The Fear of Lead in Protein Powder & Cacao

I just posted a video about the health benefits of cacao powder. About how it’s got some healthy stimulants in it, how it’s great for improving cardiovascular health and blood flow, and how it improves skin health and appearance. It might even give a small boost to muscle growth, though I wouldn’t bet on it.

I got quite a lot of comments from people who had heard that chocolate was high in lead, making it dangerous. It’s true that cacao can have more lead than other foods, and it’s wise to choose brands that have been tested by unbiased third-party labs to check for both safety and efficacy. I did that. I have a subscription to Consumer Lab, and the brand of cacao I recommend passed all of their tests. But even still, the lead in every brand of cacao is almost always way below the safety threshold, not just by a little bit, but by orders of magnitude. It would be shady of me to use the fear of lead to nudge you towards buying a specific brand. The truth is, you’re okay with almost every brand.

Consumer Reports (not to be confused with Consumer Lab) is tricking people with a bait and switch. They use Prop 65, which is a Californian law stating that food products with more than 0.5 micrograms of lead per serving need to put a warning on the package. The law is controversial for being so strict, but that isn’t the problem. Consumer Reports took that PER SERVING limit and used it as their DAILY limit.

Some people are fearful by nature, and it shows in their writing, and I’m fine with that. Others use fear as a way to make money. This feels like the that second sort of fear. The error is so enormous and so obvious that it feels specifically designed to make headlines and start a debate. It feels like ragebait.

Whatever their intentions were, it worked. They made headlines, and they sparked a huge debate, with almost every legitimate expert being forced to address the misinformation, thus bringing even more attention to it. It worked for them, though, as a business, not for us, as people trying to improve our health.

I think the best thing to do is go through the history of lead toxicity and explain the safety thresholds.

The Fear of Lead

Historically, it was fairly common to be exposed to too much lead. Most of that lead came from leaded gasoline, lead paint, lead pipes leeching lead into our drinking water, and the lead soldering in cans oozing out lead into our canned foods. Once we figured out how harmful all of that was, we got rid of it.

Nowadays, the average person consumes about 5 micrograms of lead per day, which is less than a tenth as much lead exposure as as the average person got in the 1970s, when lead toxicity was more widespread (study). If you’ve heard horror stories about lead, that’s from lead exposure that’s at least an order of magnitude higher.

Nowadays, most people are very comfortably within the healthy limits. The FDA is fairly strict with their guidelines, preferring to err on the side of safety, recommending men limit themselves to 13 micrograms per day, women to 9 micrograms per day, and children to 2 micrograms per day. That’s about 1/10th the amount they suspect could start to harm our health. That extremely cautious guideline allows for about twice as much lead as the average person consumes. So, even if you never thought about lead again, you’d do great.

Lead in the Soil

Lead is a natural part of soil. When plants grow in that soil, they absorb the nutrients from it, and that’s a good thing. That’s a huge part of why plants are so nutritious. However, they also pull in small amounts of heavy metals, including lead.

That’s why it’s important to understand the difference between being exposed to large amount of leaded gasoline versus the tiny amounts of lead we get from eating plants. Almost nobody was getting lead toxicity from the small amounts of lead that’s naturally found in plants. Especially because the other nutrients in plants reduces the bioavailability of the lead (study).

People who eat more fruits, vegetables, fibre, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes tend to be healthier and live longer (umbrella review). Same with people who eat more cacao powder (meta​, ​meta​). We can be very, very confident that eating these foods is good for us, even if they contain trace amounts of lead. Most people don’t eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables. That’s the far greater public health concern.

Cacao is incredibly rich in flavanols, which are amazing for heart health and blood flow. It’s also rich in theobromine, a healthy and invigorating stimulant. And it’s healthy in more normal ways, too. It’s a great source of fibre, iron, manganese, magnesium, and zinc (all of which reduce the bioavailability of lead).

It still makes sense to buy cacao powder that’s low in lead (like this one), but even if you never bothered to check, it would still be amazing for your health (study).

