I’d like to thank co-author Ashley Koff, RD for her initiative on this issue. More of her work can be seen at AskleyKoffApproved.com.

You’ve heard the news, and in sets panic. Have I been inadvertently poisoning my family with arsenic? We share your concerns and as such created the following to help you where it counts most – in the kitchen – with this plan for reducing your family’s arsenic intake and along with it reducing the associated health risks.

To begin, take a moment to answer these questions about your family’s intake habits:

1. Do you and your family consume rice / rice products several times daily? Remember this includes cooked rice as well as some cereals, non-dairy milks, non-dairy cheese, veggie burgers, crackers, bars, protein powders, cookies and other treats made either with rice or sweetened with rice syrup as well as using brown rice syrup as a sweetener.
2. How many different types of grains does your family consume in a week? Greater than 2?
3. Do you and your family consume animal meats like chicken and ham, sausages, and eggs?
4. Do you and your family drink fruit juice? How much daily? Is it organic?
5. What is the proper portion of cooked rice for a child – ¼ cup, ½ cup, 1 cup, 2 cups? And for an adult?

Your answers will be addressed within the recommendations below and you will also learn how to develop a healthier diet – one that improves overall health including minimizing exposure to inorganic arsenic.

Understand that some arsenic is found naturally in the soil, but that humans have contributed to the problem by using arsenic-containing pesticides in some areas and by fertilizing with manure from poultry treated with arsenic compounds. Where and how your food is grown matters. Any food can contain some arsenic, but organic farming is part of the solution, not part of the problem.

No one food is the arsenic culprit, but some foods do absorb more of whatever’s in the soil – for good or for ill. With that in mind, what should you do for your family?

1. Reduce means well, reduce: the first lesson here is a simple but highly effective one – when we consume less our risk of overexposure to anything goes down.
   1. Portion control – for cooked rice, use a guideline of roughly the child or adult’s fist – so your 5 year old likely should get a ¼ cup portion and Shaq can have 2 cups.
   2. Frequency – when it comes to rice and quality rice products, consume them in your food choices but not as the exclusive or primary food choice.
2. Variety! – nature created numerous grains, and even numerous variety of the same grain, as well as fruits and vegetables etc.
   1. When it comes to rice – it appears that basmati rice is lower in arsenic than brown rice so integrate it into the mix
   2. When it comes to grains – choose from all of nature’s gifts which include quinoa, buckwheat and millet for those choosing rice to avoid gluten or einkorn, spelt and kamut which are better quality ancient grain wheat varietals
   3. “An apple a day” could also be an apple on Monday, blueberries on Tuesday, white peaches on Wednesday and so on…this way your week will deliver all the nutrient power from nature’s rainbow to help protect and clean up toxins from the body most effectively
   4. At every meal get a minimum of 3 colors with 2 from vegetables – again they provide clean up and protective powers
   5. How you cook rice matters too – if you cook it for longer, and in more water (think of cooking pasta) this helps reduce the arsenic levels
3. Rethink baby food: Babies eat more, pound for pound than we do and are more at risk from toxins. Our WhiteOut campaign replaces the old idea of white rice cereal as baby’s first food, only food, or main food. Babies learn tastes like they learn a language, so variety can be even better for babies than for us.
4. Be a Qualitarian: know where your food comes from and what’s been done to it.
   1. Choose organic chicken and pork products to avoid pesticides, GMOs, and poor quality animal feed going into the animal and later on to your plate.
   2. Choose organic fruit and vegetable juice if they are listed on the EWG.org’s “Dirty Dozen” and especially if you consume them often (hint hint, apple tops the dirty dozen list)
   3. Choose organic whole grains and sweeteners whenever possibly too. While arsenic may be today’s fear, the studies keep coming out about how pesticide residues negatively impact health, and even as we write this the first long term animal study on GMOs shows scary results for even the lowest levels of intake of GMO corn.
   4. Place of origin – just like seafoodwatch.org helps us routinely identify not just which fish are safer to eat, but also notes where from and in what form, the same appears to be true for rice. For right now, rices from California and some parts of Asia appear to be lower in arsenic.
   5. If you are consuming puffed rice crackers, cakes, and cereals as a diet tool you could benefit from a quality upgrade – when rice is puffed not only does its glycemic load go up, the nutrient levels go down – yes its low in calories but its lower in terms of what’s good and in the case of rice products it could be higher in arsenic. Try cucumbers or zucchini slices as your “cracker” or “cake.” They can be topped, can be dippers, and deliver no calories, a crunch, and plant nutrients to help protect and clean up from the inside out.
   6. Get tested – your water that is. Find out what needs to be remove and possibly what is lacking. These are inexpensive tests and a neighborhood will have similar results so you can even share the costs (may depend on the age of homes / pipes but still can be a good baseline).
5. Consider a Plant-Based diet: Studies and cultures from around the world teach us that reducing our intake of animal meats and animal products can be healthier for us all.
   1. Don’t MONO eat – try to incorporate as many plants as possible into your diet – if you currently rely just on rice milk or rice cheese or a rice veggie burger try different versions from hemp and coconut or other nuts.
   2. Many plant-based eaters and their loved ones worry about their protein intakes and turn to protein powders to deliver supplemental protein – if you are consuming 1-2 servings of rice daily, change it up – look at blends and nutrients like hemp and organic soy (remember organic here because likely trading an arsenic concern for a GMO one may not net you healthier in the long run).
   3. Just a Spoonful of (organic) sugar – Mary Poppins got it right but we need to emphasize Just in Just a Spoonful of Sugar for optimal health.
   4. If a food product (bar, cereal etc) has rice syrup or any sugar for that matter, in its first two ingredients, consider a better option.
   5. A serving of fruit juice is four ounces. It should be organic (especially apple juice when talking about arsenic). One daily spoonful of sugar – in the form of organic added sweeteners, juice or a treat is a good amount to aim for – beyond that you are over-spooning it which has negative healthy implications. Especially for kids whose sweet tooth is overdeveloped from birth (or before), you want to control exposure until the other taste buds can give the sweetie some competition.
   6. If you are using brown rice syrup as a sweetener, we do recommend considering other sweeteners more often like organic coconut palm sugar, organic cane juice and maple syrup, and as age-appropriate, raw honeys.

