medicine is suggested from Babylonian records dating as far back as 2000BC which gives instructions for the preparation and administration of medicinal herbs. After that, the ancient Egyptians, renowned for their skills in embalming, started recording the use of herbal remedies on papyrus paper as early as 1600BC. Much of this is still in evidence today with a strong industry in distillation of perfume and medicinal oils as well as other notable products. Some of the herbs of that time included juniper, thyme and fennel, all of them used in Western herbal medicine today.

Other parts of the world like China, India and Native America were developing their own herbal practice, some of which survive to this day. China (Traditional Chinese Medicine or TCM) and India (Ayurveda) have the oldest written traditions, dating from around 1000BC. Some of the traditions of the Native Americans (Shamanism) have sadly been lost due to the European settlers who colonised the land. Much of the herbal knowledge that was passed on through generations by word of mouth rather than by a written record of it was wiped out through war and destruction. It is known however that these traditional practices were less scientific and influenced by a belief in magical powers, spirits and rituals. In some rural parts of South America, shamanism is still widely practised and there continues to be great interest within modern science to research into some of the medicinal benefits of certain indigenous plants especially of the rainforests.

In Australia, some aspects of traditional herbal medicine practice still exist in the native Aborigine culture although much of original traditions and knowledge has been lost due to the invasion of the European settlers. In a similar manner to Shamanism, the Aborigines believed that certain spirits held the power over health and disease. Much of this belief system continues to exist in their culture and ritualistic practices of today and though this is less scientific, the native Aborigines have extensive knowledge of the landscape and the indigenous plants of Australia, particularly those possessing medicinal properties.

The history of African herbal medicine has solid foundations in the traditional healers of the time passing on vital information about indigenous plants and those used as medicinal herbs. Most of this information was heavily influenced by the Middle—East and India which had an established trade for more than 3000 years. Again, colonial conquests wiped out much of this foundation knowledge and what remains has been misrepresented or replaced by Western medical principles for solutions to healthcare and hygiene. Traditional practices were not permitted to evolve or flourish. The demonisation of the African traditional approach is supported by the notion that much of it is dominated by voodoo and witchcraft, so much so that even the African people themselves have become somewhat distanced from it. Equally, it could be argued that in much of rural Africa, medical provision is sparse and not accessible to high tech services of modern hospitals and clinics. There is a heavy reliance on such traditions and use of medicinal herbs for many of the common disorders and diseases. Despite this however, in certain parts of Africa, the implementation of health programmes and initiatives from the West have modernised healthcare provision even though the ancient magical and spiritual beliefs of herbal traditions are still evident. As a consequence, what remains today is the coexistence of herbal practitioners who work closely with conventional doctors. It is probably one of those uncommon situations where the integrated approach to healthcare is best illustrated. With modern scientific influences, we are slowly becoming informed about the medicinal uses of the plants that have been used for centuries in Africa and finally understand how they work in curing illness and disease.

Herbal medicine in most of the Caribbean islands originates from the African traditions who brought their practices to the islands during the slave trade. This has survived as part of their long history and herbal medicine continues to be practised as a inherent part of their culture and tradition. Many of the Caribbeans have a high respect for this form of medicine. Herbal knowledge and skill is not confined to the healers or medical practitioners. The most notable herbal practitioners from the Caribbean was a Jamaican woman called Mary Seacole (1805-1881), a pioneering nurse and inveterate traveller who brought her skills as a nurse and herbal healer to the battlefields of the Crimean war to treat the sick and injured British soldiers. Using her own unique herbal formulations and remedies passed on through generations of traditional African healers, she became a real heroine of the war, along with her English counterpart, Florence Nightingale.

The Greeks also have a long tradition in herbal medicine, influenced by considerable knowledge on their cultivation and use. Around 400BC, Hippocrates (the ‘father of medicine’) lists a number of herbs with medicinal properties and makes many recommendations for his patients. The Ancient World honoured Hippocrates as the father of medicine because he considered all aspects of health and illness, some of which form the basis of conventional medicine as it is practised today. This is very much supported by scientific reasoning, research and evidence. Even medical students including qualified practitioners of herbal medicine honour Hippocrates by taking the ‘Hippocratic Oath’ upon completion of their training to signify a rite of passage as a practitioner of healing, whether conventional or herbal.

