Dr Oz: Toxic Heavy Metals in Organic Foods + Mike Adams
Mike Adams is known as the health ranger after he decided to share the truth about what’s in our foods. He is an activist that built his own lab to study the poisonous levels of toxic metals in organic foods.
Mike Adams is now popular with people all over the country, but no so popular with mainstream medicine because of what he has found. What he found was shocking: poisonous levels of heavy metals in what’s supposed to be our healthiest foods.
Adams explained to Dr Oz that many manufacturers of health products aren’t “playing by the rules” because they have contaminates in products that they don’t want the public to know about. He was working at an organic food manufacturing facility when he noticed a pattern in the raw materials they were testing and rejecting. It was then that he realized it was a systemic problem across the entire industry and he wanted to test more products to find the truth. He said if what he found ended up being a matter of public health, he would share his findings, and that’s exactly what he’s doing.
Dr Oz: Lead, Cadmium, Tungsten, Arsenic, Aluminum in Organic Products
Dr. Oz and Mike Adams discussed the alarming levels of poisonous heavy metals that can be found in organic foods.
Dr. Oz and Mike Adams shared that five heavy metals were being found in raw materials: lead, cadmium, tungsten, arsenic, and aluminum. So how are manufacturers getting away with their contaminated raw materials being released?
Mike Adams explained that certified organic products are not required in America to be tested for heavy metals. Manufacturers can sell products with high levels of toxins that would otherwise be illegal in other countries such as Canada. When he shared his findings, Adams said most companies responded positively saying they would make changes over time to lower the limits of heavy metals allowed in their products. However, a few companies are in a state of denial and are refusing to accept that there are toxins in their products being exposed to people.
The levels of these metals that were found in raw materials would not cause acute toxicity from eating one serving, but what happens if they’re ingested over a long period of time? The metals can accumulate in the body and affect the organs, most often because people don’t know how to avoid them. If they’re ingested over a long period of time, the toxins can get into the cells in our bodies and weaken our immune systems or even cause cancer, heart disease, and other various health problems.
Dr Oz: Heavy Metals in Rice Protein
Many people are using protein powders these days in various forms, with the idea that it’s making them healthier. But what they may not know is that the protein powder they are using may contain alarming levels of heavy metals.
Rice protein that is being imported from Asian countries contained shocking levels of lead, cadmium, and tungsten. Adams explained that rice protein from rice grown in California, however, was okay. The troublesome thing, is that most rice protein comes from Asian countries.
The FDA doesn’t regulate the level of heavy metals found in protein powders, but California has Prop 65 which limits how much lead is allowed. The legal limit is .5 MCG a day. Terrifyingly, rice protein powder that Adams tested, contained a level that was 20 times higher than the California legal limit. So what should you do?
Mike Adams and Dr. Oz explained that “across the board, hemp protein was clean regardless of where it came from.” Whey proteins and seed-based proteins also had very low levels of toxicity. If you’ve been using rice protein, perhaps you can consider switching to a different kind.
Dr Oz: Lead in Ginkgo Biloba Supplements
Gingko biloba supplements are popular among people looking to boost their memory capabilities. What they probably don’t know, is that the supplement, when coming from China or other Asian countries, contained almost 5 parts per million of lead, which is over ten times the level of lead found in rice protein. “I can’t believe we live in a nation that isn’t doing the testing that I just did,” Mike Adams said.
The problem is that ginkgo being made in Asia has no import restrictions. So basically a supplement that people are taking to increase brain function actually contains a toxic level of lead, which impairs brain function. “Contaminates can be contradicting the very purpose of taking the supplement,” Adams said. So do your research, and as Adams suggested, ask manufacturers for their heavy metal levels.
Dr Oz: Lead in Cacao + Detoxifying Foods
Another problem discovered by Mike Adams was the amount of lead found in cacao. He explained that there is about 500 parts per billion of lead in cacao. However, the cacao nibs consistently had lower levels of heavy metals.
So why isn’t the USDA and FDA doing anything about this? “In my opinion, they’re asleep at the wheel on this issue,” Mike Adams. “The FDA needs to put into place heavy metals limits.”
Dr. Oz contacted the FDA about this issue and their full statement can be found on the Dr. Oz website.
In closing, Dr. Oz shared foods that he uses in his family to help detoxify the body: strawberries, vitamin E rich foods like almond & spinach, and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower.
Before you give Mike too much credit for testing foods, you should have asked him why he doesn’t test for protein content in the products he sells. Mike was vigorously promoting and selling a protein powder that purported to have 21grams of protein in it. Someone else tested it instead and exposed the fact that it only had 5 grams! Why didn’t Mike protect his own customers from label deception? He’s hardly a credible person. Why would Dr. Oz risk his reputation by putting him on the air?
I am amazed that people are not “more” angry about the facts that Mike Adams has brought up. Just as he brought the heavy metal presence in Chinese Rice Protein to the readers, China announced that they were sad to report that up to 20 of their land is toxic. LOL! I spent a year in China in the 80’s, and that number is VERY LOW. China does not care about the American Consumer. From Metals in rice protein, to anti-freeze in toothpaste, to Melamine in Pet food…and those are the ones they have been “caught” at doing. Give the guy credit. Some may like him, and some may hate him (mostly those selling Chinese rice protein), but he is FACTUAL. Kudos Mike! TV
i thought you were going to name products that have metals or those who do not. would very much like to know. i have some from nutrBiotics
This is pure hype! Funny, but not funny.
These levels of lead, 0.5 mcg and 5 mcg, are not considered to present ANY danger to humans, according to FDA and the World Health Organization.
In fact, FDA, advised by the National Formulary, considers 10 mcg to be safe to have in a pharmaceutical drug tablet. Four ounces of watermelon contains 4.58 mcg of lead, according to an FDA report. Four ounces of shrimp contains 23 mcg of lead.
And the California “legal Prop 65 0.5 mcg/day limit” is nonsense. That lead limit was created by trial lawyers to be so low that it allows “bounty hunter lawyers to extort money from companies.”
Normal human bodies contain about 200,000 mcg of lead and handle it and excrete it with ease.
World Health Organization says that a normal 150 lb human can “tolerate” lead gotten from eating, breathing and drinking at 243 mcg/day. See: http://www.michaelmooney.net/FDA's_Report_Lead_Found_In_Vitamins_Is_Confusing.pdf
I think we are all smart enough to know that we can’t just blindly trust the FDA with any ‘ok’ they provide…
Emily Hayden, please go back and check your facts about cacao. The Dr. Oz episode said that cacao has 500 ppb lead, not 500 ppm. That’s a huge difference.
It says above 500ppb no correction is needed, Jeff. And it says at the end of the first article that these amounts are not sufficient for short term damage, but could they cause long term damage? So this is letting people know, if they are heavy consumers of some powdered goods, Michael. I am surprised at the comments and lack of reading skill. As I sat with my Husband around our lentil soup the other night I almost chipped a tooth on a large piece of black gravel. This is relevant information for those who consume these type of products.
Please List the Products that have the Metals in them