Low Toxin Diet Heavy metals in certain foods

[Aromasin]

Hi all.
I'm looking into various foods and often I find that one particular food often contains a lot of heavy metals (well, based on research easily accesible via google).
For example, certain sorts of rice contains a lot of arsenic, some fish a lot of mercury, beets are often overloaded with various heavy metals. Etc.

So now I want to ask more knowledgeable users:
What are other foods that are better avoided (or at least eaten in smaller quantities) because of high content of certain heavy metals?

Thanks.

 

[mosaic01]

The highest concentration of heavy metals is found in fish, seafood, wild mushrooms, offal. In staple foods they are mostly in grains and vegetables. The lowest level is found in meat, milk and eggs, because the animals filter the heavy metals into their organs, as well as in fruits. Buying organic lowers the risk of contamination, because the metals are often in the pesticides or fertilizers.

With the EU and other countries moving towards stricter limits for heavy metals like cadmium, generally the situation is pretty good as long as one avoids seafood, fish, wild mushrooms, chocolate, liver, kidney and some nuts like hazelnut.

 

[Nick]

Arsenic can be reduced in rice by either soaking it in charcoal water for ~8 hours prior to cooking or by boiling it in excess water with charcoal added for several minutes, then draining the water and rinsing out the charcoal and then cooking again. I can feel a subtle difference from eating rice prepared this way pretty quickly after eating it compared to regular cooking.

 

[Dutchie]

Most cacao powders (chocolate) contain high levels of heavy metals

 

[EdwardJamesDean]

Hi all.
I'm looking into various foods and often I find that one particular food often contains a lot of heavy metals (well, based on research easily accesible via google).
For example, certain sorts of rice contains a lot of arsenic, some fish a lot of mercury, beets are often overloaded with various heavy metals. Etc.

So now I want to ask more knowledgeable users:
What are other foods that are better avoided (or at least eaten in smaller quantities) because of high content of certain heavy metals?

Thanks.

In a a 2018 study, molecular biologist Ernie Hubbard found that kale—along with cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and collard greens—is a hyper-accumulator of heavy metals like thallium and cesium.

 

[EdwardJamesDean]

Arsenic can be reduced in rice by either soaking it in charcoal water for ~8 hours prior to cooking or by boiling it in excess water with charcoal added for several minutes, then draining the water and rinsing out the charcoal and then cooking again. I can feel a subtle difference from eating rice prepared this way pretty quickly after eating it compared to regular cooking.

Do you open a capsule of activated charcoal and mix it with water before adding the rice? Also, will soaking the rice for 8 hours cause it to sprout? Thanks

 

[Nick]

Do you open a capsule of activated charcoal and mix it with water before adding the rice? Also, will soaking the rice for 8 hours cause it to sprout? Thanks

I put a quarter teaspoon of charcoal into the water for 1 cup of dry rice but that's not based on any exact science. I've left it up to 16 hours in the refrigerator, no sprouting here but I'm using white rice.

 

[Apple]

Most cacao powders (chocolate) contain high levels of heavy metals

It could be that the main problem with cacao (like with many other, grains, peanut/corn/sunflower seed/coffee/milk&meat from grain fed cows/coconut) is aflatoxin and other mycotoxins (ochratoxin A, fumonisins, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone , enniatins...) . Nixtamalization drastically reduces the ability of mold to develop. @charlie claims that chocolate/cocoa is highly toxic due to copper...I'm not so sure about it, low vitamin A folk eat plenty of (black) beans which are high in copper with no issues. Mycotoxins are very toxic on liver.

 

[EdwardJamesDean]

I put a quarter teaspoon of charcoal into the water for 1 cup of dry rice but that's not based on any exact science. I've left it up to 16 hours in the refrigerator, no sprouting here but I'm using white rice.

Thank you. I normally wash my rice in distilled water because I've read that it can extract minerals. I also read somewhere that they have clean rice that is supposedly free of metals and toxins. Not sure how true that is.

 

[kYgirl]

Most cacao powders (chocolate) contain high levels of heavy metals

So I had body odor for years and could never understand why. I showered daily, used deoderants, etc. I finally realized there were two things causing it. I quit caffeine and that helped immensely. But it wasn't until I stopped eating organic 72% dark chocolate, that the odor disappeared. I had eaten small quantities of dark chocolate daily for many, many years. When those heavy metals are leaving your body through the skin, it stinks.

