Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead

Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago

raybb

75 points

16 comments

consumerreports.orgResearchstory

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Protein PowdersLead ContaminationFood Safety

Key topics

Protein Powders

Lead Contamination

Food Safety

A Consumer Reports investigation found high levels of lead in various protein powders and shakes, sparking concerns and discussions about the safety of these products and potential alternatives.

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Oct 14, 2025 at 1:49 PM EDT
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Discussion (16 comments)

Showing 16 comments

tyleo

3 months ago

1 reply

I’ve heard that unflavored tend to have less contaminants than flavored. I don’t know if anyone can confirm.

drum55

3 months ago

1 reply

Lead tastes sweet, it’s quite pleasant, that’s why it was used in wine.

minitech

3 months ago

Not relevant to the flavoring question, since nobody uses lead as a sweetener now.

mfro

3 months ago

2 replies

A lot of discussion in this thread about the findings for Huel (I was concerned because I consume Huel daily):

https://www.reddit.com/r/Huel/comments/1o6j62j/consumer_repo...

Many commentors point out that CR's guideline for daily intake is arbitrary and well under the FDA guideline. I think it would be good to take this with a grain of salt and will be interested to see the response from Huel.

0cf8612b2e1e

3 months ago

2 replies

There is no good level for lead exposure. It is always bad. If anything, I think the FDA should make their limits more strict. Yet the FDA is slow moving and susceptible to a lot of industry influence that wants no regulation.

dzhiurgis

3 months ago

1 reply

Looking at Bryan Johnson's videos it seems just about everything is contaminated. I'd speculate we'll need another thousand years for this to change.

Analemma_

3 months ago

1 reply

Plant-based products still have non-zero contamination because lead is still allowed in things like avgas, so we keep putting more in the environment. In theory, leaded avgas is finally starting to get phased out but this has been an excruciatingly slow process.

The good news is that if and when we eliminate lead totally from its remaining uses, we won't have to wait too long to see the benefits. IIRC people's blood lead levels started dropping pretty quickly after we phased out leaded gasoline.

Gigachad

3 months ago

1 reply

How are we going to remove all the existing contamination? Soil lead levels in old residential areas are still high from when leaded gas was in use. To the point where people with chickens or vegetable gardens at home need to be testing for lead.

dzhiurgis

3 months ago

Obvious answer is hydroponics

mfro

3 months ago

I think we can all agree on that, but it still seems like CR's article is a bit reactionary considering it is normal to find some levels of lead in most FDA regulated foodstuffs?

more_corn

3 months ago

2 replies

Are you really trying to suggest that consumer reports, the most trustworthy consumer advocate of all time is setting unreasonable safety standards?

The FDA is known to set acceptable levels too high especially for lead. The scientific consensus is clear, there is no amount of lead that is safe. If you’re regularly consuming products that contain lead you should stop immediately. If this suggestion makes you frustrated, angry or otherwise disturbed, perhaps you’re experiencing symptoms of lead exposure.

mfro

3 months ago

As I said in an above comment, nobody with sense is going to claim lead is healthy. I’m just saying CR could just as easily come up with the same findings for other foodstuffs. Obviously change needs to happen but this doesn’t seem like it will do any good.

loeg

3 months ago

Yes, Consumer Reports has set an unreasonable standard here and reported on it in an alarmist way that completely ignores context.

ck2

3 months ago

Government should make them put lead on the RDA label as a negative RDA

so at least they'll be forced to test for it in each batch

(I'm sure RFKjr will get right on that)

Some big brand names in there, "Muscle Milk" is owned by Pepsi

ps. "Mass Gainer" was a dumb thing to test but I guess control, it's just maltodextrin (a starch-like sugar)

loeg

3 months ago

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42675538

Edit: Oh, right, this isn't even the first report on this from CR:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42675944 (2010, 2018, 2020, 2024)

Worth keeping in mind the baseline -- Americans consume something like 2-5 ug of lead daily, on average, and Europeans consume something like 25-100 ug of lead daily, on average.

nateb2022

3 months ago

> The lead levels in plant-based products were, on average, nine times the amount found in those made with dairy proteins like whey

For this, and other reasons, whey will continue to be my protein supplement of choice.

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ID: 45582809Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 12:44:40 PM

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