Did you see the report from Consumer Reports re: Cocoa and Heavy Metals?!

[BlsdMama]

CR's article


I wonder what would happen if a smallish woman, who generally bordered on anemic, added Hershey's Cocoa (one of the highest) to every cup of coffee, 2-3 times each day, since about 2008?

Maybe this 

2021 abstract regarding potential link cadmium and ALS

[bookbard]

Wow. Can you test for cadmium levels? 

[Arcadia]

 

[Faith-manor]

I am just gutted. I love chocolate. And I was going to make hot cocoa mix for all my adult kids. That seems like a very poor gift indeed.

[Faith-manor]

Kelly, I hope your medical team.will take you seriously and do the testing.

[bookbard]

I have seen a few studies though that showed people who ate chocolate over many years had better health outcomes - there were studies of men specifically, women specifically, over decades which showed reduced risk of mortality from all causes. Unless something has changed, they're not seeing the increased mortality (or not as yet finding it) from eating chocolate. 

[Arcadia]

@bookbard the number of samples they tested are small

@Faith-manor Swiss Miss (which my kids like) and many baking chocolate chips are on the list 😞

Dec 2022 list https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/lead-and-cadmium-in-dark-chocolate-a8480295550/

Oct 2023 list https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/a-third-of-chocolate-products-are-high-in-heavy-metals-a4844566398/

“When we tested dark chocolate bars last year, we found lead or cadmium levels above CR’s thresholds in 23 of 28 bars, or 82 percent of them. Our results this time were similar. Of the seven bars we tested, five, or 71 percent, were above our levels for lead, cadmium, or both.
…

Milk chocolate tends to be lower in heavy metals than dark chocolate because it has less cocoa solids. And in fact none of the five milk chocolate bars in our tests were over CR’s limit for either heavy metal. Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bar had the most lead, reaching 67 percent of CR’s limit. Feastables Mr. Beast Bar Milk Chocolate, with 80 percent of CR’s limit, had the most cadmium per serving. Lindt Classic Recipe Milk Chocolate Bar was the lowest overall, with one serving (about 1 ounce) containing 11 percent of the daily maximum amount of lead and 13 percent of the daily cadmium limit.

…

None of these 12 products had high levels of cadmium, and only two—Hu Dark Chocolate Gems and Good & Gather (Target) Semi-Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips—were over CR’s limit for lead. 

But there’s a caveat: The serving size for chocolate chips is just around ½ ounce (about 1 tablespoon)—the amount you might expect to get in a cookie or two, depending on the size of the cookie. If you’re the type that likes to eat more than a few cookies, or a handful of chips straight out of the bag, with many of these you could exceed the daily limits for both cadmium and lead by eating just two servings. Some good options for snacking that are relatively low in both heavy metals are 365 Whole Foods Market Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Chips, Kirkland Signature Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, and Nestlé Toll House Semi-Sweet Morsels. 

A spokesperson for Hu told CR that our test results were in line with the company’s own testing, but added that those levels fall far below those set in the As You Sow lawsuit settlement. 
…

Cocoa powder is almost all cocoa solids, so you might expect that most would be too high in lead and cadmium, even in small amounts. But none of those we tested were high in cadmium, and only two had high levels of lead. 

…

Four of the six mixes we tested exceeded our lead limit: Great Value (Walmart) Milk Chocolate Flavor Hot Cocoa Mix, had the highest levels, with mixes from Trader Joe’s and Nestlé (which also makes hot chocolate mix for Starbucks), above CR’s cutoff. 

…

These products fared well overall in our tests. None were high in cadmium, and just one brownie mix and two cake mixes exceeded CR’s lead limits—one by quite a bit. One serving of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix had 216 percent. The heavy metal levels refer to the amounts of the mix that are in one serving of the finished cake or brownie. (We list the number of servings each mix makes in the charts below.) 

However, the serving sizes are small. For instance, Duncan Hines Devil’s Food Cake mix makes a cake that the manufacturer says will serve 10. The company’s Double Fudge Brownie mix makes 20 servings. If your cake or brownie portions are more generous, keep in mind that you’ll be getting more lead and cadmium than we list here.”

[mommyoffive]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

@bookbard the number of samples they tested are small

@Faith-manor Swiss Miss (which my kids like) and many baking chocolate chips are on the list 😞

Dec 2022 list https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/lead-and-cadmium-in-dark-chocolate-a8480295550/

Oct 2023 list https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/a-third-of-chocolate-products-are-high-in-heavy-metals-a4844566398/

“When we tested dark chocolate bars last year, we found lead or cadmium levels above CR’s thresholds in 23 of 28 bars, or 82 percent of them. Our results this time were similar. Of the seven bars we tested, five, or 71 percent, were above our levels for lead, cadmium, or both.
…

Milk chocolate tends to be lower in heavy metals than dark chocolate because it has less cocoa solids. And in fact none of the five milk chocolate bars in our tests were over CR’s limit for either heavy metal. Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bar had the most lead, reaching 67 percent of CR’s limit. Feastables Mr. Beast Bar Milk Chocolate, with 80 percent of CR’s limit, had the most cadmium per serving. Lindt Classic Recipe Milk Chocolate Bar was the lowest overall, with one serving (about 1 ounce) containing 11 percent of the daily maximum amount of lead and 13 percent of the daily cadmium limit.

