New research has found that brown rice has a higher concentration of arsenic than white rice in the U.S.—affirming decades of similar findings around the toxic metal’s presence in the otherwise healthy grain.
For years, experts have sounded alarm bells over arsenic levels in brown rice. A 2008 study found it was highest in rice grown in certain Southern U.S. states, while a 2014 Consumer Reports analysis of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data found worrisome levels of arsenic in both white and brown rice—with a greater concentration in brown because the toxin tends to reside in its two outer layers, the bran and the germ, that are removed from white rice.
