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  1. Take a look at what you’ll learn on this episode of the Myers Detox Podcast with guest Jaclyn Bowen.
  2. Jaclyn Bowen is a food safety and quality systems engineer and executive director of The Clean Label Project, a national nonprofit and certification organization with the mission to bring truth and transparency to food and consumer product labeling. Find out more about Jaclyn and her work with The Clean Label Project.
  3. Supplements have prop 65 lead warnings, but foods do not, even though they almost always contain a small degree of lead in them. Find out more about how foods are/ are not being labeled.
  4. The Clean Label Project does extensive testing on foods and supplements, specifically testing for certain toxins depending on the product. Learn more about their testing and what they look for.
  5. Consumers are those with the power the create positive change in our food industry. Find out why food toxicity is the future of food safety.
  6. Foods labelled as organic are indeed pesticide free, but still contain heavy metals. Find out why.
  7. There are several things consumers can look out for when evaluating food. Find out what these are and techniques on how you as a consumer can make Brands accountable.
  8. Some pet foods are very clean like turkey, but some are very toxic like fish. Find out more about what you should be feeding your pets.
  9. Protein powders can be high in BPA, cadmium, and other toxins. Learn how these toxins are getting into protein powders, and the safest powders to buy.
  10. Jaclyn found that some CBD products actually contain more THC than is allowed in recreational marijuana, as well as 70% of the top selling CBD products having inaccurate potency levels. Find out the many other issues involved with partially unregulated CBD products.
  11. The Clean Label Project found two best selling infant formulas with lead that exceeded 30 parts per billion in blood. To put that in perspective the Flint, Michigan drinking water crisis was 27 parts per billion. Learn more about the toxins found in baby foods and formulas.
  12. The EPA banned a chemical called methylene chloride from paint strippers, but the FDA is still allowing it to be used in some decaffeinated coffee. Find out more.
  13. Find out the tests the Clean Label Project have in store, like products with collagen.
  14. To learn more about The Clean Label Project and their extensive testing, go to cleanlabelproject.org
  15. You can also find them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

 

Wendy Myers: Hello, my name is Wendy Myers. Welcome to The Myers Detox podcast. You can check out my site at myersdetox.com where we discuss there and on this podcast the concept of heavy metal toxicity, where these metals are found, how to detox them, detox supplements, protocols. Everything related to the toxins found in our modern environment, in the air, food, and water and what to do about it and the health issues that they are causing.

Wendy Myers: Today we have on the show Jaclyn Bowen. This is such a good show. We talk about does your protein powders have heavy metals and food toxicity in the future of food safety? We’re going to be talking about a lot of different categories of food. The findings that Jaclyn’s association, The Clean Label Project have found in baby foods, in CBD, in pet foods, in decaffeinated coffee, protein powders, and other food product categories so that you can make more informed and safer food choices.

Wendy Myers: Jaclyn and I talk about why foods are not labeled to be free of heavy metals? For the most part why the next level and future of food safety is food toxicity? Why cadmium is found in hemp protein powders and toxins found in the top selling brands of protein powders? It’s kind of shocking. We’ll also talk about toxic chemicals found in decaf coffee that millions of pregnant women are drinking, and people with heart conditions are drinking. We’ll talk about the horrifying toxins found in baby food, in baby formula that manufacturers are aware of yet still sell them to consumers and babies. We’ll talk about the CBD Wild West and the toxins like cadmium and inconsistencies found in CBD products. Not all of them, but some. And why a shocking number of CBD products contain THC which is the ingredient that causes you to have euphoria and feel high that is not on the label.

Wendy Myers: Some of these products have a lot of THC in them that you won’t know. And she tests the top brands, and we talk about the top brands tested so you can choose a safe product. And what to look for on those tests. Sometimes the tests that people have are deceiving on these company websites.

Wendy Myers: We’ll also talk about the sad state of food sold to pets that are contributing to the pet cancer epidemic. And a lot of the health issues that our furry friends have, and we discussed the cleanest source of pet foods and the most toxic class of pet foods as well. Really, really interesting show and we talk about what consumers should look for when they are evaluating foods and consumer products. This is such a good show. I’m so excited to introduce you guys to Jaclyn Bowen. She’s a food safety and quality systems engineer and executive director of The Clean Label Project. A national nonprofit and certification organization with the mission to bring truth and transparency to food and consumer product labeling.

Wendy Myers: Through data science and benchmarking, Clean Label Project uses retail sampling and testing to benchmark product quality and purity of America’s bestselling food and consumer products and award Clean Label Projects coveted evidence-based purity award.

Wendy Myers: Before coming to Clean Label Project, Jaclyn held numerous technical standards, development, food safety, quality and executive roles within the World Health Organization Collaborating Center, NSF International. Her expertise is in organic gluten free, non GMO labeling, food safety, and label claims as of substantiation and compliance.

Wendy Myers: Bowen and Clean Label Project have appeared on NBC, ABC, Fox News, CNN, The Doctors, and 450 plus print and online media outlets including USA Today and HuffPost. Bowen holds a bachelor’s of science in environmental biology, a master’s of science in quality engineering, and a master of public health in management and public policy. You can learn more about her work in heavy metal and chemical testing in many, many different food product categories at cleanlabelproject.org. Jaclyn, thank you so much for joining the show.

Jaclyn Bowen: Thank you so much for having me.

Wendy Myers: Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role in The Clean Label Project and what makes Clean Label Project certification different from other certifications for heavy metals?

