Scientists Warn Your Favorite Protein Powder May Contain Unsafe Levels of Toxic Metals
It’s just a scoop of powder, sometimes vanilla, sometimes chocolatey. But this one scoop is hailed as the magic behind all those fitness experts and models, and celebrities who with sculpted physiques. Protein-rich energy drinks keep their bodies charged for another set of bench press or power squat. But nowadays, this scoop may not be as powerful as it is claimed to be. A report by The Clean Label Project revealed that the tubs of protein powder sitting in supermarket aisles are potentially contaminated with heavy metals. It means your protein powder is likely to be fused with materials that were once spewed by a volcano that exploded, soils that eroded, or some rocks that weathered and broke down.
Consequently, instead of building the body, this powder could break it down. The reality check is worth considering, especially for people like bodybuilders, weightlifters, and gymgoers, given that they spend as much as $9 billion per year to purchase these protein-packed tubs, as the report specified. Plant-based protein powder was found to feature more contamination than regular one. The Clean Label Project is a Colorado-based non-profit organization founded with the mission to uncover the hidden risks of environmental contaminants and toxins lurking in everyday products. In this research, particularly, the researchers investigated if there were any elusive contaminants that could be sullying the nutritional value of protein powder products.
Another objective was to highlight gaps in nutritional labels and make consumers aware of how not to get lured by flashy advertising and commercial packaging. In this investigation, the researchers narrowed down their focus to test 160 protein powder products sold across 70 brands, which is roughly 83 percent of the market in the United States. Most of these products were sourced from Nielsen and Amazon’s best-seller lists. All the products were assessed for multiple panels of industrial and environmental contaminants inside an analytical chemistry laboratory. The team collected as many as 35,862 data points from these brands to benchmark their findings.
According to their findings, nearly 47% of the protein powder products exceeded Proposition 65 California safety thresholds for toxic and heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, mercury, and cadmium, which are typically and naturally residents in the Earth’s crust. Proposition California 65 lists these metals as the chemicals that can possibly trigger birth defects, reproductive harm, or even cancer in the consumer, per the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Government of California.
What came as a surprise was that, of all the products that they examined, the most contaminated ones were the plant-based protein powders. Ideally, a plant-based powder should contain purer ingredients than one that does not. But researchers found that most of the plant-based protein powders contained “five times more cadmium than their whey-based counterparts.” The contamination also displayed varying levels based on the powder’s flavors. Chocolate protein powders, for instance, were found to have a staggering “110 times more cadmium than vanilla-flavored ones.”
The project officials urged consumers to pick their protein powder tubs wisely and gravitate towards those that are already certified by them, including Genetic, Ritual, Oziva, Wellbeing Nutrition, Puori, Wicked Protein, Nutrabox, and Gorilla. “This study serves as alike. With the lack of comprehensive federal regulations specifically addressing heavy metals in dietary supplements, it is critical that the industry independently takes proactive measures,” they concluded in the report.