Soaking rice overnight before cooking reduces risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer: study

Researchers have found that the soaking rice overnight before cooking reduced the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

According to the research at the Queens University Belfast in England, chemicals from the industrial toxins and pesticides in the soil contaminate the rice, which endangers the health of millions of people, The Telegraph reported.

The findings revealed that soaking rice overnight reduced the level of the toxin arsenic was reduced by 80 per cent.

Arsenic occured naturally in the environment, but rice tends to absorb it more than other cereal crops and also take it up from pesticides in the soil and from industrial toxins.

Though the EU had set new limits of safe levels of arsenic  last year, scientists had different views on what level was safe to eat.

Andy Meharg from the university tested three different ways of cooking rice for the research. In the first, he used a ratio of two parts of water to one part of rice, where the water was steamed out during cooking.

In the second he used five parts of water to one part of rice, with the excess water being washed off, which reduced the levels of arsenic to almost halve.

In the third method, in which the rice was soaked overnight, levels of the toxin were reduced by 80 per cent.

However, experiments suggest that the way rice was cooked was the key to reducing exposure to the toxic and naturally occurring chemical.