114: The Dirty Secret in Protein Powders – What Consumer Reports Found!

MK: Protein powders and shakes contain high levels of lead. That's the headline from Consumer Reports that you might have seen. And in this episode I wanna talk a little bit about heavy metals in supplements in general, but in particular in protein powders. And what might take is. On that headline, because there are some people that say, you know, they're freaked out and you can't eat protein powders anymore.

I told you you shouldn't be eating protein powder. Nobody eats them because they're all full of heavy metals. And then there are those on the other side of the spectrum that say, well, heavy metals are just part of nature. You know, they're everywhere and so don't worry about it. It's a little bit more complex than that.

It's more nuanced on that. And so in this episode, we're gonna dive into all of that. We're gonna talk about where the heavy metals come from, what products are likely more, uh, affected, how what you can do as a consumer to pick the right one, why lab testing is so important. And of course, you know, I'm directly involved with all of this because as part of MCA supplements, we do produce powdered supplements and we test for heavy metals, all of our supplements really.

And so I have kind of a firsthand experience of what it means to test for those things, what to look out for. How we test and why not. All test results are equally helpful. You really need to know the details to understand as a consumer if what you're looking at is good or or maybe not. And so all of this we're gonna cover in this episode.

I hope you're gonna find it interesting and I hope it's gonna help you to navigate the supplements world a little bit better and to pick products that are not going to poison you over time. Um, and you know, all of that. Welcome to the Primal Shift podcast.

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So maybe let's start with the beginning with one thing that I immediately noticed when I looked at the, uh, consumer, uh, reports article where they publish the findings, and that is plant pay.

Plant-based protein powders were significantly more affected. Than animal-based protein powders, meaning that plant-based products at higher levels of heavy metals than their animal counterparts. And I'm like, why is that? You might wonder, aren't plants supposed to be healthier, especially when they're organic and stuff?

Here is the thing. You know, plants absorb minerals and contaminants directly from soil, water, and air. So crops like rice, peas, soy, and hemp, they are known metal accumulators, both, you know, and that includes obviously the heavy metals. So they concentrate those heavy metals, those toxins, unfortunately, you know, inside of the plant.

And rice in particular is incredibly efficient, unfortunately, at taking up arsenic and cadmium. You know, that's one of the reasons why you wanna soak rice to get some of that stuff out. Buy organic rice to start with if you make them, you know, if you cook rice and soak it overnight, discard the water to get some of that stuff out.

But nonetheless, rice is just known to be contaminated a lot with arsenic and cadmium. P soy, on the other hand, they have relatively deep roots and they pull those heavy metals from different layers of the soil. So if the soil is contaminated and in most everywhere is because of pollution, and also the natural occurrence of those heavy metals, you get those then in the plant.

Then when you make powders out of them, they end up in the powder, you know? But one thing that I didn't really realize until I talked to one of my contacts in my supply chain, you know, for MK supplements, is that. Contamination not only happens. When the plant grows before it's harvested, it often also happens during drying and processing.

For example, cocoa beans, well, beans and seeds in general. When they're dried out in the open, you know, air dried, then they can actually pick up heavy metals from dust, old machinery or just, you know, air contamination. And again, cocoa is just a huge culprit. You know, it's the lead that is often found in.

Increased concentrations in cocoa powder and cocoa beans in general. It attaches to the outer shell after harvest and during open air drying. And so that contaminates then, uh, the powder that ends up in your protein powder, you know, in your supplement. And so that's one of the things that I didn't realize.

I thought most of it comes from the soil, but no, even post harvest contamination is a real thing, and that's why certain plants. That are air dried are more heavily contaminated than maybe others. Animal based powders, on the other hand, they fared significantly better. And I was wondering, Hmm, but why is that?

Because animals, at least the animal, you know, ruminants like cows, dairy cows or beef cattle, you know, they eat grass and forage. Right? Isn't there also. Heavy metals in the grass and in the forage. Well, it turns out that grass and forage plants tend to grow in less disturbed soils, generally speaking, and are often farther away from industrial pollution.

That's one reason. The second thing is that grasses generally absorb fewer heavy metals than crops like rice or soy, and that is partially due to a shallower root system. And also different soil chemistry around the grassroots. You know, they just take up less of those heavy metals, especially lead and cadmium.