…

None of these 12 products had high levels of cadmium, and only two—Hu Dark Chocolate Gems and Good & Gather (Target) Semi-Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips—were over CR’s limit for lead. 

But there’s a caveat: The serving size for chocolate chips is just around ½ ounce (about 1 tablespoon)—the amount you might expect to get in a cookie or two, depending on the size of the cookie. If you’re the type that likes to eat more than a few cookies, or a handful of chips straight out of the bag, with many of these you could exceed the daily limits for both cadmium and lead by eating just two servings. Some good options for snacking that are relatively low in both heavy metals are 365 Whole Foods Market Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Chips, Kirkland Signature Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, and Nestlé Toll House Semi-Sweet Morsels. 

A spokesperson for Hu told CR that our test results were in line with the company’s own testing, but added that those levels fall far below those set in the As You Sow lawsuit settlement. 
…

Cocoa powder is almost all cocoa solids, so you might expect that most would be too high in lead and cadmium, even in small amounts. But none of those we tested were high in cadmium, and only two had high levels of lead. 

…

Four of the six mixes we tested exceeded our lead limit: Great Value (Walmart) Milk Chocolate Flavor Hot Cocoa Mix, had the highest levels, with mixes from Trader Joe’s and Nestlé (which also makes hot chocolate mix for Starbucks), above CR’s cutoff. 

…

These products fared well overall in our tests. None were high in cadmium, and just one brownie mix and two cake mixes exceeded CR’s lead limits—one by quite a bit. One serving of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix had 216 percent. The heavy metal levels refer to the amounts of the mix that are in one serving of the finished cake or brownie. (We list the number of servings each mix makes in the charts below.) 

However, the serving sizes are small. For instance, Duncan Hines Devil’s Food Cake mix makes a cake that the manufacturer says will serve 10. The company’s Double Fudge Brownie mix makes 20 servings. If your cake or brownie portions are more generous, keep in mind that you’ll be getting more lead and cadmium than we list here.”

Ugh.  Thanks for that.  The last I had read it was just the dark chocolate.  I had seen something about some kind of hot chocolate mix.  I thought milk chocolate was ok.  I love chocolate, but man this makes me want to outlaw it in the house. 

[Catwoman]

3 hours ago, bookbard said:

Wow. Can you test for cadmium levels? 

 

3 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

Kelly, I hope your medical team.will take you seriously and do the testing.

 I agree! And bloodwork would show signs of heavy metals, so I think it's worth getting tested right away. I hate to think there is even a remote possibility that anything you ate or drank could have caused your ALS. 😞 

 

[bookbard]

2 hours ago, Arcadia said:

@bookbard the number of samples they tested are small

 

Chocolate samples? Yes. The sample sizes of the studies (showing reduction of all cause mortality in chocolate-eaters) are pretty huge, 85,000 people in one of them. But I guess where statistically the majority are going to do better, there will definitely be outliers who won't, which tend not to get picked up in a really big study. 

In Australia, there is a huge cluster of people being diagnosed with motor neurone disease (which I believe is an umbrella term including ALS), who all live near and access a certain lake. They're finally doing some research into the relationship between the algae in this lake and motor neurone disease. 'It's scary': motor neurone disease spikes sevenfold in rural NSW | Motor neurone disease | The Guardian

Edited November 2, 2023 by bookbard

[Arcadia]

1 minute ago, bookbard said:

Chocolate samples? Yes. The sample sizes of the studies are pretty huge, 85,000 people in one of them.

I was referring to chocolate samples that Consumer Report team tested on. 

[Catwoman]

6 hours ago, BlsdMama said:

CR's article


I wonder what would happen if a smallish woman, who generally bordered on anemic, added Hershey's Cocoa (one of the highest) to every cup of coffee, 2-3 times each day, since about 2008?

Maybe this 

2021 abstract regarding potential link cadmium and ALS

Something else that just occurred to me is that the problem might not have been the cocoa, but that the glaze on your mug might have contained cadmium.

Hopefully neither was a factor in causing your ALS, though.

[BlsdMama]

16 hours ago, bookbard said:

Wow. Can you test for cadmium levels? 

Yes! I requested we test for arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and lead and I'm going to add manganese.

16 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

Kelly, I hope your medical team.will take you seriously and do the testing.

Me too. I've not heard back from her yet but I see no reason to deny it.

15 hours ago, bookbard said:

I have seen a few studies though that showed people who ate chocolate over many years had better health outcomes - there were studies of men specifically, women specifically, over decades which showed reduced risk of mortality from all causes. Unless something has changed, they're not seeing the increased mortality (or not as yet finding it) from eating chocolate. 

I actually added cocoa for health benefit from cacao so I agree.  For anyone, just like cancer, to develop a disease from an exoisure, food, drink, environmental, etc., genetics loads the gun and __________ (fill in the blank) pulls the trigger.  While I have none of the known genes, there are likely more undiscovered genes linked to an increased risk for ALS. The fact that my grndmother had frontotemporal dementia is significant and makes it more likely.

12 hours ago, Catwoman said:

 

 I agree! And bloodwork would show signs of heavy metals, so I think it's worth getting tested right away. I hate to think there is even a remote possibility that anything you ate or drank could have caused your ALS. 😞 

 

It's pretty likely there are several triggers for ALS. They know being military impacts your risk. Smoking, pesticide exposure, well water, etc. -all increase risk. They know several correlations, it's finding the causation that's been a sticky wicket.