Jaclyn Bowen: Sure. So first a little bit about me. So by training, I’m a food safety and quality systems engineer, which I always like to tell people it makes me a professional buzzkill at dinner parties. Right? It’s like if you need to kind of be talked out of eating or drinking anything, just give me a buzz. I will tell you those things. And so what we do at Clean Label Project is we’re a national nonprofit with the mission of bringing truth and transparency to consumer product labeling. We believe that sometimes what’s not on a label is what matters most. I mean, let’s be honest, like let’s go to a grocery store, show me one package that says this product is entirely, frankly it doesn’t taste very good. It’s overpriced. And listen, we had to make margins so we use the cheaper packaging that was lined with BPA so we could get that shelf life extension.

Jaclyn Bowen: Yeah, we get it that it’s kind of linked to endocrine disruption. But thank God we made our margins. And the packaging doesn’t say this stuff. And so for us at Clean Label Project in data and science we trust. So when it comes to our certification program, the way the certification program works is that we actually go into the marketplace. We purchase products the exact same way a consumer would. And the only difference is we take them to an analytical chemistry lab for testing. What we do with our certification program is we make sure that what consumers have in their pantries, refrigerators, and medicine cabinets maintains the same great standard. The way our program works is it’s based on benchmark data. And when I say benchmark data, it means we test entire industry’s worth.

Jaclyn Bowen: So if we’re talking about things like protein powder, we tested 121 of the top selling protein powders. And what we’re able to do is when you have all of those data points, you can confidently say this is the mean and median one, two, three standard deviations, as well as the statistical outliers. For Clean Label Project certification, you have to be in the top one third of your industry. In other words, make the honor roll.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. That just sounds like so much fun. I would love to be involved in something like that because one thing that’s always perplexed me, but not surprising, is that there’s no heavy metal labels or warnings on food. There is for supplements and that’s great.

Wendy Myers: But part of my concern is even on supplements, and I know this is meant to protect consumers, but even on supplements, a lot of products have a lead warning or a prop 65 warning that I feel like is more geared towards steering people away from natural solutions. And it is to protect them because let’s face it, almost all food has some small degree of lead in it. Beans have lead in it, natural products, natural foods grown in soil. The soil has lead contamination from gasoline emissions when we used to put lead in gasoline. Can you talk a little about that?

Jaclyn Bowen: Sure, absolutely. So the way I look at it is that consumers have a right to know what’s in the food and consumer products that we purchase. I mean it’s one where we don’t see things showing up on product packaging like E. coli free, salmonella free, listeria free, because we assume safety. Yeah, and the FDA does a good job when it comes to things that I refer to as traditional food safety.

Jaclyn Bowen: Like I said, different microbiological and pathogen contaminants. Things you hear about in food, salad mix recall, or burrito restaurants. But what’s interesting is that what we see play out in the media related to stories like levels of heavy metals and America’s best selling prenatal vitamins. Levels of glyphosate or Roundup in America’s best selling breakfast cereals. Levels of arsenic in America’s best selling bottled with waters. The kicker is that these products are largely compliant in the court of law, but in the court of public opinion, it’s a different story.

Jaclyn Bowen: What I see playing out is that we have a growing divide between the court of law and court of public opinion. Consumers are expecting better and social media and trans consumer demand for transparency is only accelerating this process. The challenges that we see is that consumers expect more than what the current regulatory fabric in America is able to deliver on. So right now you see where consumers are like, no, no, I get it. I don’t want heavy metals or I don’t want contaminants. But the federal food safety regulatory fabric in America has not yet delivered on that expectation. So yes, you currently see levels of heavy metals in America’s bestselling labeled in dietary supplements because of prop 65, but you largely do not see that. You’re right playing out on food.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. And so food is largely just left on touch as far as heavy metals are concerned. I mean, I’ve heard of some canned foods having high levels of lead and there’s a little bit of talk there. But not in the remainder of the large thousands and thousands of products that are on consumer shelves are largely left out of that conversation.

Jaclyn Bowen: That’s correct. And you had mentioned as well that whole thing about remanence from things like leaded gasoline and naturally occurring heavy metals and what things require labeling and stuff.

Jaclyn Bowen: And it’s interesting, I was literally just thinking about this other day as I was walking through the airport. Is it’s like we use these terms or we’ll say things like, “Oh, there’s heavy metals it’s naturally occurring in the earth crust.” But let’s be honest here that’s because of human causes, things like mining, fracking, industrial agriculture, these things end up in the air, they end up in the water, and they end up in the soil. And they end up in food unless brands proactively choose to think about food safety differently.

Jaclyn Bowen: If we know that consumers are concerned about heavy metals, about pesticide residues, about plasticizers, it’s a matter of brands proactively aligning with consumer expectation and formulating and sourcing ingredients accordingly.

Jaclyn Bowen: The thing that I always like to say as I was walking through the airport, it’s one where you’re seeing people because of the co-coronavirus or taking necessary precautions. Being much more diligent about washing your hands. You see people with face mask. Well, coronavirus is naturally occurring, but we’re doing our best to avoid it. Guess what? When it comes to things like heavy metals, pesticide residues, brands can proactively put checks and balances in place and to think about food safety differently and avoid these ingredients and these contaminants been showing up in the finished products. It’s just a matter of putting precautions in place.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. It is a sad that because of moderate industry and all these metals and chemicals are being released into our environment at unprecedented rates and they are present in our food, in our air and our water. And we have to be proactive about knowing where the highest levels are in foods and avoiding them or detoxing them from our body. So first let’s talk about testing. Because I love that organizations like yours are doing testing of our foods where consumers are aware of what they’re buying and can vote with their dollars and compel companies to remove these heavy metals and chemicals from their food. So what does The Clean Label Project test for when they’re testing categories of food products?

Jaclyn Bowen: Sure, no, that’s a great question. So when it comes to testing, what we test for varies depending on the product. So for example, if we’re talking about things like dietary supplements, we would test for heavy metals, pesticide residues, plasticizers, which would be things like BPA, BPS, and folates that have been linked to endocrine disruption in fertility.

