"He Ding Hong", also known as arsenic trioxide, often appears in major costume dramas. For example, in Princess Huanzhu by Daming Lake, Galeries Lafayette used Hedinghong when she died; in Gongdou drama, certain Fujin was poisoned by eating food with Hedinghong; and in martial arts novels such as sword stained with royal blood by Jin Yong, The Legend of Flying Fox by Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain, there are traces of Hedinghong. Therefore, netizens also called Hedinghong "an essential medicine for traveling at home and killing people", but did you know that we eat white rice every day and there is a substance similar to Hedinghong-inorganic arsenic?

what is inorganic arsenic? Can I eat it?

Inorganic arsenic is a first-class carcinogen listed by the World Health Organization (WHO), which can be divided into trivalent arsenic and pentavalent arsenic. The toxins in organisms can be transformed with each other, among which trivalent arsenic is highly toxic, such as arsenic, which is known to the general public. After arsenic is absorbed by human body, it will combine with hydrogen sulfide or disulfide to affect cell respiration and enzyme action, and even break chromosomes. If people eat highly toxic trivalent arsenic by mistake, they will have acute poisoning. Long-term exposure to inorganic arsenic will not only increase the risk of bladder cancer, lung cancer and skin cancer, but also have side effects such as skin lesions, neuropathy, anemia and peripheral vascular diseases.

Some experts and scholars also expressed their opinions: Professor Maharg of Queen's University of Belfast in Northern Ireland: "We found that the content of inorganic arsenic in rice is really amazing! Tai Sen, a chemical analyst, said, "There may be 1.5 million children and 25, adults who died of arsenic-related cancer in Bangladesh, which is a serious public health problem. The BBC report also pointed out that because rice is planted in paddy fields, the arsenic content is 1 to 2 times higher than other cereals.

In Taiwan Province, the Food and Drug Administration has announced the draft "Standards for Contaminants and Toxins in Food", which adds "inorganic arsenic" to brown rice and infant food raw material rice in addition to the original potato solanine. Gao Yiting, chief of the Food and Drug Administration, said that in the past, the specifications for arsenic in rice were all based on the total amount. Although it was known that inorganic arsenic was harmful, because the inspection technology could not be broken through for a long time, the specifications for inorganic arsenic in rice were not set. It was not until recent years that progress was made that the specifications for inorganic arsenic in rice were set for the first time, with brown rice * * * being .35ppm and infant food raw rice being .1ppm.

How to cook rice to avoid eating inorganic arsenic?

the BBC TV program "Trust me, I'm a doctor" invited Professor Andy Meharg from Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, who has been studying and testing rice and rice products for decades, and compared three cooking methods in the program.

the first method: boil one cup of rice with two cups of water, and leave the water and rice in the pot or cook with a rice cooker until all the water is dry and evaporated; The second type: boil one cup of rice in five cups of water, and when the rice is cooked, pour out the excess water; The third method: soak a cup of rice overnight, pour out the water the next day, and then cook it in the second method.

The results showed that the arsenic residue in the cooked rice by the first method was as high as 84%, and that in the cooked rice by the second method was reduced to 43%. The arsenic residue in the rice cooked by the last method was reduced to 18%.

Professor Maharg said: The third cooking method can be used to reduce the arsenic content absorbed by human body. As for infants and young children, because rice milk is often used to make baby food, the Food Standards Agency of the United Kingdom advises parents not to give rice milk instead of milk to children aged five or under. In the choice of rice types; The arsenic content of Indian fragrant rice (or basmatimi Ba *** ati rice) is much less than other kinds; Brown rice contains husk, so it contains more arsenic than white rice.

However, the taste of the rice cooked in this way is far from the daily habits of Taiwan Province people. Domestic experts suggest that people should wash rice at least three times before cooking, maintain a balanced diet, and reduce the frequency of eating rice, so as to reduce the arsenic intake in the body, so there is no need to panic!