 

[EdwardJamesDean]

So I had body odor for years and could never understand why. I was showered daily, used deoderants, etc. I finally realized there were two things causing it. I quit caffeine and that helped immensely. But it wasn't until I stopped eating organic 72% dark chocolate, that the odor disappeared. I had eaten small quantities of dark chocolate daily for many, many years. When those heavy metals are leaving your body through the skin, it stinks.

From what I've read Blueprint Cocoa Powder is the cleanest cocoa you can buy. It's third party tested for heavy metals. It is very high in flavanols, over 400 mg per serving. One unit contains 60 servings. It's not cheap, but a little goes a long way.

 

[Apple]

It could be that the main problem with cacao (like with many other, grains, peanut/corn/sunflower seed/coffee/milk&meat from grain fed cows/coconut) is aflatoxin and other mycotoxins (ochratoxin A, fumonisins, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone , enniatins...) . Nixtamalization drastically reduces the ability of mold to develop. @charlie claims that chocolate/cocoa is highly toxic due to copper...I'm not so sure about it, low vitamin A folk eat plenty of (black) beans which are high in copper with no issues. Mycotoxins are very toxic on liver.

A co-occurrence of aflatoxins was observed in 80% of all samples evaluated. The bitter, dark and powdered chocolate samples had the largest presence of aflatoxins. On average, the highest levels of ochratoxin A were found in powdered, dark and bitter chocolate, respectively: 0.39; 0.34 and 0.31 μg/kg.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956713511005640#:~:text=A%20co%2Doccurrence%20of%20aflatoxins,0.34%20and%200.31%20%CE%BCg%2Fkg.

 

[Dutchie]

It could be that the main problem with cacao (like with many other, grains, peanut/corn/sunflower seed/coffee/milk&meat from grain fed cows/coconut) is aflatoxin and other mycotoxins (ochratoxin A, fumonisins, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone , enniatins...) . Nixtamalization drastically reduces the ability of mold to develop. @charlie claims that chocolate/cocoa is highly toxic due to copper...I'm not so sure about it, low vitamin A folk eat plenty of (black) beans which are high in copper with no issues. Mycotoxins are very toxic on liver.

Then there's another thing to add to the list: cacao poeder is also high in oxalates.

Sadly, for such a delicious food it has a lot of potentially problematic qualities to it.

 

[EdwardJamesDean]

Then there's another thing to add to the list: cacao poeder is also high in oxalates.

Sadly, for such a delicious food it has a lot of potentially problematic qualities to it.

It's getting to the point that almost all foods have some kind of toxin or heavy metals. Glyphosate & GMO's aren't helping.

 

[pondering]

Most cacao powders (chocolate) contain high levels of heavy metals

Which heavy metals if you don’t mind me asking?

 

[dukesbobby777]

Most cacao powders (chocolate) contain high levels of heavy metals

Way to go humans for ruining such a wonderful food. I've stopped buying it.

Which heavy metals if you don’t mind me asking?

Cadmium and lead are two usually listed. But there's probably more.

 

[mosaic01]

Way to go humans for ruining such a wonderful food

Actually most of the cadmium is from natural sources, as cocoa concentrates it from the (volcanic) soil.

The lead, in contrast, is a man-made problem and comes from the contaminated chocolate processing factories in Africa, possibly from leaded gasoline:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1281312/

Because cocoa from Africa and South America is usually mixed, you end up with a nice mixture of South-American cadmium and African lead.

 

[Dutchie]

Which heavy metals if you don’t mind me asking?

Like Dukesbobby777 already mentioned Lead and Cadmium, but there might be others.

 

[Dutchie]

It's getting to the point that almost all foods have some kind of toxin or heavy metals. Glyphosate & GMO's aren't helping.

Exactly, we have to find out what's the most detrimental to our personal situation/constitution and not what's coined as a poison by others. Otherwise there wont be anything left to eat.
You can't outrun poisons and I think the stress of trying to outrun everything will shorten your life much more than getting in particular coined poisons.

 

[mosaic01]

It's getting to the point that almost all foods have some kind of toxin or heavy metals. Glyphosate & GMO's aren't helping.

Well, for one, cocoa is not really a food, it's more like a drug, it contains the insecticide caffeine (Cocoa butter is free of toxins btw).

The question is not how to avoid literally all toxins in tiniest amounts, that's impossible. The question is how to avoid most of it while getting a large amount of essential minerals, especially magnesium, potassium, zinc, selenium, to give the body the ability to deal with the heavy metals and other stuff.