Galen (129AD-c.200/c.219AD);
Physician & Biologist

The Roman invasion resulted in the spread of herbal medicine in the regions and lands that they conquered because they brought with them the knowledge and uses of the healing plants. As many as 200 different species of herbs may have been introduced to Britain as a result of the Roman influence. This period also witnessed the influential work by the Greek physician Galen (130AD) who characterised medical wisdom at that time with his theories on the humors: “In men, all diseases are caused by bile and phlegm. Bile and phlegm give rise to diseases when they become too dry or too wet or too hot or too cold in the body”. This was later referred to as Galenical medicine and together with the incorporated wisdom of the Arab practitioner Avicenna (980-1037) formed the basis of conventional medical practices throughout the Middle Ages. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, much of the herbal knowledge and practice in Europe was sadly lost but what remained was continued by the Christian monks who grew herbs in their gardens that were attached to their monasteries. This is still very much in evidence today in some of the rural French and Italian monasteries. Physicians such as Paracelcus (1493-1541), marked their own individual stamp on the practice of herbal medicine on the whole. At this time, herbal remedies were very much part of medicine per se and most physicians were also alchemists. They therefore had great skill in investigating natural substances including plant materials and transforming them. They practised this with an early philosophical and spiritual discipline, combining elements of chemistry, metallurgy, physics, medicine, astrology, semiotics (study of human communications especially signs and symbols), mysticism, spiritualism and art.

Nicholas Culpepper (1616-1654)
English botanist, herbalist, physician,
and astrologer

The period of the Renaissance and the New World were exciting times for herbal medicine which saw the application of a more scientific approach to the study of herbs and medicinal plants. They were periods in time that were hugely influential in shaping the knowledge and practice of Western Herbal Medicine as it is today. Key players such as the English astrologer and physician Nicholas Culpepper (1616-54) and the American herbal practitioner Samuel Thomson (1769-1843) were instrumental in making herbal medicine more accessible to the common people rather than it being exclusive to the elite rich and upper classes. Equally, travellers to and from other parts of Europe, the Americas and the rest of the world also influenced the cross-fertilisation of herbal knowledge between countries, traditions and cultures.

The decline of herbal medicine from the late 18th century saw the persecution of ‘witches’ who came to be synonymous with the practice of witchcraft, the possession of evil spirits, magical powers and the use of herbs. This reputation became hard to shift and coincided with the development and rapid progress of allopathic (conventional) medicine. Modern drug therapy however, is really based on this strong history of herbal medicine (as outlined above) and the study of the chemical constituents of medicinal herbs. Many of the common drugs are synthetic versions or derivatives originating from natural plant chemicals. Examples include aspirin (from salicylic acid extracted from the bark of the willow tree), the chemotherapy drugs vincristine and vinblastine (from the Madagaskar periwinkle herb). Vinblastine is mainly useful for treating Hodgkin's disease, advanced testicular cancer and advanced breast cancer. Vincristine is mainly used to treat acute leukemia and other lymphomas. Another anticancer drug, taxol is from the yew tree and the heart drug digitoxin is from the foxglove. More recently however, there has been a revival of herbal medicine as the long-term effects of conventional drugs is being realised in addition to the unpleasant side-effects of some of the more potent drugs. The gentle nature of herbal remedies and the holistic context in which it is practised is very much in favour as an increasing number of people are becoming disenchanted with modern drug treatments. This is especially the case for conditions that are preventable and are minor and particularly appealing if a natural form of therapy can be more effective in some instances.

There is No Fear

Samhain, the time of the ancestors, is a potent time for me.  I love the quietness of the earth, and the potent earth energies beneath the ground.  

I used to celebrate Halloween, get dressed up and often get drunk at parties.  This was a shallow experience for me.  Even now that I don’t drink alcohol very much, I am not interested in putting on a costume.  It is as if I want less on, to stand fully naked in the world as I am, like Inanna giving up her things as she navigates the underworld in a journey to meet her

wicked sister, Ereshkigal.  

