The following is an excerpt from The Epoch Times.
Is your favorite dark chocolate bar harboring a hidden health risk?
A new study published on July 31 in Frontiers in Nutrition suggests that some popular dark chocolate products may contain concerning levels of heavy metals, particularly lead and cadmium.
The study, conducted by researchers from The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and ConsumerLab.com, analyzed 72 dark chocolate and cocoa products sold in the United States from 2014 to 2022.
Their findings shed light on a potential health concern that has been bubbling beneath the surface of the chocolate industry for years.
Dark chocolate, long touted for its potential health benefits due to its high antioxidant content, has faced scrutiny in recent years due to reports of heavy metal contamination. Consumer media outlets and independent testing agencies, including Consumer Reports and As You Sow, have previously highlighted this issue.
Given these concerns, Leigh Frame, director of integrative medicine at George Washington University and co-lead of the study, aimed to explore the significance of this contamination.
Study Design
The researchers analyzed popular cocoa-containing products from 2014 to 2022, including Ghirardelli, Hu, Lily’s, 365 Whole Foods Market, Nestle, Now Real Food, Baker’s, and Good & Gather.
All products were produced in the United States or Europe but sold only in the United States. The products were divided into four cohorts based on the year of purchase: 2014, 2016, 2019, and 2022. All products were tested for lead, cadmium, and arsenic content.
Study Findings
The new study’s findings paint a complex picture of heavy metal contamination in dark chocolate:
- Lead: 43 percent of products tested exceeded Prop 65 limits, but 97.2 percent of the products fell below FDA IRL limits.
- Cadmium: 35 percent of products exceeded Prop 65 limits.
- Arsenic: No products exceeded Prop 65 limits.
For all products tested, mean concentrations of both lead (0.615 micrograms/serving) and cadmium (4.358 mcg per serving) exceeded Prop 65 standards. However, median concentrations of lead (0.375 mcg per day) and cadmium (3.03 mcg per day were below Prop 65 standards, suggesting that a few highly contaminated products may have skewed the overall results. 97.2 percent of all products tested fell below the FDA IRLs for lead.
Trade certifications (such as Fairtrade or Non-GMO) did not significantly affect heavy metal levels.
Organic-labeled products showed significantly higher concentrations of cadmium and lead. They were 280 percent more likely to exceed Prop 65’s cadmium limit and 14 percent more likely to exceed its lead limit.
“Our hypothesis was that organic products would be lower in heavy metals because they were not going to have fertilizers or pesticides used on them that were contaminated with heavy metals. But it’s exactly the opposite,” Frame said.
Why organic products had higher levels of heavy metals is unclear. Frame questioned if fertilizers and pesticides may not be adding as many heavy metals to food as previously thought.
There is no known safe level of lead in the blood since even low levels can produce toxic effects, according to a 2021 article in Toxics.
The central nervous system is particularly vulnerable to lead, potentially resulting in cognitive decline, fine motor control impairment, and attention-related issues in both children and adults, according to the article.
While less notorious than lead, cadmium exposure can also pose significant health risks. Cadmium exposure is a “cardiovascular risk factor” that may initiate and promote the progression of atherosclerosis, according to a review in Current Atherosclerosis Reports. Cadmium may also increase blood pressure and risk of kidney damage, according to the review.
Frame and her research team question whether the proposed benefits of cocoa outweigh the possible risk of heavy metal exposure. “It’s hard to say whether these benefits are really truly beneficial for the average human,” she said.
According to Frame, while dark chocolate has been associated with improved cardiovascular health, cognitive performance, and reduced chronic inflammation, these potential health benefits have been modest.
“As with anything, it has to do with what is the background diet. So, you have someone that has a very low polyphenol, low flavonoid diet, and chocolate is one of their predominant sources. Then in terms of the flavonoids, it may be very beneficial.
That’s why coffee is so beneficial for the average American because their diet is very low in polyphenols. And coffee is very rich in polyphenols and so it’s a really important source,” Frame said.
Link to article here.
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This article missed one very important aspect – can the body remove these toxins? For example, the body can remove lead, but it cannot remove copper. So if someone ingests or inhales a small level of lead, the body removes it, usually with no or limited long-term impacts. Once the lead is out of the body, any new lead exposure starts at the same baseline. But if someone ingests or inhales a small level of copper, the body cannot remove it, and any additional exposures are cumulative. Can the body process and remove cadmium and arsenic?
This had my attention, until they used Prop 65 as a basis. Everything coming out of California has to be taken with a huge grain of salt. That state is (literally) crazy. (No joke, as someone might say.) Why those people keep electing politicians who destroy everything they touch is a mystery. Although it may be because every odd-ball person I knew in the 60s and 70s moved out west and those people had crazy kids who had crazy kids, etc. By now there are probably only about 14 sane people in that state who are not in-bred. And they all just moved there recently.