Oh now what.. if we can't have rice because of arsenic?!

[chantald]

Oh for the love..

I was just made aware of this report.. slightly out dated but rather alarming anyway..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/mai.../eababy129.xml


and

which is more current

http://www.speciation-analysis.net/P...f0605ae47eae7c

SO, what do the children drink/eat now?? Since we can't have gluten.. nearly everything has RICE!! And one child has to limit potatos and beans.. They don't drink milk.. guess what they DO drink.. rice milk!!!

I am ready to throw up my hands and run screaming down the road!!! My kids can't eat or drink ANYTHING!!!!!

How worried do I need to be about this rice contimaination?? The 14 month old ONLY drinks water or rice milk.. he weaned and isn't on formula...

[MoonWillow]

[kjbrown92]

I'm sticking my head in the sand. Two of my kids can't have potatoes or legumes. I'm sticking with the rice and pretending it's healthy. I was hoping to find an emoticon of an ostrich but no such luck.
K

[jplain]

I'll have to plead ostrich too, though this does give me a good reason to make more efforts to diversify our grain intake.

From the articles, I don't think there's any reason to believe that rice is unusually susceptible to arsenic contamination when compared with other crops. It is unfortunate, but it seems logical that if the water has arsenic in it, some agricultural products will take it up.

[Chinese Pistache]

I'll send an email to Lundberg Farms and see what they have to say about this.

But, we also buy the big bag of Basmati from India at Costco which, according to the article, has lower levels.

[chantald]

Someone on another board called the Rice Dream people and they do test for arsenic and their product has none.. they say.. They buy organic from a place in CA.. But since there is a question on if Rice Dream is GF.. we may need to switch to something else soon..

I'm just so fed up. I feel like I can't feed the kids anything...

I guess I should not feel bad feeding them white basmati rice now.. instead of brown..

[MoonWillow]

Originally Posted by Chinese Pistache

But, we also buy the big bag of Basmati from India at Costco which, according to the article, has lower levels.

That sounds like what I bought. Hmm. I'll still be following this story!

[SAmama]

Originally Posted by chantald

Oh for the love..

I was just made aware of this report.. slightly out dated but rather alarming anyway..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/mai.../eababy129.xml


and

which is more current

http://www.speciation-analysis.net/P...f0605ae47eae7c

SO, what do the children drink/eat now?? Since we can't have gluten.. nearly everything has RICE!! And one child has to limit potatos and beans.. They don't drink milk.. guess what they DO drink.. rice milk!!!

I am ready to throw up my hands and run screaming down the road!!! My kids can't eat or drink ANYTHING!!!!!

How worried do I need to be about this rice contimaination?? The 14 month old ONLY drinks water or rice milk.. he weaned and isn't on formula...

We cannot do rice because Dd breaks out with it. We eat lots of millet, buckwheat, amaranth and sometimes quinoa and sorghum. Dh just made a nice banana bread with buckwheath. We also often have buckwheat pancakes. He haas made bread with millet or sorghum before as well. What about coconut milk for drinking? It tastes good and you can make your own if preservatives is a problem.

[naturegirl7]

Originally Posted by SAmama

We cannot do rice because Dd breaks out with it. We eat lots of millet, buckwheat, amaranth and sometimes quinoa and sorghum. Dh just made a nice banana bread with buckwheath. We also often have buckwheat pancakes. He haas made bread with millet or sorghum before as well. What about coconut milk for drinking? It tastes good and you can make your own if preservatives is a problem.

My DS is also allergic to rice (in addition to gluten, soy, dairy, eggs, peanuts, and treenuts and some odds fruits and veggies) - so we do homemade flourblends vs store bought GF mixes. I use sorghum flour, tapioca starch, potato or corn starch, and quinoa or millet flours to make a nice flour blend. I use that for all my baking. I sub water or coconut milk for anything that calls for milk in baking or cooking. And make quinoa or millet as side dishes in place of rice.

We don't drink anything except water and herbal teas here. Occasionally some watered down 100% juice....but that is pretty rare. As for cereals - there is hot quinoa and hot buckwheat cereals. We also like puffed millet cereal. it is good with apple sauce or pear sauce over it. DS devors it like that.

We have been everything free for over a year now - and honestly I don't miss milk or milk alternative that much.

There is almond milk as an alternative too - if you can do nuts of course. or hemp milk. I have heard GREAT things about Hemp milk.

[kjbrown92]

Good to know about the Rice Dream since DD drinks a ton of it. I use Thai Jasmine rice - and nothing mentions Thailand. I don't know if that's good or bad!
K

[menomena]

I have heard GREAT things about Hemp milk.

we can't have any milk alternative but hemp milk. my two cents: it's expensive ($5 for a box, and not the huge box) and it tastes yucky.

we do lots and lots of water. Lily loves our homemade pomegranate "soda".

1/2 oz or so of pomegranate juice with digestive enzymes (need the juice to activate); 1 tsp kids' calm (makes it fizzy); 16 oz or so of water (we just use these leftover kombucha glass bottles for mixing); 1 tsp raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar. slightly fizzy and minutely juicy and totally yummy.

[menomena]

I just remembered...

In the Body Ecology Diet book, she has a recipe for Acidophilus Milk.

1 Tbsp probiotic powder
1 Cup water
1/2 tsp non-alcohol vanilla flavoring (alcohol is okay if it's not any issue for you, obviously)
pinch of stevia (or a 2-3 drops liquid extract)
1 tsp lecithin granules (optional)

blend in blender or shake in a jar and enjoy. Good straight or poured over puffed millet. :

[Chinese Pistache]

Just got an email back from Lundberg Family Farms. They DO test the water for arsenic and their rice is safe

[MoonWillow]

This is good news. Thank you for the sleuthing CP!