Jaclyn Bowen: We also test for things like residual solvents that sometimes these different active ingredients are dissolved within solvents, but you don’t want the solvent present in the finished product. And on the other side, sometimes we will test for things like if you’re looking at different types of potato chips or breads and snacks. Another contaminant we would test for within that category is called acrylamide. Acrylamide as you may have heard of it. It’s a bio-accumulative neurotoxin that’s developed through a process of when you heat starches and sugars to a really high temperature. It’s formed by the Maillard reaction. It forms on bread when you see crust on potato chips, you see the dark brown. That happens through the acrylamide formation, and it tastes great, but it’s one where it’s increasingly concerning in both the state of California and especially in Europe.

Jaclyn Bowen: They already have some strict regulations when it comes to acrylamide. So for different types of fried foods obviously pulling acrylamide for different types of dairy products, you’re going to want to look for things like antibiotic residues or different types of hormones. So it kind of varies depending on the category that we’re looking at. One thing is absolutely true. We always use ISO accredited analytical chemistry laboratories. What ISO is, it’s the International Standards Organization. There’s a standard called 17025 that’s focused on international best practice to ensure the accuracy and reproducibility of test results. This is kind of seen as the gold standard with analytical chemistry testing.

Wendy Myers: Fantastic. Fantastic. I love it. And so it’s so sad that acrylamides they’re just so tasty. So sad that we need to remove them from our diet. Those are naturally occurring too though. Right? So let’s talk about food toxicity and how this really is the future of food safety. Of course we don’t want bacteria in our food and salmonella and things like that. There’s E. coli outbreaks, but how is the future of food really about food toxicity?

Jaclyn Bowen: The way I like to think of it as why food toxicity is the next kind of frontier and the next focus of food safety is that consumers are the new ultimate arbiters of trust and transparency. They’re going to determine what exactly is fit for purpose when it comes to feeding themselves and their family. It’s interesting that it wasn’t until the late 1980s that smoking was banned on airplanes.

Jaclyn Bowen: It wasn’t until the 80s when we saw the correlation between leaded gasoline and reduced IQ in children that all of a sudden it was one where we made changes to the use of the types of gasoline and use of catalytic converters. The thing that’s interesting is we see right now play out in mainstream media. We see different academic and regulatory studies focused on that.

Jaclyn Bowen: Things like BPA, BPS, folates are linked to endocrine disruption in fertility. We know that heavy metals are linked to cancer, but yet the food safety regulatory fabric in America has not yet caught up. So it’s almost one where what you see is that consumers are the ones that are willing and able to pull through industry reform. The speed in which we see innovation taking place is that regulatory, frankly, is going to end up having to play catch up. Consumer expectation is what’s going to drive change within industry. And right now we already know that consumers as well as leading experts like American Academy of pediatrics are saying that things like lead are really, really bad.

Jaclyn Bowen: When it comes to children, we know that the World Health Organization says that the first thousand days of life are critically important for long-term health and wellness. Well, the thing is when you look at America’s best selling infant formula, prenatal vitamins, and baby foods, lead is largely unregulated in the domestic food supply.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. It’s crazy. And then you also look at like manganese that’s really high in soy infant formulas that can damage the brain because the blood brain barrier doesn’t form until six months of age. Then you can look at arsenic, that’s really high. And rice cereals it’s fed to a lot of babies. And then you did testing on all the baby foods, which I love. And it was shocking the results. I actually, I’ve talked about it on Facebook live. On a Facebook live, I didn’t realize it was your organization that had done all this testing that was being reported on. But it’s really frightening the levels of metals that are in baby foods for major brands that are being fed to millions of children.

Jaclyn Bowen: It’s correct. I mean, and that’s one of the… For Clean Label Project the areas that we’d like to focus because you have these vulnerable populations and it’s one where if we know that what they are fed so early in life is such a predictor of future, their ability to thrive. We should focus on it more. Not to mention when we have different leading pediatricians talking about how harmful lead is. It’s about time, that it’s a matter of thinking of lead as part of the food safety process. It’s not just… One of the things I always like to use as an example is like when was the last time you heard someone say, “Oh my God, I should not have eaten that macaroni salad at yesterday afternoon’s potluck. I think I woke up with cancer.” Says nobody ever. Right?

Wendy Myers: Yeah.

Jaclyn Bowen: It’s almost like we think about food safety through the lens of am I getting an upset stomach? Do I have diarrhea or vomiting? But what we see that consumers are currently concerning themselves with is chronic disease. Things like infertility and cancers that aren’t going to have a chance to, they’re not going to produce themselves overnight. This is going to be 20 to 30 years of low level exposure that causes this kind of harm within the body. And you won’t know it until much farther down the road. So it’s a matter of thinking of food safety differently. It’s a matter of consumers telling industry that this is important. Industry can very quickly shift because obviously they want to meet consumer expectations. And regulatory it’s just a matter of time before they catch up with that.

Wendy Myers: I’m so happy that large companies like Kellogg’s are going to be working towards removing glyphosate from cereals because there has been such an outcry from the public about glyphosate in cereals, and it’s shocking the levels of glyphosate, which is an herbicide in some of these cereals that are being fed to children every single morning. Millions of children.

Jaclyn Bowen: Yes, you’re absolutely correct. I mean, it’s a real win frankly for public health. When you see brands proactively making these types of commitments. At the end of the day when it comes to glyphosate, you still have that glyphosate is technically legal, that these levels are technically from a federal regulatory perspective considered okay. But we know that consumers are concerned about it. What I always like to tell brands and tell consumers is that frankly, when it comes to federal law, think of that as table-space.

