Health

which comes from an aquifer a mile down. Even though I filter it, I'm sure some comes through the filter. Yum, arsenic.

1970s food faddists who ate large amounts of brown rice three times a day over a long period of time likely absorbed a problematic amount of arsenic. The jury is still out on that. No one has followed them.

People who run into trouble are the poorest, who are lucky to manage a big bowl of rice as their daily food, bits of vegetable or preserved fish being rare treats. They run into serious vitamin deficiency called beriberi, correctable by eating unpolished rice.

People in the west can afford a diet rich in B vitamins, so they don't need to eat whole grains to get them. Whole grains do have another set of benefits, they aid in carbohydrate and fat metabolism and help colon health by adding bulk.

Pollan's got the best nutritional advice: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." You can't go far wrong doing that.