And then the other thing, the third component is that grazing animals act as biological filters. They don't accumulate metals in muscle tissue or in their milk. Then at the same concentration. As the plants do. And if you think about it, that's fairly obvious because those animals have a liver, they have kidneys, they have detoxification pathways, much like humans that can remove at least some of the contamination before it ends up in the meat.

That's the same thing. Not all of the heavy metals that you consume are stored in your body. Some of them get excreted via the urine, via a thesis, you know, um, you know, through the liver, uh, detoxification pathways. The same is with the animal. So you basically have, with the animal, you have a layer in between that reduces your total exposure, and that's one of the reasons or the main reason why animal based products, animal based protein powders and supplements in general, and foods, I guess in a more general concept are less contaminated than plants.

Now the thing is with powders. One of the big problems is that a powder is a concentrated form of the food that you're consuming. If you think about it, you need approximately 10 pounds of pea or rice to make one pound of protein powder, you know, so everything including the heavy metals gets concentrated, and so with every scoop you get significantly more of that than you would get from a scoop of rice or a scoop of soybeans, for example.

And the same is also with, you know, dairy, even though, again, to a lesser extent, because animals, as we already discussed, are a filter in a way that means you get less of the problematic substances in the milk or in the meat. Or cartilage, tissue, et cetera, depending on what type of, or what part of the animal, uh, was used to make the protein powder.

And the question is, well, are heavy metal really that problematic? And the answer is yes. I mean, obviously there is, depending on how, what the concentration is, you can either get sick and suffer the consequences immediately. But the much bigger problem, similar to radiation in a way, is the constant exposure over time.

So it accumulates and lead is a neurotoxin. It damages brain and kidneys, and again, it accumulates over time. Not all of it goes away. It's stored in your fat tissue, in your bones, it stays in. Some of it stays in your body and accumulates. The more and more exposure you have, the more you get, and that can then make you sick over time.

You might not notice it right away, but maybe in 10, 15 years, you start suffering the consequences from elevated heavy metals. Heavy metal levels in your body. Cad, cadmium, on the other hand, is a kidney and bone toxin. It's carcinogenic again with chronic and continued exposure and arsenic. And by that I mean the inorganic version because there's an organic version as well, increases cancer risk and cardiovascular disease.

So the bottom line here really is that no heavy metals are not good for you. Uh, not even in small amounts because they accumulate over time. And the issue isn't just, you know, that one scoop that you might have, you get one scoop of protein, you might, you know, get exposure from the fresh produce, even if it's organic, doesn't really matter.

And so by having all of those sources of heavy metal contamination, maybe you tap water, um, et cetera, maybe, you know, lead paint if you live in an older building, et cetera. So all of that accumulates. That becomes problematic over time. So our goal needs to be not completely avoid heavy metal exposure because that's really not really possible.

But to reduce our exposure and supplements and food in general, that's something, you know, we consume on a daily basis, is a source of heavy metals that we can better control. And so from a supplements perspective, what can you do? Well, the one thing that I wanna. Encourage you to do is to ask for test reports.

You know, there are so-called certificates of analysis, which is typically a, a report that we get when, you know, I'm speaking, uh, from, from, uh, my experience with MK supplements. Whenever we manufacture a product, we do testing of. The raw ingredients and then intermediate products. Until we have the final product in the bottle that we are ready to sell, we test each in each of those steps and produce A-C-O-A-A certificate of analysis that tells us exactly.

What's in there? What's the contamination? Is there mold, yeast, uh, mycotoxins, heavy metals, uh, bacterial contamination, all of those things we test. Now, here is the problem though. Most test labs, unless you ask them specifically, they test for wide, wide, widely accepted. Safe limits they call. So for example, if you look at lead, then they might test, or their, their detection threshold might be at 0.5 micrograms per gram, which is the quote unquote safe limit.

There are different limits, you know, in the, in the eu, in California, prop 65, uh, FDA, et cetera. They're different safe limits, but zero. But for lead, as an example, 0.5 micrograms, pergram appears to be a commonly accepted safe limit. Now here's the thing though. Zero. There's a a huge difference. There's a world of difference between 0.01 micrograms and 0.49.

