And one day you'll care how other people feel inside

[sovay]

I suppose I got about an hour this evening between receiving the all-clear from my new neurologist on the consumption of chocolate and discovering the recent report on lead and cadmium in dark chocolate, which was extremely upsetting. I had spent part of this weekend with my mother rolling our traditional fudge for Christmas. I was able to reassure her that the baker's chocolate she uses for the recipe rated safely in the expert study, but I continue to feel that chocolate is not supposed to contain heavy metals. It's difficult enough when it's full of shredded coconut or nuts. Actually it upsets me viscerally when food is not safe, the way that feels like cheating or cruelty; it is one of the things that should not happen. It's being a rough week and nothing feels safe and you should be able to treat people without poisoning them.

Comments

[aurumcalendula]

Ugh. I'd missed seeing that - thank you for posting about it.

*hugs*

[sovay]

Ugh. I'd missed seeing that - thank you for posting about it.

You're welcome. I'm really sorry!

*hugs*

[kathmandu]

Indeed it is one of the things that should not happen; that's why we have an FDA. My condolences on the turn it gave you.

I'm glad too, to see that Baker's chocolate tested well.

[sovay]

I'm glad too, to see that Baker's chocolate tested well.

Yes. I just don't like the news of the ones that didn't.

[castiron]

Sigh, while I needed incentive to stop eating so much of one of my favorites, finding it in the red zone for lead is a depressing way to do it.

[sovay]

Sigh, while I needed incentive to stop eating so much of one of my favorites, finding it in the red zone for lead is a depressing way to do it.

I'm so sorry.

[selkie]

It is a sunny spot to know that the Extremely Fudgy Fudge still exists in the world, but oh my God, there’s no need to carpetbomb every little thing back to the 1920s, guys.

[gwynnega]

That is very disturbing.

[thistleingrey]

That's a useful link, unfortunately. Mostly I eat a type that isn't amongst their tested products, which ... doesn't actually help because now I'm curious. :)

[sovay]

It is a sunny spot to know that the Extremely Fudgy Fudge still exists in the world, but oh my God, there’s no need to carpetbomb every little thing back to the 1920s, guys.

The Poison Squad didn't Mithridates it up with Dr. Wiley for this!

[sovay]

That is very disturbing.

I'm really not happy about it.

[sovay]

That's a useful link, unfortunately. Mostly I eat a type that isn't amongst their tested products, which ... doesn't actually help because now I'm curious.

Our local chocolatier who makes their own chocolate wasn't tested, either, and now I feel like we should ask them.

[goss]

Thank you for sharing this article!

I had no idea cadmium levels in cocoa could originate from the soil itself. Or that high levels of heavy metals were even found in popular brands. O_O

Will pass the article on and discuss with my relatives who grow their own cocoa and make artisan chocolates.

[phi]

If it helps any, that study used the California Prop 65 limits for determining a safe threshold. Prop 65 is problematic for many reasons, but take lead as an example. The lead limit is 0.5 micrograms/day according to CA. As a comparison, the federal EPA standard for drinking water is 15 parts per billion (or 15 micrograms per liter). In Cambridge our water leaves the reservoirs at 5 ppb (5 micrograms/liter) and could potentially pick up more lead depending on the type of pipes and solder joints it passes through in the way to the tap. That's more than 18 times the prop 65 limit if you drink the recommended 8 glasses of water a day. And yet, my child who guzzles tap water all day (I don't know how much exactly, I don't meter it, but definitely somewhere less the adult recommendation of 64 ozs and more than the 4oz he'd be capped at if we followed the CA guidelines), has never had detectable amounts of lead show up in any of his annual lead screening tests.

In other words, that article was the kind of scaremongery clickbait that I am determined is its own form of terrorism, to keep the populace so frightened and broken down by all the everything that we have no spoons left for collective action on things we _can_ fix.

[rushthatspeaks]

I realize anecdotes are not data, but I had multiple years of eating massive quantities of extremely dark chocolate for hormonal reasons-- at its worst five or six bars a day during my period, and just not eating other food-- including bars from the brands they find worst. I got my heavy metal levels tested back when I first got nastily anemic, as part of the diagnosis process, and I have no issues at all. I'm glad to be aware of the possibility, but I don't think you should let it keep you from having chocolate, especially in the quantities I've seen you have it.

