{"id":675354,"date":"2026-11-05T04:10:23","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T04:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/675354\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T04:10:23","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T04:10:23","slug":"breakfast-cereals-found-to-have-two-times-as-much-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/675354\/","title":{"rendered":"Breakfast cereals found to have two times as much lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Halloween may be over, but the horrors in your pantry persist.<\/p>\n

While cereal\u2019s a quick and convenient breakfast option, it\u2019s important to pay attention to key nutritional details<\/a> like fiber and sugar content.<\/p>\n

However, some important information may be missing from the label, including hidden toxins inside beloved brands, even those marketed as \u201cnatural.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AYour kids favorite cereal may contain more than sugar \u2014 those tasty ingredients may have hidden toxins. soupstock \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

It may not come as a surprise that kids\u2019 cereals are getting unhealthier<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Beyond having more fat, sugar and sodium, many also feature harmful chemicals disguised as \u201chealthier-for-you\u201d ingredients.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit Clean Label Project<\/a> independently tested 77 cereal brands<\/a>, including both sugary staples and seemingly more nutritious options.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re cuckoo for cocoa, you may want to consider another option. Cereals made with cocoa, chocolate or cacao contained more than two times as much lead as those without them.<\/p>\n

The type of grain used matters too. Rice-based cereals had 12 times the amount of arsenic found in other grains. Those made with wheat or oat contained 2.5 times more acrylamide than rice or corn options.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s not wholly clear what health risks acrylamide<\/a> poses to humans, high doses cause cancer in animals.<\/p>\n

\"Top-downOf 77 brands tested, cocoa-flavored cereals led the way, containing more than two times as much lead. baibaz \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Glyphosate, an herbicide used to kill weeds<\/a>, was also found in high amounts across the tested products, with just four cereals accounting for 81% of the total level.<\/p>\n

And while chlormequat has previously been found in cereals, prompting EPA investigations into two household brands<\/a>, it\u2019s not the only pesticide lurking in cereal boxes.<\/p>\n

Additionally, methoxyfenozide, acetamiprid and metalaxyl were all detected, as these pesticides are all commonly used on grain crops found in cereals.<\/p>\n

In an ironic twist, the cereals loaded with added sugar and processed ingredients had lower contaminant levels.<\/p>\n

These less nutritious options may have fewer toxins because plant-based ingredients naturally carry a higher risk of contaminants like heavy metals from soil and pesticides used in farming.<\/p>\n

The good news is that no bisphenol A \u2014 better known as the harmful chemical BPA<\/a> \u2014 or bisphenol S (BPS) were found in any of the cereals tested, an improvement from the group\u2019s 2018 testing.<\/p>\n

While Clean Label Project didn\u2019t list the worst offending cereals, they found four brands that met most of their criteria for ingredient quality and nutritional value.<\/p>\n

These included Arrowhead Mills Puffed Kamut, Lovebird Cinnamon O\u2019s, Love Grown Power O\u2019s and Three Wishes Cinnamon.<\/p>\n

However, just because a cereal is low in contaminants doesn\u2019t automatically make it a healthy choice.<\/p>\n

Likewise, a cereal that contains good amounts of fiber, protein or other nutrients may also have higher levels of pesticides, heavy metals and other toxins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Halloween may be over, but the horrors in your pantry persist. While cereal\u2019s a quick and convenient breakfast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[3356,40233,8843,16059,103,61,60,446,1855],"class_list":["post-675354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-breakfast","tag-cereal","tag-chemicals","tag-diets","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nutrition","tag-study-says"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}