If you follow these tips, you will not only reduce your family’s overall intake of inorganic arsenic but you will also improve your family’s health via a better quality diet.  We see this as a win, win. We hope you will too.

^{I’d like to thank co-author Ashley Koff, RD for her initiative on this issue. More of her work can be seen at AskleyKoffApproved.com.}

You may have seen headlines based on a study published in Environmental Health Perspectives about arsenic and organic brown rice syrup. Many of the headlines mention concern about the implications for some infant formula and food bars. Here’s my take:

I serve on the board of Healthy Child Healthy World where we recognize the important effects environmental chemicals have on children. I’m glad that studies are being conducted regarding the safety of food — especially food for babies.

This new study is not a reason to panic, but it does underline the need for the FDA to set safety levels for arsenic in food and beverages. The EPA has set 10 ppb as the level for inorganic arsenic in drinking water. Regularly drinking water with this level of arsenic over time might result in a lifetime cancer risk of 0.05% (about 0.005% per ppb).”

This study also underlines the importance of organic agriculture. Plants, and the animals that eat them, take in much of what’s in the soil. Rice in particular should be grown in healthy soil, as it is very efficient at this.

An important source of too much arsenic is the aftermath of arsenical pesticides leftover from decades of chemical farming. They were used on conventional cotton throughout much of the southern US, and the arsenic remains in the soil long afterwards — even after switching the fields to rice and switching to organic farming methods. Rice grown in California usually has much less arsenic. Some countries still use arsenical pesticides on their crops.

Small amounts of arsenic can be found naturally in food, water, soil, and even air. Rice is the main dietary source of arsenic for many Americans. Whatever arsenic is present can be concentrated in rice syrups.

Babies are more susceptible than adults to arsenic and other toxins.

For now, I recommend that rice not be the primary source of calories for babies (the key is variety), and that when practical whatever rice they do get comes primarily from California and/or is adequately tested for arsenic (with technology at least able to detect 10 ppb). Avoid conventional rice from countries still using arsenical pesticides.

And, of course, I will welcome safety limits for arsenic in food and beverages that take the health of babies and pregnant women into account.