Both are below the limit. It's a huge difference as far as your cumulative exposure is concerned, because if you get 0.49 micrograms from one scoop of protein powder and then you have some veggies, and then maybe you have another supplement that also has 0.49 that accumulates, and suddenly you get significantly more, that is that what is considered safe if there is even such a thing as safe, because I would argue that no amount of heavy metal is ideal.

It doesn't really help anything. It's likely. Not helpful and causes issue over time, again because of the cumulative effect. So what you need to ask is, and look out for are, are reasonable, lower, more fine grained. Uh. Detection threshold. And so we've actually, a while ago already with MCA supplements, we started, um, instructing our lab to use a different testing method that can go down to the 0.01 threshold.

Uh, that is micrograms program, uh, for lead, for example, and some for some of the other, other heavy metals as well. So we can really go down and find out exactly how much is in there below the safe limit, because that gives me, as a consumer, and also I'm a consumer of our own supplements and of other supplements.

Um. A peace of mind that I'm consuming from everything combined significantly less than it is what is considered safe, you know, so the COA is incredibly important, and we talk about those details a little bit on our blog, and I'm gonna link some of the information down below so you can check it out. But that is important.

Now, from a bigger picture perspective, you know, it's, it's not about. Panic here, but it's about perspective and understanding that even healthy foods, you know, if you're on a plant-based side, you know, some people might consider spinach or sweet potatoes or tomatoes healthy because you know, even, you know, especially if you grow them yourself, you get them organically from a farm nearby.

You know, even those foods. Half heavy metals to varying degrees, and a lot of the fresh produce actually is heavily contaminated because of the soil, because of our environment. It doesn't really matter. If you live in an environment where there is just contamination in the soil, already in the air, then it doesn't really matter whether or not you grow that produce yourself.

It's gonna be contaminated and it's just as unhealthy as something from somewhere else, you know? So that's important to understand just because if food is inherently. Or by definition on a healthier side doesn't necessarily mean you're not gonna get exposed to heavy metal. So no, no reason to freak out, but be aware and make smart choices and ask, you know, test or ask for test results.

And it's particularly true from a in, in the supplements world, you know, so whenever I. Consume a new supplement. I look at the COAI ask the brand if they can send me the COA, the test report. I make sure that the detection limits are well below the safe limits. Um, I favor animal based over, you know, over plant-based products.

But even with animal-based products, if it's a chocolate flavor and it's cocoa powder, that's a plant-based ingredient, you might still get exposed to heavier or to elevated heavy metals. Then if you just buy an unflavored protein powder that has nothing but whey or nothing, that beef protein isolate with those products, you are very likely to get significantly.

Uh, lower levels of heavy metals than if anything that has a, a plant-based component. It's the unfortunate truth that just plants are more contaminated than the animal-based counterparts for all the reasons that I've pointed out. So if you see this consumer report, it's not that all protein powders are bad, um.

If in doubt, stick to unflavored animal based products or ask the brand for a test report, you know, and, and really look at the COA and under and learn how to read the test report so you understand what the detection limits are, what the thresholds are, and whether or not this is good enough for you or if you might wanna pick another product.

Now, again, from an MK supplements perspective, we test. We make sure we are well below any safe limits. Uh, we also offer, you know, unflavored versions. Um, we also found, fortunately I should point out before we wrap this up, a, a source of cocoa powder that is virtually no heavy metals. So apparently, um, the manufacturer dried those cocoa beans in a way that prevents, uh, contamination from the air and from machinery unfor, fortunately so that's good.

Um, so our cocoa powder is, is safe. Um, I feel. Safe consuming it. We do. The kids do. But if in doubt, go with unflavored, it might not taste quite as good, but if you mix it with some raw milk or whatever your favorite beverage is, then it can taste equally good and not as planned. And you get significantly fewer heavy metals than with anything that has plant-based ingredients.

Um, I hope this helps a little bit to unwrap it. So don't, don't freak out. It's not that all protein powders are bad, but look at the ingredients. See if there are plant-based ingredients in your product. If there are, ask for test reports. Learn how to read them. If in doubt, you know, send them to me and I can, I can give you my opinion on whether or not, uh, this is a, a good product from a heavy metal contamination perspective.

And, um, yeah, share this episode with someone who could use it. Let me know if you have any questions. Shoot me an email, leave me a comment if you're watching this or listening to this on the platform, supporting comments. Until next time.