Getting the lead out (of your protein shake)
Nutrition Diva
Macmillan Holdings, LLC
4.4 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2025
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
839. Lots of us rely on powders and shakes to meet our protein goals. A new report suggests that this could be exposing us to “concerning” levels of lead.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Once again, a consumer reports expose on heavy metals in food has caused mild panic. |
| 0:06.5 | And this time, they're coming for our protein powder. |
| 0:09.7 | So let's take a closer look at whether that post-workout smoothie is still safe to drink. |
| 0:30.7 | Hello and welcome to the Nutrition Diva podcast, a show where we take a closer look at the latest nutrition headlines and memes and sort fact from fiction. |
| 0:39.9 | I'm your host, Monica Rhinagle, and today I want to talk about a new report on lead in protein powders that has many of you concerned. |
| 0:45.7 | Protein powders are a daily habit for many people, myself included. And when you see headlines about something that you use regularly linked to a toxic metal, |
| 0:52.4 | it's hard not to feel alarmed by that. One listener wrote |
| 0:56.1 | in to ask whether they should be worried about the fact that they were using protein powder |
| 1:00.8 | to meet their protein targets, and also wondered what this might mean for teens or young adults |
| 1:06.9 | who also use them. Now, lead in food is a legitimate concern, because this is a cumulative toxin. |
| 1:16.1 | It builds up in the body over time, and it affects multiple organ systems, especially the nervous system and the brain. |
| 1:24.1 | In children and during pregnancy, even small amounts of lead exposure can interfere |
| 1:30.3 | with development. And in adults, chronic exposure has been linked to hypertension, |
| 1:37.1 | kidney damage, even cognitive decline. So yes, this is something worth taking seriously. |
| 1:44.0 | But that doesn't necessarily mean that we need to toss that expensive tub of protein powder in the trash. |
| 1:50.8 | So I want to take a closer look at what this investigation found and how we should interpret that information. |
| 1:59.4 | Consumer Reports tested 23 popular protein supplements and shakes, and they found that about |
| 2:06.2 | 70% of them contained levels of lead that the magazine found concerning. |
| 2:13.8 | Now, to be clear, these products were not in violation of any official regulations. |
| 2:20.4 | This was a case of the products not meeting a benchmark that had been developed by consumer |
| 2:26.0 | reports own internal food safety experts, which turned out to be quite a bit more conservative |
| 2:32.9 | than other regulatory guidance. |
... |
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