Episode 33: Toxic Levels of Heavy Metals in Baby Food? This is What you Need to Know.

Last week, the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy released a report on Heavy Metals in Baby Foods - specifically arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Overall, it is a good report. Well-referenced, filled with easy to read data points, only slightly political, with clear recommendations for moving forward. The headlines about this report are designed to strike fear, to get us to click the story and read articles. As such, this report has mom’s everywhere wondering:

OMG! Did I Poison my kids with baby food? Should I change everything my kid eats? Cook everything? What if I plant a garden in the back yard and grow everything and cook it? I thought organic meant I was protecting my kids?

But, before we all freak out, let’s get a little bit more information - because information and education is THE key to making the best decisions we can for our kids.

How did this report come about?

In April of 2020, Healthy Baby Food published a report stating that a national investigation finds that
95 percent of baby foods tested contain toxic chemicals that may lower babies’ IQ, including arsenic and lead. This report prompted the US House of Representatives to create a subcommittee to review the findings. The subcommittee, which was set up in November 2020, released its report on heavy metals in baby foods last week, confirming that there are higher than recommended levels of heavy metals in some baby foods. Hence the fear from every parent who has ever fed their child baby specific foods - pouches, jars, biscuits, puffs, etc. It is important to note that this report does not address formula in any way.

In this Podcast, I address some of the background science and research about toxic heavy metals in food, what the congressional recommendations are from this report, and my takeaways. You can see the full blog post for more written details and links to articles I mention in the podcast.