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This NPR article is a few months old, so don't panic. Oh. Apparently, we weren't supposed to panic when it came out, either. A Consumer Reports investigation has found what it calls "concerning" levels of lead in roughly two dozen popular protein powder brands — but says that's not necessarily cause for tossing them. Of course not. After all, lead is known to cause cognitive decline, and cognitive decline in consumers is great for producers. The nonprofit organization tested multiple samples of 23 protein powders and ready-to-drink shakes from a range of stores and online retailers over a three-month period beginning last November. Also, it was a little late, even then. The results, published on Tuesday, show that more than two-thirds of the products contain more lead in a single serving than Consumer Reports' experts say is safe to consume in an entire day. "Tuesday" was last October. Also, insofar as I understand these things, there's no safe level of lead. The Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade group representing the dietary supplement industry, released a statement on Wednesday urging caution in interpreting the study's results. It says that modern testing methods are sensitive enough to identify trace amounts of naturally occurring heavy metals, and that alone does not equate to a health hazard. But lead is natural. Consumer Report's study adds to a growing body of research into heavy metals in a variety of everyday products, from cinnamon to tampons. Two items that probably should not be combined, regardless of lead levels. The nonprofit Clean Label Project tested 160 products from 70 brands earlier this year and found that 47% of them exceeded California Proposition 65 safety thresholds for toxic metals. Yeah, well, it doesn't matter there because in California, everything gives you cancer. There is no known safe level of exposure to lead, which is present in many of the environments in which food is grown, raised and processed. That's what I thought. Still, I imagine it's not possible to eliminate it entirely. If nothing else, decades of lead-additive gasoline spread the stuff all over everything via the atmosphere. There's a lot more at the link, including questioning why they're pushing protein powders so hard in the first place. I'm not discussing this because of the specific product—I don't use protein powders, so it doesn't directly affect me—but for the larger insight into how they handle product contamination issues. Unrelated: Tomorrow will mark one year of daily entries in this blog. My daily blogging streak is a lot longer than that, but I switched books last month, on the 13th. Will I look at another article, or do a personal update? I'll decide tomorrow. |
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