Jackson BP, Taylor VF, Karagas MR, Punshon T, Cottingham KL, 2012 Arsenic, Organic Foods, and Brown Rice Syrup. Environ Health Perspect doi:10.1289/ehp.1104619

Medscape Pediatrics, a leading source of medical information for physicians (if not the leading source of info for physicians), has released the Medscape Top 10 for in 2011 – this year’s 10 most important articles, chosen by being the most read articles of the year. ***Spoiler Alert*** This is tremendous news for WhiteOut, our campaign to upgrade from white rice cereal for babies. What pediatricians are reading:

10. An article on the best way to sedate kids who need a head CT.

9. Recommendations for safe sleep for babies.

8. The Immunization Resource Center – a very hot topic indeed.

7. Is acetaminophen harmful in children?

6. New guidelines on when the tonsils should come out – and when not.

5. New guidelines for managing iron deficiency.

4. New Guidelines on managing urinary tract infections in children.

3. New Children’s Hospital Rankings.

2. Struggling to live on a pediatrician’s salary – rising costs and stagnant reimbursements.

And… drumroll please… The most read article of the year on Medscape Pediatrics:

1. Starting Solid Foods: Are We Doing it Right? – Is the decades old practice of starting infants on white rice cereal the best practice? This is a story about WhiteOut.

Even though white rice cereal was the most recommended first food before the article – by almost 2 to 1 – of more 12,000 physicians who took part in a Medscape pre- and post- survey, 93% of those who responded after reading the article would not recommend white rice cereal.

Thanks to everyone* who has helped spread the WhiteOut word! People working together can change the world. The job’s not done yet, but together we can make this a lasting change for our kids.

^{*Special thanks to Richard Sachs, Karen Herzog, Beverly Richardson, Sylvia Tawse, Matthew Holt, and Christopher Gavigan.}

Last Thanksgiving I announced a bold campaign, spearheaded by an amazing band of volunteers, to upgrade babies’ first foods to real foods – and babies’ first grains to whole grains – and to do this in 2011.

It’s November, and we still have a ways to go, but we also have an exciting reason to celebrate!

Over 10,000 physicians, mostly pediatricians, took part in a July/August 2011 survey by Medscape.com that demonstrated an historic shift in their feeding recommendations this year. The first question in the survey was “What do you recommend for baby’s first food (check all that apply)?” The options were white rice cereal, whole grain cereal, a vegetable, a fruit, egg yolk, meat, or other. Of those who answered as of August 31, the number one choice was white rice cereal – garnering nearly twice as many votes as the next most common.

But after reading an article about WhiteOut Now, our public service campaign the survey results were strikingly different.

Responding to,” What will you recommend for baby’s first food (check all that apply)” only 3% even included white rice cereal among their recommended choices. Physicians were also asked, “Do you think white rice cereal is the best choice for baby’s first food?” About 3% of those who responded had “No opinion” and an overwhelming 93% responded, “No.”

As of now over 12,000 physicians have taken part in the survey, and the change continues to spread. To me this major reversal suggests that the old white rice cereal recommendations were based on well-meaning habit rather than on science or even on careful consideration. When asked to reconsider, an overwhelming majority of physicians were quickly able to see advantages of abandoning the old recommendation.

Evidence is mounting that changing early feeding habits is critical to reversing the childhood obesity epidemic. This stunning survey suggests that first feedings are poised to change. A reason to be thankful indeed!

“Let every child’s first grain be a whole grain. There’s no good reason not to. They won’t mind. They’ll thank you.”   And let every child’s first food be a real food. Together we can change 50 years of tradition in just one year. Let’s END white rice cereal for babies by Thanksgiving 2011!

The WhiteOut movement is a volunteer movement with zero corporate funding. The founding circle have donated time, expertise, and/or money to help trigger permanent change. Other individuals and groups are welcome to join in.

The WhiteOut movement was started by pediatrician Alan Greene, MD and his wife Cheryl Greene, the Executive Producer of DrGreene.com. Almost immediately Sylvia Tawse and her team at the Fresh Ideas Group volunteered to help spread the word. And Richard Sachs and Karen Herzog of Valley Design Group and Sophia’s Garden Foundation have been dedicated, skilled champions, starting before launch.

