Risk and benefit of different cooking methods on essential elements and arsenic in rice

Abstract

Use of excess water in cooking of rice is a well-studied short-term arsenic removal technique. However, the outcome on the nutritional content of rice is not well addressed. We determined the benefit of different cooking techniques on arsenic removal and the associated risk of losing the essential elements in rice. Overall, we found 4.5%, 30% and 44% decrease in the arsenic content of rice when cooked with rice to water ratios of 1:3, 1:6 (p = 0.004) and 1:10 (parboiling; p<0.0001) respectively. All the essential elements incurred a significant loss (except iron, selenium, copper) when rice was cooked using 1:6 technique: potassium (50%), nickel (44.6%), molybdenum (38.5%), magnesium (22.4%), cobalt (21.2%), manganese (16.5%), calcium (14.5%), selenium (12%), iron (8.2%), zinc (7.7%), and copper (0.2%) and further reduction was observed on parboiling, except for iron. For the same cooking method (1:6), percentage contribution to the recommended daily intake (RDI) of essential elements was highest for molybdenum (154.7%), followed by manganese (34.5%), copper (33.4%), selenium (13.1%), nickel (12.4%), zinc (10%), magnesium(8%), iron (6.3%), potassium (1.8%), and calcium (0.5%), Hence cooked rice is a poor source for essential elements and thus micronutrients