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Consumer Reports: Your Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead

re: heavy metals
re: Certificate of Analysis for Food Supplements: Never Ingest a Product Without Checking Toxin Levels)

This article below piqued my interest as part of my search to eliminate sources of lead (Pb) from my diet (having no other risk factors it has to be diet).

My blood lead level had spiked at the end of 2022 to an unhealthy level (14.6 mcg/dL) and has since come down to 8.4 mcg/dL and I will retest again soon. Mild poisoning is around 45.

The article below piqued my interest as part of my search to eliminate sources of lead from my diet (having no other risk factors it has to be diet).

Background

Heavy metals are thought to have a dose-response relationship with no safe level, and body functions degraded proportionally.

Just about everything you eat or drink has some trace amounts of lead/arsenic/cadmium in it. Chocolate and tea tend to be high in lead and cadmium, rice can be very high in arsenic, and some supplements might have troublesome levels of lead or other metals.

“Organically grown” tells you nothing about the risk.

Lead levels are of particular importance for children and pregnant or breast feeding women, with small bodies also growing fast at highest risk of permanent damage.

Your Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead

2021-11-09

... We  looked at 126 individual products from national and private-label brands, such as Great Value (Walmart), La Flor, McCormick, Penzeys, Spice Islands, and Trader Joe's. Read more about how CR tested herbs and spices (PDF). 

Roughly one-third of the tested products, 40 in total, had high enough levels of arsenic, lead, and cadmium combined, on average, to pose a health concern for children when regularly consumed in typical serving sizes. Most raised concern for adults, too.

For two herbs, thyme and oregano, all the products we tested had levels that CR experts say are concerning.

In 31 products, levels of lead were so high that they exceeded the maximum amount anyone should have in a day, according to CR's experts.

Also troubling: There was no single predictor of which products contained higher levels of heavy metals—for example, brand name didn't matter, and neither did "organic" or "packed in USA" claims.

The good news? Many products performed well in the tests. In seven of the 15 types of herbs and spices tested, all the brands had heavy metal levels below our thresholds for concern...

...for certain spices, just one serving—¾ teaspoon or more—per day leaves little room for heavy metal exposure from other sources. For example, CR's previous testing found that some brands of fruit juicebaby food, and rice contain troubling amounts of heavy metals.

...CR's tests, however, demonstrate that it is possible for herb and spice companies to limit heavy metals in their products. "About two-thirds of the spices we tested did not have concerning levels of heavy metals," Akinleye says. "So we know spices don't have to have worrisome amounts of lead or arsenic or any other heavy metal."

WIND: this is one of those areas that raises a red flag, but where it is difficult to impossible to for most of us to gauge risk. Heavy or regular use of some spices could be a concern, but how to assess risk when numbers are generally hidden from you? What of processed foods, which may also contain herbs and spices?

The FDA has standards for most things, which many argue are high enough to cause harm eg in baby food, juices, etc. But with spices, there are no standards to protect you. And it’s a difficult area; usage once a week is very different than daily.

It can be difficult to find objective information on heavy metal risks, even by inquiring. For example, my favorite tea brand refuses to provide figures on heavy metals in their tea. If the concern is serious, about your only choice is to seek out the rare brand that does test and publish their product. That’s a major undertaking across all the products you might consume.

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