Jaclyn Bowen: That’s like the minimum expectation. Brands are proactively aligned with what consumers want. And if what consumers, whether we know they’re concerned about is glyphosate, will then give the people what they want. It’s like, just remove it from your ingredient supply. Make sure that the way that your farmers are going about sourcing is that this is not one of the different types of pesticides that they use. This is just one where it’s too much risk and frankly it’s too much risk for these brands to even consider sourcing from farmers that are using this highly concerning pesticides.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. This is one of the reasons why the organic segment or category of foods is the fastest growing segment in the grocery industry, and why a lot of larger companies are buying up these small organic foods companies. But what I think consumers don’t realize is they’re buying organic foods to be pesticide free, glyphosate free, but that doesn’t mean heavy metal free. Can you talk a little about that?

Jaclyn Bowen: Yes, you’re absolutely correct. So the thing that’s important is that through testing of hundreds, even thousands of food and consumer products across all different grocery store aisles. I can confidently say that the organic promise of less pesticides absolutely holds true. We consistently see that organic is far superior when it comes to pesticide residues compared to conventional products.

Jaclyn Bowen: But this whole issue of heavy metals in the food supply, this is a systemic food issue. It’s an organic issue. It’s a conventional food issue. It’s a cosmetic and dietary supplement issue. It’s across all different categories that ultimately what gets measured gets done. And if the federal government is part of the food safety regulations are not holding brands accountable for things like heavy metals, brands aren’t going to proactively care about it.

Jaclyn Bowen: And then what it means is that the onus is on consumers to proactively tell brands, no, no, this is what I want. This is what’s important for me and my family. And like you said, use your dollars to vote accordingly for the different food movements that resonate for you and are important for you and your family.

Wendy Myers: Yes, you have to vote with your dollars. Vote buying organic foods, brands that care about their buyers over profits. Because the bottom line is a lot of these companies can afford to do metals testing. They can afford to choose healthier packaging for their products. They can afford to do testing and they don’t do it. And of course they’re corporations. They have shareholders. They have to maximize profits. But for me it’s just so upsetting when I see these companies making billions of dollars and the little people, the millions of people in the US that maybe can’t afford healthy food, their children, their families are suffering from these chronic diseases that we see today. Diabetes, heart disease, diabesity, being overweight, high blood pressure that all have heavy metals is underlying root causes. So they’re the ones suffering. And so I just think it’s really criminal for so many of these companies to profit at the expense of people’s health.

Jaclyn Bowen: And to put it kind of in perspective, when we talk about heavy metals testing, sometimes when people hear like, “Oh, testing down to single digit parts per billion of heavy metals.” I always like to kind of put it in perspective of a heavy metal panel that’s going to be your total arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. It’s about $150.

Jaclyn Bowen: So this is one where we’re talking about this isn’t something that’s expensive. This is something that these multibillion dollars companies can absolutely afford, totally accessible. It shouldn’t take a little nonprofit to go out there and being, here folks, when you’re talking about the bestselling prenatal vitamins or infant formulas in America, we shouldn’t be the ones to have to raise the flag about this. This is one where brands can very easily go to an analytical chemistry lab and get a heavy metal panel done themselves.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, yeah. And so they might be doing it internally, but just not releasing that to the public.

Jaclyn Bowen: Exactly.

Wendy Myers: So what should consumers be looking for when they’re evaluating foods in consumer products?

Jaclyn Bowen: Absolutely. So one thing that I’ll always say of course is that Clean Label Project we have a certification program out there that we go out there. Brands basically enlist us to go into the marketplace, purchase their products and continue to test them to make sure they maintain their high standards.

Jaclyn Bowen: So obviously you can look for a Clean Label Project in the supplement space. We certify SmartyPants as well as Enzymedica at a few different CBD companies. Peachymama as well as the Real Time Pain Relief and Precision Botanical. We do this kind of work across a variety of other categories including food, baby food, pet food, protein powders. So obviously look for Clean Label Project. The other thing that we always tell consumers to be is be a conscious consumer that it’s so excited to be a consumer right now because we have things like social media. That if you have questions from brands, ask them and better yet ask them publicly because it’s one where if you post it on Facebook or Twitter, they’re going to be obligated to respond back to that publicly to everyone else that’s paying attention. What a better way to be able to ask them. Like, listen, I’m really concerned about what I just heard about levels of lead in prenatal vitamins, or levels of glyphosate in best-selling breakfast cereals. What are you guys doing? Do you test for glyphosate? If so, down to what levels?

Jaclyn Bowen: Put these brands on the spot. It’s such a great time to demand transparency as a consumer and it’s not just about brands, challenger retailers. Who’s your local retailer that you love? Do you use amazon.com are you using Amazon Fresh or using a local co-op or a national retailer? Ask them. Ask them what they’re doing to proactively screen these products. Screen these brands before they put these products on grocery store shelves.

Wendy Myers: Yes. That’s fantastic. Yeah, because some of these companies are paying for Facebook ads and there’s thousands of people commenting and reading these comments. I think that’s a great tip. And so you mentioned some of the categories that you’ve tested and I love that you tested pet food because that is an area where, I mean just all the garbage that humans don’t want to consume goes into these pet foods. And I think some of the practices in some of these foods are really just horrifying. What’s being fed to pets and then it’s big surprise. All these pets are getting cancers and health issues and seizures and are overweight. What’s going on there?

Jaclyn Bowen: Yes, absolutely. It’s such a great question. I know for me, I have a rescue basset hound at home. And so this is obviously a topic that’s so near and dear to my heart. So when it comes to pet food, the way I think about it and the reason why we investigated that particular category was because, I mean, think about it.

Jaclyn Bowen: 95% studies show that 95% of pet owners consider their pets part of the family. I know that I do. So it’s like when you see different kinds of claims out there about feeding them like family. And you just see the whole humanization of the pet food category, you can’t help but to wonder what’s actually in this stuff. So yes, we did an investigation into the top selling pet foods in America. We do certify a handful of different pet foods now, BIXBI Pet, Buckley, as well as I and Love and You, and Canisource.

