The Risk Of Lead Contamination In Bone Broth Diets

charlie

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The risk of lead contamination in bone broth diets.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23375414

Abstract

The preparation and consumption of bone broth is being increasingly recommended to patients, for example as part of the gut and psychology syndrome (GAPS) diet for autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, depression and schizophrenia, and as part of the paleolithic diet. However, bones are known to sequester the heavy metal lead, contamination with which is widespread throughout the modern environment. Such sequestered lead can then be mobilised from the bones. We therefore hypothesised that bone broth might carry a risk of being contaminated with lead. A small, blinded, controlled study of lead concentrations in three different types of organic chicken broth showed that such broths do indeed contain several times the lead concentration of the water with which the broth is made. In particular, broth made from skin and cartilage taken off the bone once the chicken had been cooked with the bones in situ, and chicken-bone broth, were both found to have markedly high lead concentrations, of 9.5 and 7.01μgL(-1), respectively (compared with a control value for tap water treated in the same way of 0.89μgL(-1)). In view of the dangers of lead consumption to the human body, we recommend that doctors and nutritionists take the risk of lead contamination into consideration when advising patients about bone broth diets.
 
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charlie

charlie

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Ray Peat right, yet again. He has voiced his concerns of lead from bones.

Seems to me that it's better to stick with a good gelatin like Great Lakes Gelatin.
 

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Nice find.
 
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charlie

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1397397

Abstract

Lead concentrations were measured in boiled, mashed potatoes and in baked potatoes that had been prepared and cooked in domestic kitchens. Levels of lead in the boiled, mashed potatoes ranged from below the 1 microgram/kg limit of detection up to 18 micrograms/kg with a mean of 6 micrograms/kg (wet weight). In the large majority of cases the lead in the tap water was the predominant source of the metal. Higher amounts of lead (range 11 micrograms/kg to 56 micrograms/kg, mean 27 micrograms/kg) were present in baked potatoes and this was attributed to soil adhering to the potato skin. The extent of leaching of lead from bone during cooking has also been investigated. For beef stocks there was little evidence to suggest that significant migration of bone lead occurred. For beef casseroles, marinaded in red wine, some leaching did occur from beef joints containing elevated amounts of bone lead; however the levels were all below 350 micrograms/kg and, on average, less than double that found in casseroles prepared from normal joints where the bone lead levels were an order of magnitude less.
 
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charlie

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http://chriskresser.com/bone-broth-and- ... -concerned

That said, given that the levels of lead in the chicken broth tested in the Medical Hypotheses study were below the EPA established safe upper limit for drinking water, and given the protective effect of several nutrients abundant in Paleo/GAPS diets (and even in broth itself), it seems to me that it’s quite safe to consume 2-3 cups of bone broth per day. This is likely to be even more true if your broth is made from pasture-raised chickens.
 
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jaa

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F**k chickens. Kresser said that lead was found in broth made from skin and cartiladge. Does this mean that if beef bone broth is contaminated, that gelatin powders are likely to be contaminated as well?
 

Swandattur

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I wonder about gelatin powders, too. Surely they would be contaminated as well. Peat does say chicken broth is good where you put it in the fridge and then take off the fat. Maybe you could make chicken broth from a whole chicken cooked for a few hours. Then you probably wouldn't be getting much of anything from the bones. It would be more from the skin.
 

jyb

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Swandattur said:
I wonder about gelatin powders, too. Surely they would be contaminated as well. Peat does say chicken broth is good where you put it in the fridge and then take off the fat. Maybe you could make chicken broth from a whole chicken cooked for a few hours. Then you probably wouldn't be getting much of anything from the bones. It would be more from the skin.

For Great Lakes, the can says heavy metals are less than 0.005%.
 

Mittir

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Beef Tendon is a delicacy in asian cuisine. This is full of gelatine and no bone is attached. RP talked about poisoning from beef bones . IIRC he mentioned presence of fluoride in bone meal. Do not know for sure how much of this fluoride is leached into bone broth.
 

4peatssake

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Mittir said:
RP talked about poisoning from beef bones . IIRC he mentioned presence of fluoride in bone meal. Do not know for sure how much of this fluoride is leached into bone broth.

:eek Wow, this is disturbing to say the least. I have been trying to source organic beef bones locally (oxtail, knuckle bones etc) to make beef broth because of all I have read about its benefits. I guess I need to rethink this. :cry:

I eat 2-4 tbs of gelatin a day now but had read so much about others having such significant healing with the bone broth that I was considering it to be a necessary next step. hmmm

I wonder if RP is still drinking bone broth. Does anyone know? Or what his current thinking is on bone broth?
 

montmorency

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I mentioned bone broth in an email to Ray (I've only rarely emailed him), and he said not to boil/simmer the bones for too long (I had been adding fresh water and re-using my bones to some extent).


He didn't mention lead specifically, but said there was a potential problem, especially with older animals, of heavy metal accumulation.

So now I tend to limit my cooking time to 2-3 hours, maybe 4, and I don't re-use them.

(I've read of some people slow-cooking them for days!).
 

Swandattur

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As the article in the westonprice link says, you have to consider where the beef or chicken is raised as well as other factors. Sounds like under certain circumstances the skin could be contaminated, too, but it seems odd that the bones wouldn't also have lead if the skin had lead. Maybe the chickens mostly ate uncontaminated feed, despite being free range enough to take dust baths outside. Maybe any bugs and worms would not be lead contaminated?
 

montmorency

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Swandattur said:
post 25593 As the article in the westonprice link says, you have to consider where the beef or chicken is raised as well as other factors. Sounds like under certain circumstances the skin could be contaminated, too, but it seems odd that the bones wouldn't also have lead if the skin had lead. Maybe the chickens mostly ate uncontaminated feed, despite being free range enough to take dust baths outside. Maybe any bugs and worms would not be lead contaminated?

Peat wrote to me once that the factors were the age of the animal, plus how long you cook it. (Some people cook this stuff for a heck of a long time).
With a young animal, and sticking only to say 2-3 hours, that might minimise the problem.
 
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jyb

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montmorency said:
So now I tend to limit my cooking time to 2-3 hours, maybe 4, and I don't re-use them.

(I've read of some people slow-cooking them for days!).

But how do you get a gelatinous broth after just 2-3 hours slow cooking? I've had trouble even after 3 days.
 
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I found this quite disturbing and emailed ray about it.. here's what he had to say. This guy is a genius, literally:

Using ox-tail or lamb shanks, the idea is to extract gelatin from the cartilage and ligaments associated with joints; it takes two or three hours of cooking to dissolve most of the gelatin. The shafts of long bones contain too much iron; prolonged cooking extracts heavy metals from the bones.
 

Birdie

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I found this quite disturbing and emailed ray about it.. here's what he had to say. This guy is a genius, literally:

Using ox-tail or lamb shanks, the idea is to extract gelatin from the cartilage and ligaments associated with joints; it takes two or three hours of cooking to dissolve most of the gelatin. The shafts of long bones contain too much iron; prolonged cooking extracts heavy metals from the bones.
Thank you. I couldn't remember why he used a 3 hour limit.
Great quote. Very helpful subject. Thanks @charlie.
 

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