Some of the easiest forms of contaminants to overlook in your food are toxic heavy metals. These are quite hard to avoid as heavy metals naturally exist in the environment where they’re absorbed by the plants, animals and humans.
The rapid industrialization of our society and the resulting increase in pollution has, in turn, also caused an increase in the amount of toxic heavy metals in the environment.
With this increase in heavy metals in the environment, crops and farm animals, as well as wild-caught sea foods, end up absorbing a lot more of these metals, which can then be transferred to you through bioaccumulation.
Below are just some of the most common heavy metals that are contaminating your food.
Four common heavy metals contaminating your food
- Mercury
When most people think of mercury, they most likely think of thermometers. Mercury, however, is a neurotoxin. In fact, if you’re wondering why you don’t see mercury thermometers much these days, it’s because a number of states have already banned their use. [1]
One of the reasons mercury thermometers were banned is that even just inhaling the vapors from mercury is toxic – imagine how much worse it is when you actually consume mercury.
The most common form of mercury in the food supply is methylmercury, which is usually found in fish and shellfish. As a neurotoxin, methylmercury can cause damage to the nervous system, causing a number of adverse effects such as the loss of peripheral vision, loss of coordination, muscle weakness and even the impairment of speech and hearing. [2][3]
Methylmercury is also particularly dangerous for pregnant women. It can negatively affect the development of the fetus’ brain. Studies show that children whose mothers were exposed to significant amounts of methylmercury suffered from a number of neurological conditions. [4]
- Lead
Another naturally occurring metal with well-documented adverse health effects is lead. What makes lead poisoning so dangerous, however, is how hard it is to detect – the symptoms of lead poisoning don’t usually appear until dangerous amounts of the metal have accumulated in the body. [5]
Lead can attack a number of organs in the body. Particularly vulnerable are the kidneys, and lead can interfere with their function. [6]
In addition, lead interferes with how the body produces blood. This can result in fewer red blood cells being produced while more are destroyed. [7]
Aside from this, lead also attacks the nervous system, especially in children. Lead has been noted to impair the brains of children more than adults simply because they are still developing. [8]
- Cadmium
Cadmium is yet another toxic heavy metal that can negatively affect a number of organs in the body. This metal can have toxic effects on the skeletal, urinary, reproductive as well as the peripheral and central nervous systems.
What’s dangerous about cadmium is how efficiently it’s retained in the human body, where it can accumulate throughout life. This has a negative effect on the kidneys, interfering with their function.
Cadmium also negatively affects the bones. It can do so directly through its buildup over time or it can also do so indirectly, through its negative effects on the renal system. [9]
Other systems of the body that cadmium can negatively affect include the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. [10]
- Arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical that’s highly toxic in its inorganic form. Unfortunately, people are exposed to inorganic arsenic through contaminated water – which they drink, use to plant and grow crops, and from which they catch fish and seafood. [11][12]
People who are exposed to high levels of arsenic experience what’s called acute arsenic poisoning, with symptoms ranging from abdominal discomfort, numbness to even death.
However, chronic exposure to arsenic from food and water can negatively impact the cardiovascular system and the brain.
Arsenic can also impact cognitive development in children. [13]
How do I find out if I’ve consumed too many toxic heavy metals?
The only way to see how much of these and other toxic heavy metals you may have in your body is to get tested. Fortunately, this is a relatively painless, non-invasive procedure. For this, the Health Ranger Store offers two types of heavy metals analysis through ISO 17025 accredited CWC Labs:
CWC Labs Heavy Metal Analysis – This kit is meant to test common food and products you consume. You can send us your well water samples, soil samples, dietary supplements for this test. This kit comes with a vial, plastic bag and instruction, and is able to test samples for heavy metals such as Hg, Al, Mg, Fe, K, Zn, Ag, As, Cd, Cr, Cs, Cu, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Se, Sr,U, and V.
CWC Labs Hair Composition Test Kit – This kit is meant to test heavy metals you accumulated in your body. Heavy metals you consume will tend to amass in hair. This kit comes with a vial, plastic bag and instruction, and is able to test your hair for heavy metals such as Hg, Al, Mg, Fe, K, Zn, Ag, As, Cd, Cr, Cs, Cu, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Se, Sr,U, and V.
How to avoid consuming toxic heavy metals in your food
If you’re serious about avoiding toxic heavy metals, get a copy of the book
Food Forensics: The Hidden Toxins Lurking in Your Food and How You Can Avoid Them for Good Health by the Health Ranger himself, Mike Adams.
Food Forensics does the job that the FDA refuses to do – test off-the-shelf food and share the results with the public. It has scientific results for over 800 different foods, allowing people to make informed decisions about what they consume or avoid.
By reading Food Forensics, you’ll learn how industrial pollution causes toxic heavy metals such as mercury, lead and cadmium to end up in your favorite everyday products.
In addition, Food Forensics will also tell you the little-known truth about other toxic food ingredients such as polysorbate 80, MSG, sodium nitrate, pesticides and weed killers such as glyphosate.
Secure your copy of Food Forensics today so you can learn how to avoid toxic heavy metals and other unhealthy chemicals in your food.
Only purchase your products from ethical vendors you can trust
There are many unethical vendors in the world that are solely driven by profits. They will use the cheapest and lowest quality products possible, disregarding contamination of heavy metals such as lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium to maximize their margins. Do your due diligence and only buy products from companies that thoroughly conduct lab tests on all product lots they carry, such as the Health Ranger Store. All product lots we carry at the Health Ranger Store are guaranteed to be thoroughly lab tested for heavy metals, microbiology and glyphosate.
[1]http://www.newmoa.org/prevention/mercury/imerc/banphaseout.cfm#p6
[2]https://www.epa.gov/mercury/health-effects-exposures-mercury
[3]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3514465/
[4]http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc101.htm
[5]https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lead-poisoning/symptoms-causes/syc-20354717
[6]https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/lead/health.html
[7]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2887903/#:~:text=Lead%20causes%20anemia%20by%20impairing,BLL%20%5B29%2C30%5D..
[8]https://www.healthline.com/health/lead-poisoning#symptoms
[9]https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19106447/
[10]https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/csem.asp?csem=6&po=12
[11]https://www.foodnavigator-asia.com/Article/2020/08/11/Heavy-metal-contamination-Serious-and-remarkable-concentration-of-arsenic-lead-and-cadmium-in-Turkish-fish
[12]http://www.fao.org/3/a-ag105e.pdf
[13]https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/arsenic
