O/T -- But Useful, Life-Enhancing Science, Just The Same: Dropping Arsenic Content, From Your Steamed Rice...

Typically, I will cook up one cup of rice with four cups of water. But as these able chemists suggest, five minutes into the boil, if you swap out the hot water for two cups of fresh water, even tap water -- you will reduce the arsenic you absorb by up to a whopping 74 per cent. To be certain, that is going to be significant -- over a lifetime of eating rice.

Some times, it is just a small move (like this one, and the potassium -- from a daily banana!). . . that increases both longevity, and quality of life, later in life. I will do this henceforth, given that I do enjoy my rice, at least once a week. I hope you will, too. Here it is, from phys.org:

. . . .Cooking rice in this certain way removes over 50 percent of the naturally occurring arsenic in brown rice, and 74 percent in white rice, according to new research. . . .

[This "swap the water" out] method involves parboiling the rice in pre-boiled water for five minutes before draining and refreshing the water, then cooking it on a lower heat to absorb all the water.

Arsenic, which is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, is water-soluble -- so it accumulates in rice, which is grown in flooded fields more than other cereals. Arsenic exposure affects almost every organ in the body and can cause skin lesions, cancer, diabetes and lung diseases. . . .

Over the long growing season, arsenic gets deposited repeatedly (and thus concentrated) on the husks of the rice grains by hundreds of wet/dry cycles. By "washing" the rice with boiling water, then refreshing -- you apparently are able to essentially strip off most of that outer arsenic layer, while not letting it seep too deeply into the starch of the rice.

Now, go save ALL our lives -- go vote! Smiling, ear to ear, here. . . .

नमस्ते