Just when you thought it safe to go back into the kitchen, the Swedish Food Health and Safety Board announced today that rice is killing us. This white staple apparently has the deadly chemical arsenic in it.
People who eat rice more than four times a week are strongly advised to cut back and parents who reach for the convenient rice cake to appease their children should stop it immediately.
While I’m sure this is thoroughly well-founded, it’s a bit hard to take seriously as over the years we’ve been warned about eating most foodstuffs in one way or another.
From a global perspective, to the east of us, there are entire nations who build their cuisine on rice. And to my, granted limited, knowledge, I don’t believe arsenic poisoning is the biggest cause of death there.
Watching the Swedes 
Then why Asian live longer?