NPR’s Elissa Nadworny talks with investigative reporter Paris Martineau a few new Shopper Studies evaluation that reveals protein powders can include poisonous heavy metals, particularly lead.
ELISSA NADWORNY, HOST:
People are obsessive about protein. What as soon as was extra of a distinct segment curiosity has gone totally mainstream. Simply verify your native grocery retailer – beef jerky, protein-boosted milk and yogurts, even quickly protein Pop-Tarts and Doritos. And naturally, there are tons of protein powders. They’re generally constituted of whey, which is derived from milk, or from pea protein. And based on a Shopper Studies evaluation, they seemingly include one thing else – poisonous heavy metals, particularly lead. Investigative reporter Paris Martineau joins us now to share what they’ve realized. Welcome.
PARIS MARTINEAU: Thanks a lot for having me.
NADWORNY: OK, so, initially, I’ve to admit that I’m a kind of People that’s obsessive about protein. I truly had some protein powder in my smoothie this morning. So that is private. Do I must throw out my protein powder? Like, how alarmed ought to shoppers be?
MARTINEAU: Yeah, there isn’t any purpose for anybody to panic. What we principally discovered is we examined 23 standard protein powders and shakes, and we discovered that for greater than two-thirds of the merchandise that we analyzed, a single serving of them contained extra lead than what our meals security consultants say is secure to eat in a day. A few of the merchandise had greater than 10 occasions the extent that our consultants say is secure.
NADWORNY: That sounds unhealthy.
MARTINEAU: I imply, it is not good. I’ll say that. Provided that, a few of the merchandise we examined are wonderful to have often, and even those with the very best lead ranges are far under the focus wanted to trigger quick hurt. The true threat with lead is, even in case you are uncovered to form of low ranges constantly over time, that lead might form of construct up within the physique and ultimately trigger issues farther down the road. So I might say the recommendation is extra scrutinize your protein shakes and check out what you are utilizing to make an knowledgeable choice fairly than instantly freak out.
NADWORNY: And perhaps, it sounds, lay off. I imply within the sense of, like, not having it day by day or not having it 3 times a day.
MARTINEAU: That is one of many issues that stunned me personally, reporting out this story, is, such as you and like many People, I used to be, like, actually fearful that I wasn’t getting sufficient protein. I…
NADWORNY: Yeah.
MARTINEAU: …Completely purchased into the protein mania. However speaking to vitamin consultants and researchers in protein, the factor I heard many times is, for the common individual, you may very simply get all of the protein you want from consuming complete meals, and it is – it would not make a lot sense to show in the direction of protein dietary supplements.
NADWORNY: So that you stated you examined 23 powders and premade shakes. How did you resolve to check these merchandise?
MARTINEAU: Yeah, so we labored with form of a market analysis staff inside Shopper Studies to establish a few of the best-selling protein powders and shakes obtainable at a wide range of completely different manufacturers, from locations like Amazon or Walmart. But in addition, form of, we additionally purchased a few of the shakes in individual at well being meals shops or supermarkets. After which we took these, made certain that we acquired a pair completely different samples of every product that represented a minimum of two – I suppose two to a few completely different plenty of the product, after which despatched them off to the lab to be analyzed.
NADWORNY: So folks can go and verify your reporting to see if their merchandise have been examined, however broadly, are there sure forms of protein merchandise which might be extra prone to have lead and different poisonous metals in them?
MARTINEAU: Yeah. So, usually talking, plant-based protein merchandise emerged as some extent of concern. Like, almost all the plant-based merchandise we had – we examined had elevated lead ranges. The lead ranges we present in plant-based protein merchandise have been, on common, 9 occasions the quantity present in these manufactured from, like, dairy proteins like whey and twice as nice as beef-based proteins. When it got here to, I suppose, the protein powders and shakes made with whey or dairy-based proteins, these usually had the bottom quantities of lead.
NADWORNY: OK.
MARTINEAU: However nonetheless, half the merchandise we examined had excessive sufficient ranges of contamination that our consultants advise towards taking them each day.
NADWORNY: Paris Martineau, investigative reporter for Shopper Studies, thanks a lot.
MARTINEAU: Thanks a lot.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts might fluctuate. Transcript textual content could also be revised to right errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org could also be edited after its unique broadcast or publication. The authoritative document of NPR’s programming is the audio document.
