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this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2025
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I would imagine the plant based group had more heavy metals, if given most brands
I assume you are referring to the consumer reports headlines, they have been greatly misleading. They have been using an extremely low level as their bar for concern. Here's a recent piece talking about that
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https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/465552/protein-powder-lead-poisoning-fda-supplements-consumer-reports
(https://archive.is/y6ZHk for paywall)
There is no safe level of lead in consumables. The standards being tossed around are basically about forcing government or corporate action, not about what's actually healthy to consume.
Sure, but they intentionally built in large margins to these reference. Of course zero lead is ideal, but it's not what happens in practice. The metric consumer reports used has a 1000x safety factor vs the FDA's 10x safety factor
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From the same article as above
The truth is none of the standards are based entirely on safe/not-safe levels - they know none of it is safe, but governments are hesitant to hold corporations responsible. And zero-lead is what "happens in practice" for responsible manufacturers. It's not some unavoidable contaminant that can't be removed.
I would rather have a little more lead in my food than cholesterol, which is an actual killer.
Congratulations! That is definitely the dumbest take I've seen on the Internet for at least a month - which is saying something in 2025. Here's your trophy 🏆
Elaborate?
Dietary cholesterol has very little impact on blood cholesterol levels - about 80% of the cholesterol in your blood comes from your liver producing it and it produces more with saturated and trans fats in your diet, not cholesterol in the food you eat. Diets high in those fats and other factors such as obesity affect your blood cholesterol to a much greater degree. Almost all cholesterol in food is never absorbed by your body.
As for lead, your exposure is always cumulative, as the body holds on to it forever (it treats it as if it's calcium and never lets it go). So there's no actual "safe" level of exposure to lead. In addition, because of how central calcium is to the operation of the nervous system, when that calcium is replaced with lead, there's a host of lifelong negative effects that result including both physical and mental degradation. Oh, and for women, that lead is passed directly on to their children, who then also have to deal with all the negative effects.
What you said is like if someone said "I'd rather have a little plutonium in my food, rather than too much sugar."
Haha, thanks for the laugh. Saturated fats also come from animals.
And that is a bold lie that dietary cholesterol has very little impact on blood cholesterol levels. I've read the exact study you did. Good try though.
And coconut and palm oils…
I feel bad for you. Exaggerating numbers from a study to push your own bias is so fucking cringe. It's been fun, won't be responding to your troll comments anymore though.
I look forward to never reading the giant manifesto you will probably write.
Enjoy your reality-free life.
Don’t animals accumulate the heavy metals they consume from plants?
Most of the plant-based protein on the market is sourced from China and seems to be contaminated with high levels of lead - probably due to poor processing controls, and far in excess of natural plant or animal sources.
The study says they sourced their proteins from “Not Company LTDA”, which seems to be Chilean.
Oh, it's so much worse than that - NotCo (the sponsor of the study, not just the source of the protein) is using an LLM to create plant-based alternatives to animal-based foods, such as milk, burgers, and mayonnaise. And just because they're based in Chile, I wouldn't take that to mean that's where the plant protein is coming from, as they're just the "designers" of these foods, not the manufacturers.