An investigation released Tuesday by Consumer Reports sounded the alarm about lead and heavy metals in many protein supplements. File Photo by Jose Luis Palma\/Pixabay <\/p>\n
Oct. 14 (UPI) — Many protein powders and shakes contain alarming levels of lead and other heavy metals, according to an investigation released Tuesday by a consumer watchdog group.<\/p>\n
Consumer Reports’ investigation<\/a> centered on tests of 23 protein powders and ready-to-drink shakes that found that more than two-thirds had more lead in a single serving than the group’s experts said was safe to consume in a day. Some products contained more than 10 times the amount of the neurotoxin Consumer Reports said was safe for daily consumption.\n<\/p>\n The nonprofit group first looked into<\/a> the health risks of protein shakes 15 years ago, and updated its findings as bars, supplements and other foods packed with the nutrient have proliferated as they’ve been marketed as a way to build muscle<\/a> and shed weight despite potential downsides<\/a>. The investigation also argued that Americans don’t need to be consuming all that extra protein anyway.<\/p>\n “We’ve created this health halo around protein,” Hannah Cutting-Jones, a food historian and assistant professor at the University of Oregon, told Consumer Reports. “It gives us an excuse to eat a lot of things we shouldn’t be eating.”\n<\/p>\n Consumer Reports purchased multiple samples of each product from distinct lots and multiple retailers over the span of three months starting in November.<\/p>\n While Consumer Reports found that most powders did not pose an immediate hazard and were safe for occasional use, two plant-based powders had enough lead that the group’s experts advised against taking them at all.<\/p>\n The product with the highest lead levels was Naked Nutrition’s Vegan Mass Gainer powder, which contained 7.7 micrograms per serving-about 1,570% of Consumer Reports’ level of concern.<\/p>\n The investigation also found that one serving of Huel’s Black Edition plant-based protein powder contained 9.2 micrograms of cadmium, more than twice the level of the heavy metal that experts say is safe to consume in a day.<\/p>\n Naked Nutrition responded by telling Consumer Reports it takes consumer health seriously and ordered a third-party test of the supplement. Huel said it is “confident in the current formulation and safety of the products.”<\/p>\n Owyn’s Pro Elite High Protein Shake and Tranparent Labs’ Mass Gainer were found to be the safest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An investigation released Tuesday by Consumer Reports sounded the alarm about lead and heavy metals in many protein…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[1991,102,6636,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-202244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-food","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-nutrition","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}