Rice milk, dangerous or nutritious?

Is it wise to drink a lot of rice milk? There are stories of babies with serious illnesses from drinking rice milk. The product was already in the shops before safety was properly tested. Scientific research shows that it contains three times as much arsenic than is allowed for drinking water. Fortunately, it is still safe, say the scientists.

Why rice milk?

Why do people actually give their children rice milk or drink rice milk themselves? There are several reasons for this. First, there are people with a milk allergy. They get all kinds of rashes from cow's milk. Second, there are children with multiple allergies to various foods. Cow's milk is part of that. Children can also be allergic to soy milk. Soy is a food that, originally in Asia, is eaten only minimally. It is in soy sauce but only a dash of it is used. Soy is probably not really healthy for everyone. It turns out that children with milk and soy allergy. can tolerate rice milk well, according to an Italian study from 2006. An Italian study from 2003 also saw that children are tolerant to rice milk. But: you have to be careful with it. Relying too much on rice milk is not good.

Rice milk is a product that presents a hazard. If, as a mother, you regularly eat rice milk and you give your child under two years of age this as an alternative, then the chance is almost 100% that your child will be malnourished and suffer from hypoalbuminemia and atopic dermatitis, according to a 2012 American study. Hypoalbuminemia disease is characterized by low levels of albumin in the blood and tissue. Albumin is the main human protein and is produced by the liver. Too low an albumin content can lead to disorders of the liver such as reduced liver function and even chronic hepatitis. In addition, kidney failure can occur and it is possible that swelling occurs.

In general, if something is not healthy for small children and babies, it is not healthy for adults either. However, adults have greater flexibility and eat more varied than babies, so they can compensate for a shortage of rice milk. Yet it is not wise, even for adults, to use rice milk on a daily basis. Using rice milk once every two weeks and alternating this with oat milk and almond milk is no harm. Soy milk is unfortunately also not a healthy product and ordinary milk from the cow is certainly not. Organic milk has more healthy properties. Only raw milk is really healthy, just like oat milk and almond milk.

A 2001 US study in which a baby from 13 months to 22 months drank one and a half liters of rice milk a day found that this baby became seriously ill. The child received far too little protein. As a result, the child suffered from, among other things: kwashiorkor: anorexia, edema, pigmentation problems, skin lesions, diarrhea, abdominal distension, irritability and thin, fragile hair. Kwashiorkor is a disease in which the cells of the immune system are damaged and this disease has a high mortality rate.

The fact that children raised on rice milk can develop stunted growth and disease has been extensively researched by scientists and could not be verified. However, it was seen that 10% of the children who drank rice milk did not respond well to it. This one case is probably part of that 10%. One of the studies reporting that rice milk is a healthy alternative to cow's milk comes from 2010 and is a Spanish study. In this study, drinking rice milk was tested on children and pigs. No health risks were seen. A Belgian study from 2014 in which children who drank rice milk were followed for two years also saw no problems such as stunted growth and diseases.

Rice milk is not an expensive alternative to the cheap cow's milk. Goat's milk is a lot more expensive. In addition, you can make organic rice milk yourself quite cheaply. Moreover, this is fresh and everything that is fresh is a lot healthier because the machine manufacturing process of rice milk and the shelf life of the packaged product lead to loss of nutrients. To make rice milk yourself, boil brown rice with water. Some people use spring water. Use six parts water on one part rice. You let the rice cook for a bit so that it becomes extra soft. For this purpose, you can also turn it off after 15 minutes and let the pan stand for a few hours until the contents have cooled. Then you grind everything very fine with a blender. You can add water as needed. There will always be some rice residue left; you can strain that out with a sieve by pouring it all into another pan. Then the sifted rice milk is ready to put into a bottle. You can keep it in the refrigerator for a few days.

In a 2008 study, all rice milk for sale in stores exceeds total levels of arsenic in water at least three times. The EU has had regulations for arsenic in food since 2015. Before that, the regulation only applied to drinking water. Therefore, there could be a dangerous amount of arsenic in supermarket rice milk. In the U.S. the FDA distinguishes between organic and non-organic arsenic. There is no regulation for organic arsenic in American drinking water, but the non-organic arsenic is regulated earlier than in Europe. Scientists argue that non-organic (that is synthetic) arsenic is a lot more dangerous than organic. Source: PublicDomainPictures, Pixabay

How does arsenic get into rice? Arsenic is a substance that occurs all over the world in the soil and drinking water. Normally, plants do not absorb arsenic in large numbers. Rice plants, however, absorb slightly more arsenic than average; that's why this is in rice milk. The concentrations are higher than in water. It is therefore recommended to alternate rice milk with oat milk and almond milk.