That said, I'm sorry the news came right when you'd just been okayed for chocolate after a long while, which must have felt like a nasty rugpull. And I'm sorry the chocolate industry hasn't mentioned the problem more widely to people, especially since companies like Tazo have procedures to minimize it, which means that it's not that the industry just doesn't know.

[umadoshi]

This isn't even the first thing to make me despair about the world today, and yet. *gestures weakly* Why. WTF, world.

[asakiyume]

Wow, that's absolutely fascinating about the lead and cadmium in chocolate. So often I think of contamination as happening later in the game--and yet with cadmium, it happens while the plant is growing (the lead is more like what I usually think of as contamination--picking up contaminants after harvesting or during processing).

I was curious about cacao's absorption of cadmium from the soil. Apparently this is a problem for other food plants, too: you can have land that's technically not contaminated by cadmium, but certain plants will still pull enough cadmium out of it to end up cadmium heavy--durum wheat, flax, sunflowers, and potatoes, for example (source). Continuing to geek out, I found that some plants are hyperconcentrators of cadmium--so theoretically you could use them to clean out the cadmium (can't find the article I initially saw on this, but here's one. Arundo donax is apparently a giant reed). I also found out that some tropical soils--Caribbean and South American--are "young" soils and therefore (don't understand the "therefore"-ness of it, but okay) have more cadmium. "Old" soils, such as you get in West Africa, have less cadmium (source). (Here I'm talking about naturally occurring cadmium, not about contamination with cadmium, which of course also happens.

But all that geeking is pretty heartless in the face of what you're saying, and you're right: we should be able to treat people without poisoning them. Our small pleasures should not create harm. I hope, now that you do have the all-clear, that you will enjoy some of the not-as-dangerous chocolate mentioned in the article.

[asakiyume]

Another reason to love Tazo, which I do.

[asakiyume]

Thank you for this information! I agree that scaremongering is extremely disabling -_-

[asakiyume]

How very cool that you have relatives who grow their own!

[minoanmiss]

Thank you so much for this information and I totally hear you on the betrayal when sustenance is suspect.

[moon_custafer]

*gif of Steve Rogers saying "I understood that reference."*

[cafenowhere]

I had not heard this news, which I agree is quite distressing. But it will help me to be mindful of how much chocolate I consume over the holidays--I should limit my intake anyway, for other health reasons. Thanks for posting about it.

[sovay]

In other words, that article was the kind of scaremongery clickbait that I am determined is its own form of terrorism, to keep the populace so frightened and broken down by all the everything that we have no spoons left for collective action on things we _can_ fix.

I don't traditionally think of Consumer Reports as scaremongering as opposed to providing information on which vacuum cleaner really sucks, so that is especially obnoxious. Thank you for the numbers.

[edit] What are the problems with Proposition 65?

[sovay]

Will pass the article on and discuss with my relatives who grow their own cocoa and make artisan chocolates.

I think it is very cool that your relatives grow their own cacao. phi has thoughts on the study that produced the article below.

[choco_frosh]

< hugs >

[sovay]

I got my heavy metal levels tested back when I first got nastily anemic, as part of the diagnosis process, and I have no issues at all. I'm glad to be aware of the possibility, but I don't think you should let it keep you from having chocolate, especially in the quantities I've seen you have it.

I appreciate the anecdata. I am also very glad to hear that you have no heavy metal issues. It's the sort of thing I worry about generally just because we all lived through the era of leaded gasoline and sign agreements when we move that we can't prove anything about the walls.

That said, I'm sorry the news came right when you'd just been okayed for chocolate after a long while, which must have felt like a nasty rugpull.

Thank you, love. I was in fact explicitly looking forward to eating some of the fudge I had rolled, which I have not been able to do for the last three sets of holidays, and then like four different people I know linked the consumer report and it just felt like more evidence of the futility of the world. I might well have been a lot less upset had it been a fact about chocolate that I had known since 2014 when it looks as though the first studies were done on this issue in Brazil and the EU made plans to regulate it; I have known about mercury in fish since childhood. Being told that mitigation strategies already exist, even if not as effective as ideal, is better than being made to feel that nobody cares so long as the stuff sells.

[sovay]

This isn't even the first thing to make me despair about the world today, and yet.

I am sorry. phi has thoughts on the metrics, above.

