found them incompatible with mercury removal, where more custom chelates are typically used.16
There are many foods that naturally have some limited chelation properties. Cilantro,17 chlorella,18 and lemons19 have all been identified as agents with some effectiveness for reducing heavy metal toxicity, while foods like garlic20 can reduce levels of oxidative stress. It has also been found that citrate, cysteine, glutamate, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), and yeast extract (particularly effective against copper toxicity) bind and remove certain metals.21 (Although it must be noted that yeast extract is a common form of MSG, an excitotoxin with its own health concerns.)
In research conducted in 2010, Taiwan researchers found that lemon and orange peel could aid in the removal of heavy metal ions, particularly copper and nickel, which highlights the importance of consuming fruits and vegetables daily, as their benefits are extraordinary. Activated carbon (charcoal) is also very effective at neutralizing and removing metal toxins.22
Lack of exercise and sweating causes heavy metals to accumulate over time
The body’s mechanisms for excretion also play an important role in detoxification; in studies, sweating in particular has been shown to remove heavy metals in vastly higher quantities than are expelled through urination. Endurance exercises and use of infrared saunas have been successfully used to sweat out toxins, in many cases surpassing the level of toxins removed through urination.23,24
The fact that more and more Americans pursue sedentary lifestyles lacking almost all vigorous exercise—and therefore lacking sweating—helps explain why metals so rapidly accumulate in the bodies of the obese. A 2014 study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings and conducted at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health found that obese Americans spend less than one minute per day engaged in vigorous exercise.
Yes, that’s one minute per day. The study found that obese women were far worse off than men, engaging in less than one hour of vigorous exercise per year.25 With that near-zero level of exercise and sweat excretion of heavy metals, it’s only a matter of time before the accumulation of heavy metals reaches a crisis point in the body, contributing to dysfunction and symptoms that are often diagnosed as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, or Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Modern humans are, in a very real sense, walking time bombs of toxic metals and chemicals, all accumulated through the routine consumption of contaminated foods, personal care products, and environmental exposure. It is irrational to expect that a nation can protect the health of its people—or even control its health care costs—unless this trend is sharply reversed by cleaning up the food supply and reducing heavy metals in personal care products and dietary supplements.
The FDA, in other words, should be doing exactly what I’m doing here. A nationwide effort needs to be undertaken to test all the popular foods and other items that might contain toxic metals such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. Reasonable concentration limits need to be standardized at the national level, and the diligent efforts of people like myself and others who are attempting to lift the veil on food industry contamination should be celebrated, not vilified.
There aren’t many of us who genuinely care about the quality of food our fellow Americans are routinely swallowing. We, the few who dare to spend our time, money, and effort examining the food contamination that’s contributing to the disease epidemics now devastating our world, are the pioneers of the clean food movement. Through tools of modern science, we effectively give consumers a kind of X-ray vision into what they’re eating, drinking, and putting on their skin. It is precisely this clarity that the food industry fears, because the more closely people are allowed to look at what they’re really eating, the more persistently they may begin to ask the really important questions like, “Hey, why isn’t anybody testing these protein powders for lead?”
HEAVY METALS: INTERNATIONAL LIMITS CHART
a Environmental Protection Agency
b Food and Drug Administration
c U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention
d World Health Organization
e Food and Agriculture Organization
f European Union
g California Proposition 65
h European Food Safety Authority
i The Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain
ATOMIC NUMBER: 33
GROUP 15: NITROGEN AND PHOSPHOROUS
The very mention of the element arsenic evokes thoughts of its notorious role as a poison in the commission of murder, often incited by passion, jealousy, or the quest for power. This use, long captured in literature and the infamous crimes of centuries past, continues today.
Yet in modern times, the broader impact of arsenic as a chronic, cumulative contaminate in water, food, and the air eclipses the significance of acute, deliberate poisoning. Arsenic does not always kill so quickly. It is a known carcinogen that has been linked to tumors formed in the skin, lungs, bladder, kidneys, and digestive tract26 as well as the lymphatic and hematopoietic systems27 in both humans and animals. Arsenic’s numerous detrimental health effects have been well documented to include diabetes, heart disease, cardiovascular issues, respiratory distress, impaired neurological development, and even depression. Arsenic toxicity has also been linked to increased infant mortality and early developmental issues.
Notably, arsenic comes in two forms: organic and inorganic. Defined by their bonds with carbon and hydrogen, the organic forms of arsenic are largely considered harmless. The inorganic forms of arsenic widely used in industrial applications, which are typically bound to elements such as oxygen, sulfur, or chloride, are the varieties associated with arsenic’s poisonous and carcinogenic effects. Common inorganic forms of arsenic include arsenic trioxide (a common industrial by-product also used in some medical treatments), chromate copper arsenate (widely used as a wood preservative that also acts as an insecticide), and pesticides. Lead arsenate, calcium arsenate, “Paris Green” (copper acetoarsenite), and sodium arsenate are all pesticides derived from inorganic arsenic.
Arsenic in drinking water
The tainting of well-water supplies across the globe with arsenic trioxide is a mounting catastrophic problem affecting more than 137 million people who have been exposed to levels exceeding 10 ppb in drinking water, the standard set by both the United Nations WHO and the EPA. A geological study conducted by Peter Ravenscroft at the University of Cambridge further discovered that some 57 million people are drinking water at peak contamination rates of more than 50 ppb—putting them at a serious risk for cancer and other health effects.28
This problem with arsenic contamination in water is most concentrated in Bangladesh and the neighboring Indian state of West Bengal,
