🪨 Lead 🪨

🪨 LEAD 🪨

The long awaited lead post. This is going to be a doozy of a post yall but it’s long over due. 

Lead is naturally present in soil so it’s going to be in quite literally anything that comes from the earth including spices and herbs like matcha, Clays, grains, mineral pigments, salt. Literally everything that comes from the earth. 

The issue with testing shared by influencers is that testing like this is often data that is being misrepresented when it comes to things that we eat or personal care. (Misrepresented data can also be posting generalized test results without any nuance) Its showing you lab tested PPB in the whole product but what isn’t being showed to you is your *actual* exposure levels or even how to determine that and that’s something I’m going to unpack in this post. 

You can determine lead exposure from things by converting PPB to micrograms per serving to get a number that would show what you’re actually exposing yourself to. I also want to emphasize exposure =/= bioavailability. Just because you maybe exposed to let’s say .02PPB a doesn’t mean all of that will actually be absorbed, processed or stored by your body. There are so many factors that go into bioavailability and how much you are absorbing. 

For items that don’t have a serving use you can ask companies for testing to verify leach-lability ( I’ll also be talking more about what I mean here below) 

Some Things to consider when it comes to lead exposure…..

👉🏻 lead is poorly absorbed in the gut and proper dietary levels of zinc, calcium, iron, and phosphorous inhibit absorption of lead even further in the gut. We’ll talk more about this below as well. 

👉🏻leachability based on product. Like clays may test higher for lead but that doesn’t mean that lead is actually able to be absorbed. Erik everything lead showed this testing glass baby bottles. The bottle tested positive for lead. He didn’t stop there; he then proceeded to facilitate experiments to see if that lead could leach or was encased. At the end of the experiment it was concluded the lead doesn’t leach and the bottles were fine. 

👉🏻topical application will be processed much differently from internal application. 

👉🏻lesser evils (we’ll touch on this in detail below) 

👉🏻 diet: Meals high in fats and oils should be avoided as these can cause the body to absorb higher levels of lead.

foods that are rich in vitamin C, calcium and iron reduce lead absorption in the body. To a lesser degree, zinc and phosphorus can also lower the amount of lead absorbed by the body 

https://larcusa.org/health/treating-lead-poisoning

I also want to stress so much- that just taking information like misrepresentation of test data at face value is Mentally going to stress you out and it’s going to have you feeling like Nothing is safe or Your options are lead or products with ingredients that have carcinogens and endocrine disrupters and I say this because often the recommended “swaps” only check off the lead free box but not boxes of other contaminants like PFAS, ethoxylation, and other chemicals that it’s exposed to in manufacturing. 

When we talk about lead we often take a one track mind approach and completely disregard the alternatives (the lesser evil approach) we are so stuck on eliminating lead we’re switching to options with endocrine disruptors, dyes, ethoxylated chemicals, artificial fragrance and colorants. 

Mental health is a huge part of toxin free living. It’s actually the foundation of non toxic living. Our brain is powerful and as such can make us sick. If you’re constantly stressed over things then your body will reap the consequences and these consequences maybe more dire than eating a potato 🥔 with some lead in it. 

The lack of a real world view of lead is WHY you are feeling like nothing is safe. Lead is going to be in a lot of things. Dare I say most things? Can we avoid everything? And at what cost? 

 -Real world picture of lead is that it’s in everything that grows in the earth or comes from the earth 

- labs that cover a blanket amount  don’t show you your actual exposure level OR how much your body process or absorbs of what you’re exposed to 

- most foods that have lead from the earth are also very health for you (like vegetables and fruits) and generally contain necessary co factors, minerals and vitamins that support your gut in not absorbing lead (like mentioned above)

 

if there are lead free food options it’s usually processed packaged foods or in cases of things like salt where they’ve been heavily refined and stripped so they also lack minerals too now. refining dietary things comes at cost to its benefits. 

So does this mean to just disregard lead and do whatever? No it doesn’t. Of course be mindful of it. Of course like everything else consider it when you’re making informed choices but make sure that your informed choice comes from a place of information, real world data and experience, and not fear or a one track point of view. Compare the risks to the risks of the alternatives like a tiny amount of lead vs. a carcinogen, mode of transport, absorbability and bioavailability, who you’re getting your information from, how your body works because we were made to filter toxins daily via liver and kidneys, and mindfulness on where to minimize exposure. 

TIPS on reducing exposure 

For reducing blood lead levels, vitamin C, vitamin E, thiamine (B1), folate (B9) and iron have the strongest and most consistent blood lead links

For increasing lead excretion, vitamins B1 and B9 have widely demonstrated affects in animal studies. B1 (thiamine or thiamin) is shown to increase excretion from the brain and both B9 (folate or folic acid) and B1 are now compulsory additives in non–organic bread inside Australia

Vitamin C has a remarkable property because it binds with lead to create a secondary substance that is both biologically inert and easily expelled with bodily wastes. However, its impacts on excretion have not always been consistently demonstrated, particularly at higher lead levels.

Pectin and vitamin B6 are also linked to higher lead excretion, but questions have been raised as to its degree of effectiveness and so far there are too few studies from which to draw conclusions. 

While folate (vitamin B9) can actually increase lead absorption, it seems to increase excretion more than it increases absorption

https://larcusa.org/health/treating-lead-poisoning/

Does this mean lead is “safe”? No that’s not what I’m telling you. What I’m telling you is to treat it like all of the other toxins in this world and don’t allow this one to consume you especially not based off misrepresented data. I’m telling you to empower yourself with information so you can make healthy informed choices. Foods that don’t have lead are often not lead contaminated because they are heavily processed and refined and then usually fortified and this isn’t really healthy. Trading whole nutritious foods for fortified ones can take a toll on the body as well. Which is why I heavily emphasize the importance of well rounded information. The idea we can 100% eliminate lead without any consequences is a flawed and frankly inaccurate statement not rooted in reality and when you take a whole body approach to lead particularly dietary lead it’s not as simplistic as “leads bad avoid”. Our body is nuanced and there’s ways to mitigate exposure dietarily as well. 

So where can you cut exposure? 

- paint 

-Housing

-Batteries 

-Toys 

-Dishes 

-Clothes 

Things that It would not impact your health negatively if you cut it out and things that don’t really have an option for factoring out exposure levels like food or personal care. 

When you are making your choices calculate exposure based off true testing and math so you know where it actually lands and you can verify if it’s truly a high amount or not and if it is a high amount based off set levels then it’s up to you to make your choices. This is a website that can actually do this for you so you don’t have to do the leg work. 

https://bloodleadcalculator.com/

Monitor your lead levels. You can do this several ways the best way to get a good picture is by doing all 3 blood, hair tissue mineral analysis and urine. This will give you an idea of lead stored, excreted, and currently circulating the body (unfortunately there isn’t much on bones and what’s stored there but you can use vitamins like calcium to help support your bones in not absorbing lead as this is why they do it) 

Additional Sources: 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4303853/

https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/fight_lead_with_nutrition

https://leadsafeworld.com/solutions/foods-for-lead-detox/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21218482/

https://lead.org.au/fs/Fact_sheet-Nutrients_that_reduce_lead_poisoning_June_2010.pdf