[sovay]

< hugs >

*hugs*

[sovay]

But all that geeking is pretty heartless in the face of what you're saying, and you're right: we should be able to treat people without poisoning them.

It's not heartless: my first thought when I read about the absorption of cadmium by cacao was that I am familiar with this mechanism in arsenic, whence being careful that your rice hasn't soaked it up. If you don't know information, it can still be interesting even if it's upsetting. I like the idea of plants that are cadmium extractors. If the reeds will grow in the same soils as cacao trees, I like to think someone is already looking into the possibilities.

I don't like that I found out in this red-alert fashion rather than discovering years ago that heavy metals were a known issue in chocolate production. I wouldn't have liked the news then, but it wouldn't have felt like something that flew under the radar for years or was withheld.

Our small pleasures should not create harm. I hope, now that you do have the all-clear, that you will enjoy some of the not-as-dangerous chocolate mentioned in the article.

Thank you. phi's numbers check also helps.

[sovay]

Thank you so much for this information and I totally hear you on the betrayal when sustenance is suspect.

*hugs*

You're welcome. phi has further information, above.

[sovay]

Thanks for posting about it.

You're welcome, although I am sorry for the distress. phi has additional thoughts on the study, above.

[nineweaving]

What a betrayal! I do hope that you will allow yourself a morsel of fudge made with untainted chocolate.

*hugs*

Nine

[rosefox]

Thanks for the link. I've accepted a certain amount of risk around this; I haven't stopped eating rice, dried oregano, or dried thyme, or feeding them to my kid, whose annual lead tests have never turned up anything concerning. But it's tiring to have to think about it.

[goss]

Hey, I spoke to my relative yesterday about it, and she's aware of the cadmium-in-soil thing. She said that they're very much in the safe, having done a whole series of official tests on their own products when going through the process of being approved to export to USA.

Interestingly though, she mentioned that U.S.-based chocolate companies are not put through the same stringent regulations as their external competitors. I was thinking maybe that's why Hershey, for example, was on the list for higher levels of heavy metals.

She also noted that nowadays what constitutes as a "Chocolate" product must have genuine amounts of chocolate in it, which is why Cadbury no longer has the word "chocolate" on the packaging of some of their bars.

[goss]

It's so fascinating seeing the whole process from start to finish. :)

[sovay]

Hey, I spoke to my relative yesterday about it, and she's aware of the cadmium-in-soil thing. She said that they're very much in the safe, having done a whole series of official tests on their own products when going through the process of being approved to export to USA.

I'm really glad to hear it! Is it acceptable for me to ask which chocolate is theirs?

Interestingly though, she mentioned that U.S.-based chocolate companies are not put through the same stringent regulations as their external competitors. I was thinking maybe that's why Hershey, for example, was on the list for higher levels of heavy metals.

That is interesting—and plausible—albeit in a depressing sort of way. I wonder if it also accounts for Droste's cocoa, which I checked for my parents, being safe.

She also noted that nowadays what constitutes as a "Chocolate" product must have genuine amounts of chocolate in it, which is why Cadbury no longer has the word "chocolate" on the packaging of some of their bars.

I think I had known that about percentages of cocoa solids etc., but I hadn't known it had affected Cadbury. What do they call their bars that aren't legally chocolate?

Thank you for the information!

[sovay]

But it's tiring to have to think about it.

It is! And I had similar information about other foodstuffs, but not chocolate, and then I felt like I shouldn't have been surprised by it, which didn't help with being upset. I am glad your child remains lead-free.

[sovay]

I do hope that you will allow yourself a morsel of fudge made with untainted chocolate.

I am planning to.

*hugs*

[goss]

Is it acceptable for me to ask which chocolate is theirs?

She's a bean-to-bar artisan, who mostly caters to our local market, but I'll PM you her details. :)

What do they call their bars that aren't legally chocolate?

Aww, she told me the phrase yesterday, but it's slipped my memory. Something-bar. lol.

[ethelmay]

I think I had to ask for my kids to be tested for lead, and that it only happened once (youngest is 24). When did annual lead testing start being a thing, or does it depend on HMO or geographic area or something?

[rosefox]

Not sure about when, but I'm in NYC and it's standard here.

[caszabrewin]

This is why knowing my food has become such an important part of my life. Big hugs.