Jaclyn Bowen: The thing that’s interesting when it comes to pet foods is a few things. Whenever I run into people at the airport or we talk about what I do, they’ll always ask like, “What should I feed my pet? What should I feed my pet?” And I put this into perspective. When it comes to us and you figure out what you had for breakfast today, what you had for lunch and dinner. We eat a very varied diet. When it comes to our pets, they’re eating the same thing at every meal, every day of their life for the most part, right? And so it’s a matter of whatever we give them, will affect in the long-term because they’re having those same inputs. The same heavy metals, those same pesticides at every single meal, every single day. One thing I will tell you holds true when we test a pet food. By far the cleanest pet food source is Turkey when it comes to the protein source.

Jaclyn Bowen: By far the most contaminated protein source when it comes to pet food is fish. Why? The thing is that when it comes to the marketing and what you see on product packaging showing up on grocery store shelves. You frequently see cows bounding through beautiful fields. You see these beautiful filets of salmon. Let’s be honest here folks, is that these beautiful filets of salmon that we see at the grocery store, those are the same ones that are showing up on grocery store shelves. Shelf stable being sold for $20 at the grocery store. No. What actually shows up in many pet foods, it’s called the rack. The rack includes the bones, the skin, the fat and all these different tissues that we would not have and we are not using human food. And guess where heavy metals bioaccumulate? In the skin, in the fat, in the tissue and in the bones. So it’s all of these highly concentrated heavy metals and all of those tissues that ultimately end up in the pet food. And frankly we see that in the test results.

Wendy Myers: That’s so disgusting. It’s so sad what’s fed to dogs. When I had my dogs, my little Jessebelle wizardly passed away last year unfortunately. But I had a rule, I would not feed them anything that I would not eat myself.

Wendy Myers: And so I cooked all of their own food and mostly Turkey also. But yet some of these foods, it’s just really gross.

Jaclyn Bowen: Absolutely.

Wendy Myers: And so let’s talk about protein powder. This is billions of dollars are spent on protein powder and some of these things are again really something I wouldn’t even feed to my dog. But people are taking these things thinking that they’re being healthy. What’s the deal with toxins in protein powder?

Jaclyn Bowen: Sure. So the whole rationale behind protein powder, when we ran that study, it was interesting because it was after the New Year, everyone has New Year’s resolutions, whether it’s slimmed down or bulk up. And so for us it was a matter of what’s actually in the stuff that so many people are putting in there or morning smoothies. So we actually use the amazon.com bestsellers list and we purchased the 121 best-selling protein powders.

Jaclyn Bowen: So what was I think a few things were really interesting that I found from that study. The first thing that I found that was most interesting was the fact that 55% of the bestselling protein powders had BPA contamination. So let’s talk about that for a second. So we’re talking about BPA. BPA stands for bisphenol A. Bisphenol A was largely removed from baby foods, infant formula, sippy cups, because BPA has been linked to endocrine disruption and infertility because it actually mimics estrogen in your system. So because of this, you see entire categories, industries that have exited from using any packaging that contains BPA. But the thing is BPA wasn’t just in packaging because it happened to be there. BPA had a very important purpose.

Jaclyn Bowen: BPA in lining actually extends the shelf life, so it’s able to sit on grocery store shelves for a longer period of time before breaking down. What we saw within protein powder was that 55% of the bestselling protein powders had that BPA migration. In other words, the packaging was likely used a BPA liner. What happened is it starts to break down. It then starts to seep into the protein powder. In the case of you think about protein powder users, these are people who are really focused on their health. They’re trying to eat better. They’re trying to do right. They’re using protein powder and drinking morning smoothies. I’m going to guess that most of these people who are drinking protein powders are not expecting that they’re going to get an endocrine disruptor in their morning smoothies. So that would be the first thing that I found most interesting.

Jaclyn Bowen: The second thing that I found that was interesting is by far the cleanest protein sources when it comes to the flavors was vanilla. And it was interesting because you look at it so many people drink either vanilla or chocolate. What’s fascinating is that cadmium, which is a heavy meta,l which doesn’t get enough credit in terms of credit by being bad, because you always talk about lead is that cadmium is also really bad and a very potent heavy metal. Cadmium has a tendency to show up in chocolate. The chocolate plant just happens to suck up high levels of cadmium from the soil. In fact, there was a really great investigation that was done by an amazing organization called As You Sow that looked at the whole kind of confectionary industry several years ago and looked at the levels of cadmium in chocolate and it was a rampant issue.

Jaclyn Bowen: So what you see is that the largely kind of the candy space and the chocolate space has cleaned up their cadmium levels but what you still see are these high levels of cadmium cropping up in some of these under other industries, protein powder being one of them.

Jaclyn Bowen: The third thing that I found within the protein powder industry that was really interesting was the source of those proteins. By far the cleanest protein source was a whey based protein. The most contaminated was plant. And I know that’s really kind of upsetting, especially to all the vegetarians like myself out there but you want to find a clean plant based protein source. What we did see is that pea based protein powders happened to be the cleanest within plants. But let’s talk about what I mean why, at least my supposition about why whey based proteins happen to be the cleanest. Fortunately and unfortunately we have things like our liver and kidneys, which their whole function is to remove these toxins.

Jaclyn Bowen: Well, when you’re using a whey based protein, the cow is having a lot of these toxins removed as well. It’s going through this filtration process. When you talk about plant based protein sources, those plants have no choice but to suck up whatever happens to be in the soil. And just like you mentioned, because of things that we have from a societal perspective, because we have accepted things like mining, fracking, industrial agriculture, whatever is in that soil is going to end up in the plant without any other means of filtration or without any screening. Those heavy metals will ultimately end up in the protein powder.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, and then you’re going to be the filter essentially.

