Consumer Reports - July 2010 Issue

Alert: Your Protein Drink May Contain Toxic Heavy Metals



Fifteen of some of the most popular protein drinks sold in retail stores were tested by the Consumer Reports team. In summary, here’s what they found:

All of them have arsenic, 9 have cadmium, 11 have lead, 6 have mercury - and 3 are over the maximum limits proposed by the U.S Pharmacopeia!

The protein shakes tested by Consumer Reports are frequently used by not only body builders, but also "regular folks," including some pregnant women, who use them as meal replacements to lose weight and increase muscle mass. Teenagers who want to look like the sculpted images they see in fitness magazines tend to overuse the products, assuming that if one scoop is good, four or five would be even better.

Which Protein Drinks Fared the Worst?

Three daily servings of the ready-to-drink liquid EAS Myoplex Original Rich Dark Chocolate Shake contained an average of:

· 16.9 µg (micrograms) of arsenic

· 5.1 µg of cadmium

The proposed United States Pharmacopoeia's (USP) limits for these two toxins are 15 and 5 µg respectively.

The worst of the products tested was Muscle Milk Chocolate powder, which contained all four toxic metals; three of them at the highest levels of all products tested. Three daily servings of this particular brand and flavor contained an average of:

· 5.6 µg cadmium

· 13.5 µg of lead

· 12.2 µg of arsenic

· 0.7 µg of mercury

Muscle Milk's Vanilla Crème contained slightly less lead, but still exceeded the USP lead limit of 10 µg.

A fourth product, Muscle Milk's liquid Nutritional Shake Chocolate, also tested high in arsenic, providing you with an average of 14.3 µg of arsenic per day, which is very close to the USP limit.


Robert Wright, M.D.., associate professor at Harvard Medical School, who is conducting research on the health effects of exposure to toxic metals, says:

o Not only can these metals pose a danger on their own, “being exposed simultaneously to a mixture of toxins can also potentially increase health risks, particularly when they target the same organs or systems as some metals we detected do.”

o He also states that 2 toxic substances together can pose even greater risks than the sum of the two and not enough research has been done to determine whether that occurs from multiple exposures to even relatively low levels of those heavy metals.

Michael Harbut, M.D., director of the Environmental Cancer Initiative at the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Royal Oak, Michigan, states of cadmium: “This is a highly toxic metal, and while there are some cases where decisions have to be weighed against relative risks, accepting that you have to be exposed to any cadmium at all in your protein drink after your workout is definitely not one of them.”



According to ABC News, cadmium also "raises special concern because it accumulates in and can damage the kidneys… and it can take 20 years for your body to eliminate even half the cadmium absorbed today."

It's important to realize that toxic metals such as the ones discussed here typically accumulate in your body over time, where they can cause irreparable damage. Further damage can be prevented by using various detoxing methods to remove the metals, but this can be a slow, difficult process.



Prevention is clearly your best defense when it comes to protecting yourself against heavy metals and other toxins

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