This year as in years past, the pictures of witches and goblins started to emerge, as well as scary stories and movies and images.  This year I started to question the whole paradigm of fear around this time of year.  What is everyone so scared of?  Why are people so scared of witches and ghosts?  What has happened to our culture so that something so powerful, in my experience, can be seen as being harmful and evil.  

When I started studying the wise woman tradition of healing, a woman I was carpooling to classes with said she was a witch.  I was afraid and I was intrigued.  I didn’t know anything about real witches, only the fake images of evil beings worshiping satan.  I started to meet more witches and learned about Wicca and paganism and celebrating the earth in the seasons.  

The reason I set out to write this piece is because of the fear that is associated with Halloween.  I must admit I was afraid of telling people that I was studying Wicca.  They may think I am evil.  In spite of fear, I began a women’s circle with other women from my herbal class.  We did ritual, sang and stirred up some pretty powerful energies.  

It has been twenty years since I first became a shamanic herbalist.  My studies took me to New York to study with Susun Weed and 15 years ago I started studying and practicing shamanism.  I have been initiated as a green witch. 

The practice of the green witch is simple.  She has an intimate relationship with the plants.  They are her teachers, her friends and they offer themselves to her for healing.  The green witch has just a few plants with which she works.  She knows each intimately.  

The green witch has spirit helpers that guide her practice.  She knows how to access the invisible realms.  She knows how to travel to places in the spirit realm and how to return.  She often visits this invisible landscape to cultivate her power. The green witch’s focus is on living in harmony with who she is truly, and on being of service in alignment with this.  

Halloween is the time when the green witch reaches the depths of the underworld. She navigates the depths of the inner realms and brings wisdom back to share.  There is potency here as she investigates through the darkness.  She is guided by her power animals and spirit helpers, listening deeply to the songs given to her by the plants to help her navigate.  There is no fear in this journey.  There are no bad guys.  There may be beings that stir the cauldron to create challenges for change.  She surrenders to the transformations needed to become more and more of who she is.  There is complete trust.  

In order to live this way, it takes practice.  Susun Weed says it takes seven lifetimes to become an herbalist.  I understand this because of the great fear I have felt in claiming to be a witch and a shamanic herbalist. 

Why so much fear?  Why denial?  Why doubt?  I have been thinking and asking about this for awhile.  What I have realized is that what we fear is who we are in our most powerful form.  Marianne Williamson wrote, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”

We have created a culture of fear and Halloween is a time to exploit that.  The real images of witches are women that work with the powerful earth energies to heal and to bring about change.  They are herbalists, midwives, doctors, nurses, dancers, actors, artist and healers.  The spirit helpers like Baba Yaga and Hecate, witches who’s images have been distorted into evil women who cast spells on people.  But in reality, these goddesses are not evil.  And they are not nice!  They stir things up and teach about power, real power.  

I am feeling called today to remember who I am.  To trust in the Goddess to guide me deep into my psyche, into the deepest, darkest forest, to explore the places that require healing and transformation. 

And there is no fear.  

May it be in Beauty.  

Rewilding and Cultivating an Authentic Life

Yesterday I went out in the garden and scattered seeds….all the seeds I had from the last two years.  Chickweed, calendula, sunflower, zucchini, kale, basil and lots more.  I have been receiving inspirations about how to have an authentic garden.  I have been receiving messages from the garden and from my reading about others who have grown permanent gardens.  

Today it is raining so hard.  And it is watering my seeds!  

What on earth could this mean…what on earth can this accomplish?  

It doesn’t matter.  It was a message I got and I followed it.  

The garden appears to be a metaphor for my life.  What happened two years ago was someone who was helping me in my garden quit abruptly in June. It seemed like the worst time to lose a garden helper. But it really was the best time.  I had been to the Fairy Congress in Eastern Washington and had talked to a few beekeepers.  When I returned I realized that the insects were communicating with me.  They were instructing me with messages. In the past, when a wasp would fly near me, I would gently swat it away and ask it not to bother me.  But this time after the Fairy Congress, I knew the wasp was coming near to tell me something.  I listened.  

So the garden helper quit and I was left with a garden that appeared to need weeding and manicuring.  But that is not what I did.  I freaked out for a very short time and then I got a very strong feeling that I was to not do anything in the garden, to let it grow without tending.  I called this rewilding.