It’s no wonder that America’s kids are hooked on junk food. For the past 50 years the majority of babies in the United States have been given white rice cereal for their very first bite of solid food. Metabolically, it’s similar to eating sugar. White rice cereal is the number one source of food calories for most babies until about 11 months old.

Our goal is to making feeding white rice cereal to a baby obsolete by Thanksgiving 2011.

You can contact us at: WhiteOutNow@DrGreene.com

Waiting until school age is too late, according to a welcome 2011 Institute of Medicine report called Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Policies. The report documents the critical role of early learning and development in shaping obesity risk. We have missed out on the opportunity to create healthy eating and activity patterns from the start, rather than the more difficult and less successful task of changing eating and activity patterns later.

The IOM concludes, “Unfortunately many children learn lifestyles during the first years of life that contribute to excessive weight gain.”

Nutritional Intelligence is my name for the age-appropriate ability to recognize and enjoy healthy amounts of good food. My book Feeding Baby Green is a simple, delicious, fun program for cultivating Nutritional Intelligence from the start – helping to train children’s palates, using all of the senses, during those windows of opportunity when they are trying to learn what foods to prefer. It’s a powerful way to prevent childhood obesity.

The IOM report tells us that our goal is children who eat lots of nutrient-dense foods such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, etc. and who minimize nutrient-poor foods and junk foods (which would include white flour). This prevents obesity.

The IOM goes on to advise, “The foods and beverages that infants are offered during the transition to solid foods are important for setting the foundation for eating patterns later in life; those that become familiar early in life will tend to be preferred to those that are unfamiliar.”

The Elephant in the Room

Sadly, they don’t comment at all on the most common first food for babies – and the dominant source of solid food calories for the first year – the processed white rice flour that we call rice cereal. It’s no wonder – by their own logic – that we have a generation of children where refined flour sweets are the number one source of calories for children from age 2 to 18, where white bread dominates, and whole grains are scarce.

A Simple Tip for Parents

I applaud the IOM report’s call for new dietary guidelines for babies and toddlers. In the meantime, spread the word about a simple tip for parents: Let every child’s first food be a real food – something you want them to learn to like later. And whenever you do introduce grains let every child’s first grain be a whole grain. They won’t mind a bit, they’ll thank you.

Become part of the grassroots WhiteOut campaign. Together, let’s make a permanent difference in the way that babies are fed – this year!

The Washington Post released a report today titled, The Organic Movement. The Post looked at current research, and interviewed organic farmers and other organic leaders for their insights. I was asked, “What are simple changes parents can make to help baby have the healthiest start possible?” Then I was given a 150 word limit. Talk about a challenge!

After much deliberation, here’s my short answer to their question: Babies are built from food.  Human milk is the perfect, complex food to start. If there’s one best time in life to choose organic foods, it’s the window of early development from pregnancy through infancy, when development is fastest and most complex. Their rapidly growing bodies benefit most from excellent building blocks and are most vulnerable to environmental toxins. In the US, the most common solid food for babies is conventional white rice baby cereal – basically refined white flour. This can set the trajectory of their taste preferences and metabolisms.

One high impact simple thing to do? Let every child’s first grain be a whole grain. They won’t mind a bit. And let every baby’s first food be a real food, preferably organic. It can be as simple as mashed avocado or banana that the baby has touched and seen you eat, learning where food comes from at the start.

That was my 150 words, but for in-depth information check out my book, Feeding Baby Green. For simple tips on changing the way babies are fed, join the WhiteOut movement, or go to DrGreene.com/WhiteOut. To find out more about organics you can download the pdf of the full report.

Would you feed your baby a spoonful of sugar for her first bite of solid food? Of course you wouldn’t.

Today, the first bite of solid food for 98% of babies in the US is processed white rice baby cereal. It’s literally the consistency of processed white flour.  And it has a similar same impact on a baby’s metabolism as table sugar.

Before the 1950’s babies learned to eat by watching what their parents ate, growing more and more excited about the possibility of eating it themselves. When the moment to begin feeding baby solid food final arrived, they got a mashed up version of whatever their parents were eating. Then four things happened. Watch this video now to find out more.

Help spread the word and announce your participation with our set of official WhiteOut Badges!

Just copy and paste the HTML codes into your blog, MySpace, website, newsletter or wherever else you want to encourage real food for our children.