Jaclyn Bowen: That’s exactly correct.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. Just a thought occurred to me and hemp plants are very good at absorbing cadmium from the soil. So I imagine I haven’t looked at the results yet, I want to, but I imagine that hemp protein could potentially be high in cadmium. Not only that, but plant proteins don’t absorb that well even though there’s amino acids on the label, they actually have a pretty poor absorption rate.

Wendy Myers: So it’s always better to go with a whey protein or an animal protein based protein powder in my opinion.

Jaclyn Bowen: Yes. And we can absolutely, we can have so many conversations about CBD products as a whole, but you’re absolutely correct. Hemp is actually considered a bio remediater, which means that if there is a lot of contamination in the soil, different industries will actually plant hemp plants to be able to suck that bad stuff up. So if you think of it, it’s like because the plant is just inherently really good at sucking it up. To your point, you can only assume that these hemp plants are obviously going to have higher levels of these heavy metals.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. And I just bought some CBD oil and that was a company I was trying to look for it a second ago. It’s Green Valley or Green Acres or something like that.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, I don’t think it’s the name. But they do pesticide testing. They test for 130 different contaminants for their CBD. I thought that I was really impressed by that. Like you said, CBD can, is a largely unregulated industry and I think there’s a lot of issues with labeling with contaminants. What’s going on with CBD because there are so many products on the market. There’s CBD face oils, and tinctures and pills and it’s a lot of different consumer products. It’s in honey. What’s going on with CBD?

Jaclyn Bowen: Yes. Such a great question. I’m glad that you asked. So Clean Label Project actually did an investigation into the true contents of America’s bestselling CBD products. We actually tested 202 of the top selling CBD products.

Jaclyn Bowen: I was fortunate to be able to provide public testimony at the FDA hearing back in May of 2019 about Clean Label Project’s findings. I would say there’s three major takeaways that I had from that investigation.

Jaclyn Bowen: So first, before I jump into those, the whole impetus for us looking at that category to your point, was the fact that you see this significant growth of the category, not to mention their premium price. These things don’t come cheap, right? You’re talking about isolates that hover around $60 for a vile. And so for us, it was a matter of you see this growth of the industry, it’s highly unregulated, it’s premium priced. Obviously it’s perfect fodder that if somebody is going to go and take advantage of the industry, take advantage of these consumers that are, again, trying to find an alternative means for things like anxiety relief or pain relief.

Jaclyn Bowen: They’re  trying to find other options other than pharmaceutical drugs of course. So when we tested these products, three major things came through. The first major thing that I found especially concerning was the levels of THC. So there’s a big difference between you have CBD and then you have THC, which is the active ingredient in marijuana that gets you high. CBD does not get you high. But what’s interesting is that you see a lot of these THC free claims. But what you also see hitting mainstream media is so many consumers that are testing positive for a drug screens for THC. How can this be possible?

Jaclyn Bowen: Well, what I can tell you is by testing those top selling CBD products in America, 45% of them had at least trace levels of THC. What does this mean? Well, there’s different people that are reaching for CBD for different purposes and obviously one of the things that people aren’t looking for is they’re not looking to fail drug screens as well as have any of those other effects that go along with THC.

Jaclyn Bowen: One of the things that was especially concerning is that a handful of these products actually exceeded the levels of THC that are permitted within marijuana. So let me rephrase that. You have recreational marijuana laws and those are very, very tight, very stringent. But because CBD does not have strict regulation yet, you actually see some CBD products that have more THC than is allowed and recreational marijuana.

Wendy Myers: Oh wow.

Jaclyn Bowen: So in these cases, when you see consumers that are testing positive and drug screens, frankly, I look at it as like, I’m not surprised.

Wendy Myers: Maybe that’s why they’re so popular.

Jaclyn Bowen: Exactly. That’s a good point too. My gosh. The second thing that I found that was probably the one that I found most frustrating, especially as Clean Label Project, is a consumer advocacy organization is one where we tested the true contents of CBD products. So in other words, people are buying CBD because they expect that they’re going to be buying CBD. Right?

Jaclyn Bowen: What was interesting here is that we found that 70% of the top selling CBD products it’s actual potency was off by at least 10%. So let me reframe that. So what that means is if the product claim to have 100 milligrams of CBD, it means that 70% of the time the actual CBD content was 110 or more or 90 and below. More importantly and more concerning was that 7% of the top selling CBD products didn’t have a lick of CBD in it at all. And so what this means is this could be either blatant economic adulteration, in other words, complete fraud on consumers. Or this could mean that a QA or QC process is not rigorous enough that that product, that CBD is not kept suspended within the solution and therefore could adhere to the sides of the container or it was not mixed enough.

Jaclyn Bowen: It was not a homogenized sample that when they were actually putting it into the different biles that they had inconsistent levels of CBD. The other thing that I found that was very concerning was that on the other end, you have a handful of products that we actually had showed seven times the level of CBD that it declared on the label. Think of it this way, you may have a headache, want to take some ibuprofen, you may take a pill, it’s like, listen, it may have 200 milligrams, like it says on the package, or it could have 1400. It makes a big difference. And especially makes it different and difficult because you have so many consumers that are trying CBD for the first time. They don’t know the dose that’s the right fit for them.

Jaclyn Bowen: So the thing is, it’s like for the industry, it’s one where getting it right, getting the potency right and consistent is good to ensure the long-term buy-in of consumers. They want to make sure that it works and they want to make sure that it works and has the same effect every single time.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, it really is the Wild West in the CBD and the hemp. What’s hemp compared to CBD? And there’s full spectrum CBD that’s supposed to have THC. And I have a couple of podcasts on this but am I’m going to do another one that’s really a deep dive in all these differences and dosage and what to do and what to expect and not to expect. But I bought some because I have back pain regularly. And I wanted to buy some to help with that. But I looked up the company, it was Green Compass is the product they test for 130 different contaminants. I’m not affiliated with them. I don’t sell them at all. I don’t do MLMs. But yeah, so I just want to mention that.

