10 Toxic Items Lurking in Your Pantry

Organic rice baby cereal, other rice-based breakfast cereals, brown rice, and white rice have all been found to contain arsenic, a "potent human carcinogen [that] also can set up children for other health problems in later life, " says Consumer Reports. The problem occurs because rice is grown in flooded paddies and takes up the arsenic that occurs naturally in water and soil.

Safer Alternative: Limit the amount of rice you consume; see Consumer Reports' recommendations for how much infants, children and adults can safely eat in a week here. Also, replace rice with other grains, like quinoa, farro, and whole wheat pasta. Cooking rice by repeatedly flushing it through with fresh hot water, and cooking it in extra water you can pour off, can remove much of the grain's stored arsenic, reports Nature.

From Country Living