For two years I didn’t tend the garden.  It felt weird and it also felt right.  When I would go out in the garden to visit, the energy was sweet and nurturing.  The garden was happy.  

And the buttercup grew and the grass grew and the blackberries came in.  

I thought that this was what the garden would be, a wild place to find peace.  

What I started to notice about my relationship to the garden was that instead of making excuses to people about how I didn’t have time to weed and that it doesn’t look like a garden, I was teaching about rewilding.  I wasn’t making excuses anymore because this garden was the authentic expression of what it desired to be.  

And then I read “The Secret Teachings of the Plants” by Stephen Buhner and he referenced Masanobu Fukuoka and his book, “The One Straw Revolution”

Fukuoka talked about waking up and discovering that nature carries forth on its own without prompting from human, without disruption, and chemicals and tilling etc.  He started a rice farm where he grew rice and citrus fruit without tilling, without chemicals and without even added compost.  He did this for over thirty years before he wrote his book.  He grew healthy rice with yields the same or greater than those who used chemicals.  

He wrote about nondiscriminatory gardening and farming.  He wrote about how to do less, how not to do things.  

I became inspired from his writing.  What he was writing about, the soil integrity, the way everything works together to make the environment work, that is what I was feeling.  I am so thankful for this wisdom.  

And so this year in the garden, I decided that I would begin to work and to cultivate in the energy of what was desired.  Instead of pulling out grass, we cut the grass to the ground and laid the cut grass on the ground under the plants.  

We also built six hugel culture beds, a way of creating a permanent garden bed that will increase in fertility over the years.  

When I get anxious about what it looks like out there with all the weeds and grasses and things coming in, I listen to a deeper message.  Then I can feel the vibrant life that is teeming out there.  Then I can sense the inspiration of a space coming into its own. 

We recently put some compost from a pile near the road that had

been breaking down for several years.  With the rains have come chickweed, lamb’s quarter, kale, motherwort and other little green starts.  

This garden design is a metaphor for the design of my life.  Instead of making excuses for how I am,  I am sharing with others about my life as a listener, to the messages that instruct me to live authentically.  

May it be in Beauty.  

Arsenic Levels in Foods

Arsenic is naturally present in the environment, which means it gets into food and water with levels varying in different regions of the world. It’s impossible to eliminate it from food, however, having too much arsenic in our diet could be harmful to health. Rice tends to take up more arsenic from the environment than other cereal crops, although this can vary according to variety and method of production. The arsenic in rice also tends to be predominately the more toxic inorganic form, which has the potential to increase risk of illnesses including cancer. Recent interest following a televised documentary programme on the risks of eating rice has brought this old topic back into the spotlight once again.

There really is arsenic in lots of food. In fact, the proposed new limits from the EU (200 parts per billion in food for adults, and 100 parts per billion in food for children and babies) are supported by the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA). Arsenic occurs naturally in rocks, and there's some lying around in the earth from the days when arsenic-containing pesticides were used. It dissolves easily in water, and is absorbed from water and from the soil by plants. It's found in fruit, vegetables and grains. On the whole, levels in grains tend to be lower than in plant leaves, but we don't eat as much plant leaf as we do rice. And rice is particularly efficient at picking up arsenic compared to other grains. What's more, because the arsenic gets in from soil and water, rather than from insecticides used today, organic products are just as high in arsenic as non-organic ones.

As a nation, we eat four times more rice than we did 40 years ago, and rice cakes and baby rice are very widely used as early foods for babies. So these new guidelines probably have more to do with a realisation that even tiny amounts of arsenic can add up in the long term, rather than a sudden increase in the levels of arsenic in rice. It's always been there, but we've only just noticed.

While every doctor knows the risks of serious alcohol poisoning (diarrhoea and vomiting, abdominal cramps, heart problems, dehydration, collapse and sometimes death), far less is known about the long-term effects of exposure to lower levels of arsenic. It has been linked with a possible increased risk of cancer, including bladder, skin, kidney and lung. It may also be a risk factor for heart attack and stroke. In pregnancy, there may be a link with miscarriage and low birth-weight babies, and in kids it may have an effect on brain development.