Jaclyn Bowen: Well, one thing I would say that I always kind of caution, well, it kind of gives you two points on that front. Well, one thing that I love about the CBD industry is how much they have embraced transparency. You frequently see different things like QR codes that you can use your phone, go back to the website, see their test results. It allows you to kind of pop the hood and kick the tires, so to speak, which I love. The thing that I would say where some brands in the industry fall short is that I’m used to reading analytical chemistry, test reports, statistics, levels of detection, levels of quantification. What I see in some test reports is they’ll have a whole list of all the different contaminants that they test for, but then next to it, it’ll say these words, LOD or LOQ, and that means level of detection or level of quantification.

Jaclyn Bowen: The thing is in today’s modern day analytical chemistry, there is no reason why a brand should not be able to test down to parts per billion. Parts per billion. What you frequently see is that brands will only test down to parts per million. And when you test onto a part per million, what this means is that these levels of heavy metals, in some cases, for example, lead in drinking water. The maximum you can have in drinking water is 15 parts per billion.

Jaclyn Bowen: So in some cases you would see non-detect being reported on some of these test reports because they have artificially elevated LOD and LOQ. What happens when you see all those non detects, if you’re not using state-of-the-art science, it gives brands as well as consumers, a false sense of comfort and security. So what you want to do in those cases, if you see that type of thing, grill that brand harder, tell them that frankly, you can do better. State-Of-The-Art analytical chemistry can confidently give results down to single digit parts per billion, and they should embrace that best practice.

Wendy Myers: Fantastic. That’s so good to know. I know there’s a lot of people spending a lot of money on CBD. So you have to be a savvy consumer with us. And so let’s talk about baby food. We mentioned that earlier. Can you tell us about your experience with testing all the number one selling brands of baby food and what you found?

Jaclyn Bowen: Yeah, so I mean, think about it. Like I mentioned before, the World Health Organization talks about how the first thousand days of life are critically important, not to mention it’s one when you think about things like heavy metals and plasticizers. When it comes to babies during those first kind of critical few years, it’s when brain development, immune system development is first established.

Jaclyn Bowen: So the thing that was interesting is when we look at things like baby food, it’s interesting because we definitely saw that certified organic rang true when it comes to having less pesticides. We still have the presence of some heavy metals, but what’s interesting is when Clean Label Project, when we go about doing our studies, it’s interesting because we use benchmark testing. So we’ll use it, for example, the case of infant formula, which is one that’s near and dear to my heart. We actually published a peer reviewed study on our findings on infant formula, as well as baby food.

Jaclyn Bowen: In the case of infant formula, we tested 91 infant formulas. And obviously we tested them for the whole heavy metals plasticizers residual solvent, antibiotic residues, all of that kind of stuff. And the one that I always liked to use as an example is actually lead. So when it comes to lead, we were talking about how lead is dangerous. But what’s more interesting is that you have the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the FDA, the CDC, the EPA, all saying that there’s no safe level of lead. In fact, when it comes to children, any lead exposure contribute to an increase in hyperactivity and a decrease in IQ. So when we tested infant formula, I mean, think about it. This is the most vulnerable period of development. It’s the exclusive form of nourishment for so many children.

Jaclyn Bowen: And when it comes to infant formula, you have the formula and then you have the water. So it’s the cumulative effect of both. And obviously we know that there’s been different heavy metal in water issues in the US. So we tested the heavy metals for infant formula.

Jaclyn Bowen: And one of the things that helped restore my faith in humanity is that the meat and median for lead was non-detect down to four parts per billion, which is great. The thing that was most concerning was that we actually found two infant formulas that exceeded 30 parts per billion of blood. But let me put that number into perspective for you. The level of lead that EPA considers that’s a level of concern in drinking water is five parts per billion. The level of lead that is the maximum allowed under the EPA before fed take action is 15 parts per billion.

Jaclyn Bowen: The levels of lead that was observed during the Flint, Michigan drinking water crisis was 27 parts per billion. Here you have two infant formulas, best-selling infant formulas in America that exceed the levels of lead that found in Flint, Michigan. The thing that was most concerning, most frustrating is that Clean Label Project was able to work to get those products recalled in the state of California under prop 65. The travesty lies in the fact that those products are legally for sale and the other 49 states today.

Wendy Myers: Oh, wow. Yeah. It’s just insanity to me because these companies they have to know that there’s lead in their products and they’re still selling them in the other states.

Jaclyn Bowen: Well, the thing that’s also so frustrating to me when it comes to things like when you have benchmark testing. The way that I look at it as with benchmark testing that’s so interesting. So maybe I’ll talk about that for a minute. When you think of benchmarking, think of it as if you take your son or daughter to the pediatrician for their one year checkup, and they’re like, “We’re going to get the weight, we’re going to get the height or get their head circumference, make sure everything’s on track.”

Jaclyn Bowen: Well, let’s say they came back and be like, “Okay, we did the height and weight and the height is 18 inches.” “Great. Well, is that good? Is that bad?” “It’s just 18.” It kind of makes you… It’s much more impactful when you put it into context. Well, when it comes to the head circumference of a 12 month old female and our heads circumference is 17 inches, she is completely average.

Jaclyn Bowen: She’s on track with being consistent with what CDC season average babies her age are. Or it could be one where her high comes back. “It looks like you’ve got a basketball player in the making.” All of that contacts helps you put into perspective how a product looks. So the thing is when it comes to things like lead or heavy metals, or just benchmark testing in general, what it tells you is that, okay, 50% of the bestselling baby foods in America were able to hit non-detect down to four parts per billion.

