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Your Chocolate Might Be Full of Lead

estragon

estragon

https://twitter.com/x/status/1604236577453940736

Full story.

People also choose dark chocolate in particular for its potential health benefits, thanks to studies that suggest its rich supply of antioxidants may improve heart health and other conditions, and for its relatively low levels of sugar. In fact, more than half of people in a recent survey from the National Confectioners Association described dark chocolate as a “better for you” candy.

But there’s a dark side to this “healthier” chocolate. Research has found that some dark chocolate bars contain cadmium and lead—two heavy metals linked to a host of health problems in children and adults.

The chocolate industry has been grappling with ways to lower those levels. To see how much of a risk these favorite treats pose, Consumer Reports scientists recently measured the amount of heavy metals in 28 dark chocolate bars. They detected cadmium and lead in all of them.

[...]

For 23 of the bars, eating just an ounce a day would put an adult over a level that public health authorities and CR’s experts say may be harmful for at least one of those heavy metals. Five of the bars were above those levels for both cadmium and lead.
Click to expand...

When I saw the headline, I thought maybe I'd see a lot of cheap bars, but a lot of these are branded as upscale or artisanal or whatever. I remember hearing a puff piece news story not that long ago about one these bars that's over the harmful levels about how it was an ethically sourced alternative. I guess I kind of assumed that this might also mean they'd be testing to make sure there bars were also within safe levels of heavy metals, but that's apparently not the case.

My instinct is to end with a "be careful," but this kind of problem doesn't seem solvable on the level of the individual. It appears to be a systematic problem with large scale cocoa bean harvesting with no simple solutions.
 
Last edited:
q 3

q 3

here to eat fish and erase the universe
(they/them)
Yikes. I eat a lot of that stuff. Good excuse to tinker with my diet at least.
 
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