They look good don't they? Who doesn't love rice as a side dish? Think about it - for most of us it was probably the first food we were introduced to. Well, buckle up loyal readers because I've got to be the bearer of bad news. It has been confirmed in lab tests on hundreds of foods, including hot cereals and rice pasta, that there is a disturbing amount of inorganic arsenic in the rice we are eating. Maybe it goes without saying but eating arsenic probably isn't the healthiest thing you should be doing seeing as arsenic shares a lovely link with several types of cancer.
Find more about the study recently done by Consumer Reports HERE.
Scary stuff but fear not! All is not lost and there are some alternatives that can leave you not missing the rice in your life quite as much.
I had actually come across this information when the monster, I mean my perfectly angelic son, was an infant. We hadn't yet gotten to the cereal stage yet but when I read this I was at a loss. I was reading reports stating not to feed your children more than 1/4 cup a MONTH. If you have kids you probably already know that rice cereal is a major staple multiple times each day ... in a month!!!
(It's okay, Elliette! We know what to do!)
With our first child, Caleb, we made sure to buy organic cereal as our first step. But, just to be safe we went ahead and skipped rice cereal all together and waited until Caleb was 6 months old to introduce cereal. When we did - we started with oatmeal cereal or ground up and cooked quinoa with some of Caleb's milk and fruit.
Now, if you don't have kids and you eat rice quinoa could also be a good option to take the place of arsenic rice. The cooking process is similar and quinoa is also a grain BUT it is also extremely healthy. You can read about some of the many health benefits HERE. There are plenty of recipes floating around the world wide web for quinoa and once you get the hang of cooking it and the smaller, grainier texture I think there is a good chance you won't even miss the rice!
Another option is couscous. This is a mediterranean food and cooks up incredibly fast! I'm not going to lie - I buy the already seasoned in a box variety sometimes because - let's face it - easy wins some days. You can also buy couscous in bulk. It literally takes 5 minutes to cook and you can season with whatever suits your fancy. I sometimes throw in beans or sautéed veggies. There are a lot of recipes out there for couscous as well but for me it is a fun side dish item to experiment with. And it is fast ... without arsenic!
No comments:
Post a Comment