Interesting that in Asia, many cultures eat rice exclusively everyday, breakfast, lunch, dinner, Monday to Sunday, from baby til they die. They live the longest live spans.

dcarch

I believe the arsenic problem is considered to be primarily with rice grown in the US because growing methods here have led to more arsenic soil accumulation than in other countries. Substituting Asian rice is a frequent suggestion for a workaround.

I try to remember to rinse rice, but otherwise I just keep in mind that arsenic gives you a nice complexion. :)

I never EVER buy preseasoned rice....and 95% of the time the rice I eat is either Basamati grown in Thailand, or arborio grown in Italy.

I buy organic & rinse before cooking. I never used to rinse, but ever since that news came out, I've been doing it.

I was going to laugh at you guys for thinking that rinsing helps, but I see it does! As does cooking it like pasta, which some of us old-timers might call "Ann T's method."

I rinse it and I cook it in a pressure cooker, often with vegetables. I never cook it like pasta, however, and I seldom make it plain. It's very easy to add your own seasonings - just substitute stock for water, and if you have limited time, you can add chopped dehydrated vegetables, which you can normally find in the spice department of your grocery store. I generally use fresh vegetables, but the dehydrated vegetables have more flavor and texture than you might expect. They are not the same as fresh, but they are at least as good as seasoning packets that come with rice. I got interested in dehydrated vegetables because some of the Japanese noodle soups that I used to buy (for lunch when I had limited time) had little dehydrated vegetable packets with them, and I was surprised at how much like fresh vegetables they were - especially the cabbage pieces.

I buy mostly Basmati rice in 10# burlap bags (that have zippers), and most of it is from India but some is from Pakistan. I reuse the bags, and the friend that I went to Brazil with used one of them for carrying cash in Rio. At one time he had over $30,000 in one of these burlap bags on the street in Ipanema and also in the airport in Rio. It was a really good camouflage, I think, and he did declare the amount of cash at customs.

I had a dog in one of those bags....I emptied the last of it into one of my canisters put the bag on a chair,,,,she pawed it off, crawled inside and rolled around....cwazy puppy!

How Much Should You Eat?

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rice-recommendations-arsenic-safe_n_1897598.html

>>I buy mostly Basmati rice in 10# burlap bags (that have zippers), and
most of it is from India but some is from Pakistan. I reuse the bags,<<

Me too, Lars, only here we get the rice in white canvas bags. They make great bags for knitting or sewing projects you want to carry around. I also use one to keep all my knitting/crochet tools in (and I have a LOT), and another for loose knitting patterns and pamphlets.

Perhaps you should do this:

Before I open a bag of rice or store away a bag of rice, I always put it in the oven and bake at 170F for hours.

Rice from many areas can be a source for pantry moth infestation.

dcarch

dcarch - does freezing it for 48 hours work the same (killing teeny critters)? I do that to the foods I've dehydrated before I store them.

Some insects can take freezing, but nothing survives very hot temperature.

Also, a 20 lb bag of rice will take up a lot of room in the freezer.

dcarch

Freezing seems to work for me; I do it w/ all the grains & flour I bring home. I generally buy from bulk bins in moderate quantities & we eat rice maybe several times monthly, so 20# bags would be way in excess of what I need.

Why not?, Linda

I don't want someone else to choose what seasonings to add to my rice..and what else to add. Read the ingredient list. When I want seasoned rice I add my own salt, garlic, parsley flakes, paprika or ground hatch chilis, maybe some cumin, maybe annato....and no preservative or strange sounding stuff.
If you really don't want to go to the trouble of opening several jars, buy something like a Penzey's seasoning mix....but I don't buy envelopes or boxes of preflavored rice.

Understand, Linda. Tks.