The Study
Effects of washing, soaking and domestic cooking on cadmium, arsenic and lead bioaccessibilities in rice.
This study looked at how washing and cooking rice changes the amount of bad stuff like lead and arsenic that your body might absorb. It didn't test if this actually makes people healthier — just that the bad stuff seemed to go down after cooking.
Analysis score
Maximum 44 for a cross-sectional study.
Where the score came from
Washing rice and cooking it properly can remove some harmful metals like arsenic and lead that are naturally in the grain.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 520 / 100
Quality score
Snapshots of a population at a single point in time, or descriptions of small groups. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine cause and effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — eating rice that’s been washed and cooked properly lowers your chance of getting sick from these toxic metals over time.
- 2Washing removed heavy metals; cooking made them harder for your body to absorb.
- 3Children absorb more of these metals than adults.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Journal of the science of food and agriculture
Year
2018
Authors
Kunlun Liu, Jiabao Zheng, Fusheng Chen
Related Content
Claims (4)
Soaking rice in water and throwing out the water lowers the amount of arsenic left in the rice.
Children are more likely than adults to experience harmful health effects from cadmium, arsenic, and lead in rice because they absorb more of these metals per kilogram of body weight.
Washing rice lowers the levels of cadmium, arsenic, and lead in the grain, and cooking it afterward reduces how much of these metals the body can absorb from food.
The amount of cadmium, arsenic, and lead that can be absorbed from rice depends on how much is present in the rice, and this directly determines the estimated daily exposure, health risk, and cancer risk for adults and children.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.