UltraSimple Diet Notes: Limit Rice Intake due to Arsenic

While browsing through a Consumer Reports magazine, I came upon the article "How much arsenic is in your rice?" Followers of the diet in the book The UltraSimple Diet: Kick-Start Your Metabolism and Safely Lose Up to 10 Pounds in 7 Days—or any other diet which involves consumption of rice—should read this report, and then check the ingredients label of EVERYTHING to see if any rice is in the ingredient list.

I was surprised to find that the Green Foods Matcha Green Tea, 11 Ounce I am using contains "Brown Rice Solids". I had bought this product in the smaller 5.5 ounce size at Whole Foods, and have enjoyed it. Because it is expensive, I checked Amazon to see if I could get it cheaper there (the answer is yes). I was startled to find the one star reviews which pointed out that each five gram serving of tea consists of one gram of matcha green tea and four grams of brown rice solids.

Now, brown rice solids is listed on the list of ingredients of the tea, and I think of myself as a savvy shopper when it comes to reading labels and checking the ingredients list, but it didn't occur to me to check the ingredients list for what is labeled in big letters as Matcha Green Tea. Now I know I need to check the ingredients label on EVERYTHING!

An extra four grams of brown rice solids probably isn't going to make or break in terms of safe arsenic levels, but I think it's a good example of how rice may be a part of many foods.

For my morning UltraShake, I have been following the recipe for "Version 1" which uses rice protein. For lunch and dinner, I've been eating a bowl of Minsley Cooked Brown Rice Bowl, Organic, Reday in 90 sec.Microwave, 7.4-Ounce Bowls Pack of 6 (half bowl per meal). That's a lot more rice than is considered safe by Consumer Reports. It probably wasn't harmful to eat this much rice for a short period of time, but I'm going to start diversifying my diet.

The UltraSimple diet's "Food Reintroduction, Phase 1" includes adding low-allergy grains such as quinoa, buckwheat, and millet, and these same grains are mentioned in the Consumer Reports article as being safer alternatives to rice in respects to arsenic levels. So I'm going to try replacing my brown rice intake at lunch and dinner with these three: