Let's say you're trying to lose 20 pounds or boost your immunity or increase your ability to fight COVID or even cancer.

Well, the amazing thing is with the right diet, you are well in your way to achieving these vital health goals.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

Today it's all 3 MCPD all the time and if you're wondering what in the world I'm talking about, I need to know is one word, chlorohydrin.

It's a compound found in items like brags, liquid aminos and some soy sauce. Is it safe? Let's find out.

In 1978, chlorohydrin were found in protein hydrolysis. What does that mean? Proteins can be broken down into amino acids using a chemical process called hydrolysis and free amino acids like glutamate can have taste enhancing qualities.

That's how they make cheap soy sauce and seasonings like brags, liquid aminos. This process requires high heat, high pressure and hydrochloric acid to break apart the protein.

The problem is that when any residual fat is exposed to these conditions, it can form toxic compounds called chlorohydrons.

But when I say toxic, I'm talking about toxic to mice and rats. Chlorohydrons like 3 MCPD are considered a worldwide problem of food chemistry but no clinical studies on humans have been reported so far.

The concern is about detrimental effects on kidneys and fertility. In fact, there was a time in which it was considered as a potential male contraceptive because it could so affect sperm production.

However, research funding was withdrawn after unacceptable side effects were observed in primates. They found flaccid testes in rats, which is what they were going for, but it caused neurological scars in monkeys.

What do you do though when there are no studies in humans? How do you set some kind of safety factor? Well, it's not easy.

What you do is take the lowest observed adverse effect level in animal studies, which in this case was kidney damage, then add in some kind of fudge factor and arrive an estimated, terrible daily intake, which for 3 MCPD means that high level consumers of soy sauce may exceed the limit.

But this was based on extraordinarily high contamination levels. Since then, Europe introduced a regulatory limit of 20 parts per billion of 3 MCPD and hydrolyzed vegetable protein products like liquid aminos and soy sauce.

The US standards are much laxer though, allowing 50 times more 1000 parts per billion.

I called Braggs to see where they fell, and the good news is that they are doing independent third party analysis of their liquid aminos for 3 MCPD.

The bad news is that despite my pleas that they be fully transparent, they wouldn't let me share the results with you.

I've seen them though, but I'm only allowed to confirm they comfortably meet the US standards, but fail the European standards.

This is just the start of the 3 MCPD story. If you test people's urine for 3 MCPD or its metabolites, 100% of people turn up positive, confirming that's a widespread food contaminant.

I mean, 100% of people aren't downing soy sauce or liquid aminos every day.

But remember, the chemical resulted from a reaction with residual vegetable oil. When vegetable oil itself is refined when it's deodorized and bleached, those conditions also lead to the formation of 3 MCPD.

And indeed, we've known for years that various foods are contaminated. And what kind of foods have these kinds of chemicals been detected? Well, if it's in the oils and fats, then it's in that greasy foods made from the Margarine,

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