Hello, welcome to the Liz Earle well-being show with me, Liz Earle. My favourite time of the week is here. Mondays we turn the tables and the questions are in your hands. You ask and I share some evidence-based research to help you along your journey to living a better second half. If you have a question for me, do get in touch.

All the contact details are in the episode description and at the end of the show.

Coming up today, Vanessa asks about heavy metals in dark chocolate. Julia wants to feel good

and look better. Daniela needs some tips on getting back to sleep.

I have a great cold sore tip from Amanda.

And lastly, Ginny asks about tongue scraping and if supplements strain our liver.

So, So let's begin today with an email from Vanessa and you write,

Hi Liz, I watched your YouTube video about dark chocolate and recent health concerns regarding heavy metal contamination.

As someone who's consumed dark chocolate daily for many years, I was alarmed to read reports about cadmium and lead found in dark

chocolate. Not just alarmed, but confused and angry too, as the varying responses to this

information has been very vague and wishy-washy. There are no government

warnings, no warnings printed on chocolate wrappers, no official guidance, nothing. This is a shocking

and disgraceful industry response, considering that cadmium is highly toxic to the kidneys

and may cause permanent damage. It would be useful if someone with a high

profile were to highlight this issue with the end result being continued monitoring of heavy

metal content in chocolate batches and warnings and advice printed on the back of chocolate wrappers.

The idea of someone innocently consuming chocolate and simultaneously damaging their

kidneys is totally unacceptable, a crime even and must be highlighted. Hopefully this issue will gather

more attention and that things will change. I hope you agree. Well, very interesting, Vanessa,

thank you. Very passionate message and you know, you're not alone in feeling confused. I get a lot of comments about it and questions. That's why I recorded the piece that I did for YouTube. Dark chocolate, heavy metals, it's alarming. Public guidance has since the news been patchy at best. I understand your frustration. You know,

when a story breaks linking a beloved food like chocolate, something like Cadme more lead,

especially with the words kidneys and toxicity attached, you know, understandably, we want

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