A doctor has shared how leftover rice can ‘attack’ your brain.
Dr Bing, who has 215,000 TikTok followers, regularly goes viral for sharing health tips and tricks.
In a recent clip, the neurologist and physician shared how rice left at room temperature can be dangerous to eat.
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The post, which has garnered 1.4 million views, started with the doctor pointing at an X-ray of a brain and explaining why it can be seriously detrimental.
“This is what can happen to a young persons brain when they eat rice that has been sitting in room temperature for too long,” he said in the video, shared by What’s The Jam.
“This arrow shows damage to some deep structures in the brain in a young boy that came in with altered mental status and convulsions.
“This was brought on by something we call fried rice syndrome and it’s caused by a toxin produced by bacteria called bacillus cereus.
“I will say this – because I hear it all the time that many people who are Asian, including myself – we grew up eating leftover rice that sat out and nothing ever happened to us, and that’s true.
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“Most of the time people are just fine and this condition is very rare.
“But when it happens, it can be extremely dangerous, especially to kids.
“In adults, people rarely die from this, but usually we just get vomiting, and we may not even think that this was due to fried rice syndrome.
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“The kids are the ones who can lose their brain function because this toxin attacks the tiny energy factories inside brain cells.
“And when the brain suddenly cannot make energy, everything can shut down very fast.
“I’m gonna clarify one more time that this is rare, but when it hits, it can change your life in a single day.
“So the rule is always try to refrigerate your rice within one to two hours of cooking.
“If it sits out most of the day, just throw it away.
“Re-heating the rice does not destroy the toxin once it is already there.”
The neurologist form Michigan, US, captioned the post: “Fried rice syndrome is rare but real. Reheating does not destroy the toxin once it forms.
“Kids and teens are at the highest risk of brain injury. Store rice safely and never gamble with leftovers.”
The warning has gained over 83,200 likes and 1,100 comments from users.
Bob said: “Bro I eat leftover rice like pretty much 4-5x a week.”
Someone else wrote: “Is it rare in Asian community because we wash our rice so it reduces the overall bacteria growth?”
Kajun joked: “Me watching this eating leftover rice.”
Susan said: “I will only eat fresh rice now.”
Quise added: “I think I am immune at this point.”
Someone else said: “We eat leftover rice ALL THE TIME. Trick is to NEVER touch rice with hands or double dip spoon if it’s contaminated.”
Dr Bing said while cases of fried rice syndrome are rare, safely storing cooked rice by refrigerating it within one to two hours can help prevent serious health risks, particularly for children.
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