The Study
Rice Water—More a Source of Nutrition Elements or Toxic Arsenic? Multi-Element Analysis of Home-Made (Natural) Rice Water and Commercialized Rice-Based Products Using (HG)-ICP OES
This study is like testing how much sugar dissolves in different kinds of tea when you stir it for different times — it tells you what’s in the liquid, but not whether drinking it makes you healthier or sicker. It doesn’t test people at all.
Analysis score
Maximum 44 for a cross-sectional study.
Where the score came from
Rice water is the water you get after soaking or cooking rice — people use it for skin, hair, or even drinking. But rice can have a harmful chemical called arsenic.
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 56 / 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 — drinking rice water made by boiling can be dangerous over time, but cold-soaked rice water is safe and full of healthy minerals like calcium and iron.
- 2Soaking rice in 6x its volume of cold water for 30 minutes makes arsenic drop to 2.8–4.8 ng/g (safe to drink).
- 3Boiling rice makes arsenic jump to 15–19 ng/g (too high).
- 4Washing rice first removes good minerals but not much arsenic.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Processes
Year
2023
Authors
M. Wełna, Anna Szymczycha-Madeja, Paweł Pohl
Related Content
Claims (6)
Soaking rice in water and throwing out the water lowers the amount of arsenic left in the rice.
Soaking unwashed rice in six times its volume of cold water for 30 minutes lowers arsenic levels to below 5 ng/g while keeping calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, and zinc within specified ranges, producing rice water that complies with current drinking water safety standards.
Brown rice contains more arsenic and essential minerals than white or jasmine rice, but when cooked, it releases less arsenic into the water because the arsenic in brown rice is less soluble.
Washing rice before cooking removes some calcium, magnesium, and iron, and reduces arsenic slightly, but the final rice still contains arsenic at levels considered unsafe and loses important nutrients.
Rice water made by soaking rice in cold water has more calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, and manganese than store-bought rice-based skincare products.
Boiling or soaking white and jasmine rice in water releases arsenic into the water at concentrations higher than the World Health Organization’s safety limit for drinking water, and consuming this water regularly exposes people to unsafe levels of arsenic.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.