What we don't know is the level at which risks start to rise. We're never going to remove all the arsenic from the soil or from food - just like we're never going to remove all the radiation in the world we live in. We certainly don't have to ban rice from our tables immediately for fear of collapsing, frothing at the mouth. In fact, there's absolutely no need to do anything if your rice intake is limited to a few meals a week.

So what is being done to tackle this issue?

The FSA is contributing to discussions in Europe to set limits for inorganic arsenic in rice and rice products. The limits are close to being agreed. There are international efforts to better understand this and develop of code of practice that can be employed by producing countries to mitigate levels of arsenic in rice.

• The FSA supports setting EU maximum limits for inorganic arsenic in rice and rice products. We now have systems available in official labs which will mean that products can be checked to ensure they meet the rules.
• The FSA is working hard in Europe to ensure that effective, proportionate and enforceable EU maximum limits for arsenic in rice are agreed as soon as possible; that more stringent limits are put in place for rice and rice products for infants and young children; and that these will be subject to regular review. The limits are close to being agreed, and we expect them to apply from mid-next year.
• EU maximum limits for environmental contaminants are reviewed on a regular basis and are subject to future revision to take account of the latest evidence and data – therefore there may be scope to reduce them further in due course.
• It is the responsibility of manufacturers to ensure that the food they produce is as low as reasonably achievable in regard to arsenic. This will still be the case once maximum limits are in place.
• The Codex (Alimentarius) Committee on Contaminants in Food is compiling a Code of Practice for the Prevention and Reduction of Arsenic Contamination in Rice, for rice producers to use to control levels. The FSA has ensured that experts have an opportunity to influence the drafting of this document.
• The FSA is carrying out a survey on infant foods, and this will include looking at the exposure of infants to rice products and arsenic. It’s likely to be published in the new year, and the FSA will consider whether the results indicate any further risk management action is required to compliment the EU maximum limits.

Advice on the consumption of rice drinks

The FSA advise that toddlers and young children (ages 1 - 4.5 years) should not be given rice drinks as a substitute for breast milk, infant formula or cows’ milk. This is because of their proportionally higher milk consumption and lower bodyweights compared to other consumers. There are a number of alternatives to suit those with an allergy or intolerance to cows’ milk or soya. Advice should be sought from a health professional (such as a doctor or dietician) to ensure a suitable milk alternative is sought for a healthy and balanced diet.

Brown rice: Not a health food!

Brown rice, on the other hand, has significantly more arsenic than white rice and should be avoided or consumed rarely. Some of the brown rice brands tested contained at least 50% more than the safe limit per serving, and a few even had nearly double the safe limit. Note that some of the worst offenders for arsenic are made from brown rice: processed rice products like brown rice syrup, brown rice pasta, rice cakes and brown rice crisps. These processed products are commonly consumed by those following a “healthy” whole grain rich or gluten-free diet, but they clearly pose a significant risk of arsenic overexposure, especially if a person eats more than one serving per day. Obviously, brown rice is not a food that should be a dietary staple, or even eaten on a regular basis.

Aside from having a higher arsenic content, there are other reasons to avoid brown rice: it’s harder to digest and nutrient absorption is likely inferior to white rice because of phytates in the rice bran. Despite a higher nutrient content of brown rice compared to white rice, the anti-nutrients present in brown rice reduce the bioavailability of any vitamins and minerals present. Plus, brown rice also reduces dietary protein and fat digestibility compared to white rice. In short, brown rice is not a health food for a variety of reasons, and a higher arsenic content is simply another reason to avoid eating it.

No food is completely safe or without some level of contamination risk: vegetables make up 24% of our arsenic exposure and tap water can legally contain 10 ppb arsenic per litre (some systems even exceed the legal limit.) So while rice may contribute an unsafe level of arsenic, it’s certainly not the only source in our diet, and we need to be cautious about demonising an entire class of food based on a sound bite from a news story. Whilst rice may not be a necessary component of a healthy diet, it can be incorporated safely as a source of starch: just be sure to pay attention to the brand you’re buying, as well as your method of preparation.

References:

https://www.food.gov.uk/science/arsenic-in-rice

http://chriskresser.com/arsenic-in-rice-how-concerned-should-you-be/