Protein Powder + Heavy Metals: Contamination In Meal-Replacements Could Really Weigh You Down [Video]

Protein Powder Contamination, The Downside Of Another Supplement:

Look around on Instagram, and you’ll notice one of the biggest parts of a fitness freak’s routine.

Protein powder.

It’s a very convenient way to whip up a meal-replacement, and also a way to get lots more protein in your diet.

Unfortunately, there’s a problem.

Just like Labdoor.com and the EWG, The Clean Label Project found a few problems in a supplement that’s supposed to be helping us: -Chemical contamination…

 
Good News About Bad News:
So the CLP’s work is more expansive than the 2010 Consumer Reports test, and examined over 130 different protein products instead of just 15.

And the study checked all of these products for about 150 contaminants including BPA, Industrial Pollutants, Solvents, Pesticides, and Heavy Metals.

And now the bad news:

70 percent of those products had some level of Lead.

74 percent had some amount of Cadmium.

55 percent had our old friend BPA.

They also can contain bits of Arsenic and Mercury, too.

 
Organic Not-Necessarily A Guarantee:
And somehow, just like a few of the studies on Organic produce before,

Protein powders with the label, “Organic” were not just no-safer,

They turned out to be even more dangerous than those not labeled so!

They had almost 50% more Lead,

And almost 500% more Cadmium!

But to be fair, that was almost always because they were plant-based, so it may be more of a statistical phenomenon than a natural-disaster.
 

Are Protein Powders Contaminated Because They’re Really A Supplement?:

One of the odd things here is that the contents of these powders almost makes you think of them as a supplement.

They are a reduced & concentrated form of the original natural source they came from.

And to that end, the plant-based sources of protein had a funny characteristic.

They were even more-concentrated sources of contaminants than even the animal-based proteins!.

Both Egg and Whey-based protein powders did much better than simply plant-based ones in the tests.

 
No CreaPure Methodology For Protein Powders, Yet:
And in another chapter of this ongoing theme of supplement-contamination,

It turns out that too many producers lack or omit the proper filtering apparatus to remove these toxins from their protein powders.

But as Consumer Reports points out, it might even be impossible to remove them all.

So just as with supplements, the conclusion then is either:

A) Pay-up for the best possible quality you can get,
or
B) Get what you need from normal dietary sources and not from a concentrated-supplement.

 
At Least You Know:
If that’s not possible or desirable,

Then please do yourself a favor just as you would with LabDoor for serious supplement use,

And go over to the Clean Label Project’s report to find the cleanest proteins you can.

Some of the “cleanest” brands for Whey products were:

1) Pure Protein
2) Performix Pro
3) BodyFortress
4) BioChem
5) Puori

 
You Might Not Need That Much Protein, Anyway:
Or maybe you should even reconsider if you even need a powder,

And can just get protein in your diet from the whole-food you would eat instead.

The standard amount you need is roughly 0.5 grams of protein per pound of body-weight.

That shouldn’t be too hard to get.

And you may not need more unless you’re a professional body-builder.

But either way I was as shocked as anyone at seeing some of the brands listed as potentially-dangerous.

So you be careful out there, too!

It seems like just with any other supplement, it’s really easy to get heavy-metal and other chemical contamination even in concentrated protein powders.

Photo/Video Credits:
Video and Infographic by The Clean Label Project
Photo “6.5.2011 Metal”, by Matthias Buehler


Links:
• Source: Clean Label Project
• via: Consumer Reports