For most people, nothing could be more wholesome and healthy than a bowl of rice cereals for babies. But what if your baby's food is actually teeming with poison? Consumer Reports found that some rice cereals for babies contain at least 5 times as much inorganic arsenic as oatmeal.
Babies that eat rice cereal two to three servings a day are twice as likely to develop cancer. Worse, Rice Krispies by Kelloggs contain above the recommended levels of inorganic arsenic than recommended for babies or children. Nestle and Mead Johnson Nutrition, two of the major manufacturers of formulas for babies also refused to remove GMOs from their formula products.
New research has found that more than half of some of the most popular rice cereal products exceed proposed new limits for arsenic. Although there are strict limits for the amount of arsenic level allowed in water, there are currently no maximum levels in food – and now some scientists are speaking out as they are concerned about the effects of long-term exposure.
In November 2012, Consumer Reports magazine published “Arsenic in Your Food,” a report on arsenic in rice and foods made from rice. At the same time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released the first part of a larger study of arsenic in food.
Most foods contain some amount of organic arsenic, which occurs naturally in the earth. Experts are more concerned when a food contains certain levels of inorganic arsenic, which is used in pesticides and other industrial chemicals. Inorganic arsenic is a potent human carcinogen and can lead to other health problems later in life.
Consumer Reports discovered that some infant rice cereals contain at least five times as much inorganic arsenic as alternatives such as oatmeal – and calculated that a baby who eats two to three servings of rice cereal a day could end up with a risk of cancer that’s twice what CR considers an acceptable level.
More Evidence
As more evidence emerges about the harm high levels of arsenic might cause, particularly to children, the European Union is again exceeding U.S. standards with new maximum levels being proposed with the support of the Food Standards Agency.
During the research products including Kelloggs’ Rice Krispies and Organic puffed rice cereals were tested multiple times – and some showed high levels of inorganic arsenic, far above the proposed limits.
Rice Krispies by Kelloggs were found to have 188 ppb, far above the recommended levels for babies and children.
Past research has shown that exposure to a combination of both arsenic and estrogen, at levels U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers “safe” for humans, can cause cancer at elevated levels. The higher levels of added organic brown rice syrup in soy-based formula may explain why some researchers found higher levels of arsenic in the soy-based formula. Combined with the presence of both phytoestrogens, soy-based formulas are a disease promoting ticking time bomb for infants. Texas Tech University researchers revealed that humans exposed to a combination of both toxicants were almost twice as likely to develop cancerous cells in their prostate. The study is published in the peer-reviewed journal The Prostate.
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