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I remember being a child and hearing my parents talk about how fast time was moving. Now I’m the parent and I know what they were talking about. But not only is time moving more quickly for us as adults, today things around us are actually changing more quickly.

Here are five trends (and a bonus trend) that I see emerging now and my predictions for the trends that will continue in 2011:

1) Electronic Connections — Parent communities are bigger than ever, but less local. Families are busier than ever, but finding new ways to connect.

• Video chatting, such as Skype, is becoming the norm for extended families to stay in touch. Look for this to accelerate as it goes mobile on smartphones and tablets.
• Online photo and video sharing through social networking will continue to grow. Again, watch for more mobile, as smartphones replace more cameras and videocameras. Think Qik.
• For older kids playing online, turn based, games with parents will become as common as board games were for the last generation. Games like Words with Friends will take advantage of smart phone and tablet technologies to keep families connected.
• Look for JumpScan and other QR programs to facilitate connections (and even start replacing things like business cards, luggage tags, and identification for lost kids).
• Innovative companies like HealthTap and Quora will become popular ways to use electronic connections to get parents the answers they most want.

2) Real Food for Babies (and other humans) – The 1950s launched us into 60 years of processed foods. It may be slow at first, but 2011 will see some big changes.

• 2011 will be the year white rice baby cereal goes away.

New first foods will be real foods – such as bananas, avocado, and sweet potatoes.

• The family meal will make a resurgence. It won’t be the norm in 2011, but more meals will be eaten at home than in 2010.
• Healthy, quick food options will grow in availability. Look for convenience stores such as Fresh and Easy to do well in 2011.

3) Kicking Out Risky Chemicals (chemical awareness) — Parents are reading ingredient labels more than ever, not just on food. The President’s Cancer Panel presented in 2010 had a major impact, as well as the 2010 study linking ADHD to pesticides. The trend will grow in 2011.

• The green movement got it’s start in organic food, but an increasing number of parents will be looking for hidden toxics in cleaning supplies, gardening supplies, textiles, etc.
• Parents are choosing BPA-free, phthalate-free, PVC-free, plastics. BornFree has been a pioneer in safe plastics for kids even before most parents had heard of BPA. Now BornFree, Ecomom.com, Ikea, and others are becoming trusted leaders for parents who don’t have time to research for themselves, but want safe products.

4) Kitchen Kids — Thanks to Michelle Obama, Jamie Oliver, Chef Anne, Chef Jessie Cool and a host of others kids-food is getting renewed attention..

• In 2011 kids will get more and more involved in creating meals together before sitting down to eat.
• 2011 will see more families planting a garden. It may be as small as one tomato plant or one herb on a windowsill, but more kids will get the opportunity to see their food start from a seed.

5) The Natural Connections to the Outdoors — The last generation of parents became afraid to let their children play alone outdoors. This generation of parents is seeing the value of connecting their kids to nature.

• Look for more families in the park, more families playing outdoor sports, and a return to the family bike ride.
• Kids have too much homework. As a result, parents have downplayed the need to do family chores. Look for parents to join their kids for outdoor chores as a way to get sunshine (needed Vitamin D) and connect to the earth.
• Houseplants were big in the 70s and 80s. Don’t expect macramé to come back into style, but parents are becoming aware of the value of houseplants as inexpensive air filters. You’ll see more of them in 2011.
• Plastic toys are about as far from the outdoors as possible. Look for more quality, heirloom wooden toys to make it in the market place in 2011. Tegu is a great example of a young company creating an innovative toy in a sustainable way.

Bonus: Hot New Birthday Party for 2011 — Chef School

• Mom or Dad will accompany kids to the party and participate, making it more interactive than in the past.
• The Chef leading the class will be both teacher and entertainment (no clowns needed).
• Everyone participates in the preparation and at the end of the party they enjoy the food together — including homemade birthday cupcakes.
• If there’s not one in your area, call the local cooking school and ask them to create one for your child’s next birthday party!

All-in-all, I think 2011 is shaping up to be a pretty good year for famiies. What do you think?

Note: Dr. Greene is on the Board of Ecomom.com, the Medical Director of HealthTap, and works closely with BornFree to provide safe feeding products for children. He does not have a financial connection to any of the other brands mentioned.