Jaclyn Bowen: You’re way over here above 30, like you had to almost work really hard to find a supply chain that was that contaminated because the majority of the industry has been able to do this. And the thing is, I always like to tell brands is that as a society, we have accepted mining, fracking, industrial agriculture that contribute to this.

Jaclyn Bowen: But the thing is, is that through benchmark testing, it allows you to say here’s what the actual supply chain, the global supply chain has been able to yield. Here’s what is technically feasible. So when you see that these certain brands are statistical outliers, it means that no, no, they can absolutely, and based on data, do better than they are.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. They’re just finally the absolute cheapest ingredients to make the biggest profit margins.

Jaclyn Bowen: You got it.

Wendy Myers: Yeah.

Jaclyn Bowen: That’s correct.

Wendy Myers: And so what are some other food categories that you tested out the Clean Label Project?

Jaclyn Bowen: Yes. And so one of the other ones most recently that was really exciting, just reported on this one last week is we actually tested decaffeinated coffee. And so I’ll talk about that. So decaffeinated coffee actually there’s been studies done on who drinks decaffeinated coffee. Majority of the time people drink decaffeinated coffee are pregnant women or people with heart disease.

Jaclyn Bowen: And just in the fall of last year, the EPA banned a chemical called methylene chloride from paint strippers. So it’s the active ingredient with the paint strippers. It was banned because it was linked to different types of asphyxia, different types of brain disorders, and things like that. It was just too high risk of a chemical.

Jaclyn Bowen: The kicker is, is that this particular chemical methylene chloride is currently still allowed by the FDA to be used in the decaffeination process of coffee. So we went out there and were like, okay, so the active ingredient in paint strippers no longer allowed to be used in paint stripper, but you can use it to make coffee that sensitive populations are going to drink. So what we did is we went out, we used the amazon.com Best Sellers list to identify the 25 top selling decaffeinated coffees.

Jaclyn Bowen: And it was crazy. We found obviously a lot of non-detects, but we actually found a lot of detection of this chemical showing up in decaffeinated coffees. So for us, it’s one where what I can tell you is that certified organic, none of the certified organic products that we tested had this chemical. Another process called water processing also did not have this particular chemical. You can obviously check out on our website, cleanlabelproject.org. Look under category summaries under decaf coffee. You can read more about it their. Parent Magazine covered it as well. Basically the thing is here is like, listen, especially when you’re a pregnant woman, you have heart disease. You’re trying to do better by your baby. People with heart disease are trying to do better by their health. The caffeine isn’t good and so they reach for decaf coffee as an alternative. The thing is that FDA hasn’t re-evaluated the use of methylene chloride in coffee for 35 years.

Jaclyn Bowen: And knowing that there’s other ways to decaffeinate coffee brands can frankly do better. So consumers make sure to check out the list, make sure that for brands that may be your favorites that are using it, reach out to those brands, tell them to do better or switch to brands that have already made the jump using other methods in order to decaffeinate, without the active ingredient, paint stripper of all things.

Wendy Myers: Oh my God. It’s just crazy. You have to do the water method of decaffeination in your coffee. Yeah. And one thing I’ve always been curious about is levels of cadmium in coffee, because coffee is another one of those plants or trees that absorb cadmium from the soil. And that’s one of the things that gives it a little kick. It’s not just the caffeine, it’s the cadmium a little stimulating.

Jaclyn Bowen: How interesting. I didn’t know that. I’m going to have to research that for now.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. I’ve searched on the internet for information. There’s not that much info on it, but I’ve always wondered about the different brands and the levels of cadmium. Of course, that’s determined by the levels of cadmium in the soils, but I think that’d be really interesting as well. So what are some future projects that you have on the roster for testing different food categories, product categories for testing at Clean Label Project?

Jaclyn Bowen: Yes. So some fun ones that we have coming up, definitely looking at things more in the supplement space, collagen, as well as things that are like household cleaners. Little kid prenatal, little kid vitamins, things like that will be fun as well as getting a refresh on a couple of our categories around things like pet food and baby food and things like that.

Wendy Myers: Fantastic. That’ll be great because the collagen supplements, I mean those-

Jaclyn Bowen: It’s a huge range, right?

Wendy Myers: Those can be a really horrifying category. I’m sure some of the test results will show because a lot of these collagen products are made from the CAFO cows and the glyphosate will accumulate in the gelatin and the bones and all these things that are cooked down to extract the collagen. I presume there’ll be a high glyphosate and pesticide residues and hormones and things like that in a lot of the major brands.

Jaclyn Bowen: Definitely we will keep you posted for sure Wendy.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. So tell us where we can learn more about the work at Clean Label Project and future testing on different food categories.

Jaclyn Bowen: Yes. Check us out at cleanlabelproject.org. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram as well. We’re just a little nonprofit, but our whole mission is to change the definition of food and consumer product safety in America. So help us join that revolution.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. A little nonprofit, but making a huge, huge impact. And I love that you’re doing this because I’m like, why isn’t anyone testing for heavy metals and certifying them? I just didn’t understand. I found you and got so excited!

Jaclyn Bowen: No for sure and let’s make sure, let’s stay in contact because we work with a lot of really great NGOs that are kind of trying to change that definition of food safety. And I love working with other like-minded kind of pioneers in this space for sure.

Wendy Myers: Fantastic.

Jaclyn Bowen: Thank you for what you do.

Wendy Myers: Well, Jaclyn, thanks for coming on the show and everyone, thank you so much for tuning into The Myers Detox podcast, where every week we touch on different topics related to heavy metal, and chemical toxicity, detoxification protocols, and supplements and natural health, alternative health, et cetera. So that you can live your best life and get your life back with detox. So thanks for tuning in I’m Wendy Myers, you can go to my website at myersdetox.com, where we have hundreds of podcasts and hundreds of free articles to help you live your best life. Thanks for tuning in. I’ll talk to you next week.