Better Brands are Still Better

We can always try to do better, and some of these problems do linger, especially when food is grown in countries with laxer lead standards. For example, there are farms next to highways, with soil covered in exhaust from leaded gasoline. It’s important for unbiased third-party labs to test our food and supplements, checking for unusually high levels of lead.

Testing helps us avoid products with more lead in them, which may still be good in a small way, especially for pregnant women and small children consuming unusually large quantities of foods that are unusually high in lead. Like if a pregnant woman develops an obsession with dark chocolate, eating several bars per day. That isn’t a normal thing to do, but it happens.

Testing for lead also puts pressure on companies to get rid of the lead in their farming process, which is great. It’s that pressure that’s brought us to where we are now, living in a world where we don’t really need to worry about lead anymore.

Which Brands Are Lowest in Lead?

I don’t think you should be afraid of lead, but I do think we should buy our foods and supplements from the brands that perform well in unbiased third-party testing. That reduces our exposure to lead, other heavy metals, microplastics, and other contaminants. These foods and supplements are often higher in the good stuff, too! The protein has more protein in it, and the cacao has more flavanols and theobromine.

Buying higher quality supplements also supports the businesses that are doing right by us, and it discourages corporations from cutting corners.

Here are my favourite brands of protein and cacao powder, all vetted by independent third-party labs:

• Optimum Nutrition Whey Protein (iHerb link) has been doing well in random thirty-party tests for over a decade now, earning them a great reputation. At 0.28 micrograms per scoop, it would take 47 scoops per day to pass the FDA’s safety limit, which is already quite cautious. You’re probably starting at around 5 micrograms already, though, which means you’d pass the safety threshold if you added 27 scoops on top of what you already eat. You’re only supposed to have 1–3 scoops of protein powder day, so you’d have to mess up pretty bad to accidentally overdo it. Their protein also tastes great and is competitively priced. I’ve been using it for over a decade.
• Optimum Nutrition Plant Protein (iHerb link). Same quality as their whey protein. It’s higher in lead than whey because it comes from the soil, which naturally contains lead. I wouldn’t worry about it. You’d still need to have dozens of servings per day to hit the daily safety limit. If you’re sticking to the suggested limit of 1–3 servings per day, you’re totally fine.
• Momentous Grass-Fed Whey Protein (Momentous discount link) often has the highest purity ratings. In the Consumer Reports test, they had the top score for protein powder. It would take 87 scoops per day to hit the safety limit. It’s definitely a great protein powder, but it’s also more expensive. I reached out to them and got you a discount, but even then, it’s still pricier than the other options. Their supplements are usually sold out, too.
• Unflavoured Whey Protein (Bulk Supplements link). This is a pure, unflavoured whey protein isolate. The quality is great, with great performance in third-party testing. No filler or flavouring, which I think is a big part of why they score so well. Lead often sneaks in with the other ingredients. I like to use this one in smoothies.
• Cacao Extract (Bulk Supplements link). When you get cacao extract, you get more of the flavanols and theobromine with less of the heavy metals. There’s less plant in it, though, so you also get fewer fibre and minerals. But if you already eat lots of plants and want to reliably hit 250+ mg of flavanols, this is a great way to do it.
• Traditional, Unsweetened Cacao Powder (iHerb link). This is a fermented, non-alkalized cacao powder that’s high in flavanols and theobromine. You’d need to have 109 servings per day to hit the safe limit. Consumer Lab rated it as a “top pick” because of how low in lead it was. It’s also high in the flavanols that make cacao so good for our health, with different tests finding 70-200 mg per 6 gram serving. It’s rich in fibre and minerals, too, so you also get the benefits of eating a serving of fruits and vegetables.

*I tried to use affiliate links when possible. I prefer iHerb for health foods and supplements. They’re like Amazon, but with more of a focus on quality and health. We were accepted as Amazon affiliates, too, but I’d rather recommend iHerb.

**It could be that my brain is so fried from consuming small amounts of lead that I’m unable to understand the harms of consuming even small amounts of lead.