All the thymes and oreganos? Wow
I wonder if those plants are just particularly good at leaching lead from soil.
Phytoremediation is an area of active study for cleaning toxic soils.
Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead
31–40 of 134 posts
Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead
#32> CONSUMER REPORTS tested 126 herbs and spices from 38 brands for arsenic, cadmium, and lead. (We did not test spices that tend to be used in baking, such as cinnamon and nutmeg.) We tested two or three samples from different lots of each product. This testing is frustratingly sparse, couldn't they find garlic powder in Trader Joe's? They're missing many brands for many of these spices. And I don't think you can bake…
>What am I supposed to do? Nothing, probably. Heavy metals come from natural sources in the ground as well as from the air which then settles into the topsoil. They also come from decades old insecticides/pesticides or old infrastructure left to rot on farms. Cadmium and arsenic in particular are among the most abundant substances on the Earth. Every bit of food you eat likely has them both. If you are worried and wa…
"buy local instead of imports. Know the land your food comes from and its history."
I am happy to study history of all 300,000 square kilometers of farmland, but are the producers of this toxic crap going to pay for my time or health damage they inflict?
Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead
#33> CONSUMER REPORTS tested 126 herbs and spices from 38 brands for arsenic, cadmium, and lead. (We did not test spices that tend to be used in baking, such as cinnamon and nutmeg.) We tested two or three samples from different lots of each product. This testing is frustratingly sparse, couldn't they find garlic powder in Trader Joe's? They're missing many brands for many of these spices. And I don't think you can bake…
You can grow your own (assuming you can find clean soil…). I harvested enough oregano this year to last months.
Yeah but get your soil tested. Lead and arsenic are natural and there's nothing saying they aren't in your soil. Pollution from old lead paint or nearby roads is real.
Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
The good news is both of them are easy to grow indoors or outdoors, and they're perennial. Perennial herbs include rosemary, lavender, marjoram, tarragon, sage, mint, parsely, lemon balm, chives, sorrel, yarrow, chicory, savory, bay laurel, lovage, hyssop, anise, chamomile, bergamot, alfalfa, clover... the list goes on. You can use them fresh, or make your own dried herbs. On top of that, variants of thyme work as a…
Do you have a recommended place to get those? Also, I’ve got clay soil here, and thyme has never done well for me. I’d love to replace swaths of my lawn with it, as I really like it’s appearance and fragrance, so any link to those varieties would be much appreciated.
It may not be practical for you, but you could try a hydroponic system like AeroGarden. I was given one last Christmas and grew lots of herbs (I've just moved and haven't unpacked it, but when I do the herbs will be coming out again).
AeroGarden is a pricy brand, but there are probably cheaper ones that do just as well.
Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead
#35> In 31 products, levels of lead were so high that they exceeded the maximum amount anyone should have in a day, according to CR’s experts. Uhh there is no amount of lead anyone should have in a day. It's cumulative and harmful and we don't need it for anything. > Think twice about bringing back herbs and spices from travel abroad. Heavy metal content can be much higher in those products, according to other research.…
Lead is present in the natural environment. Avoid it as much as you reasonably can, but it's impossible to eliminate it entirely from your diet.
Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead
#36I hate this. I’m up to my eyeballs trying to keep my newborn away from all the toxic shit that’s in every part of his life, BP* in plastics, flame retardants in clothes and mattresses and rugs, heavy metals in baby food and now in herbs, micro plastics in food, radioactivity and mercury in farmland around coal fired power plants, etc etc etc. The negative externalities on dangerous chemicals is so very high; what am…
I hate it too. The one thing that does make me a bit optimistic is that firstly that for quite a few of the big issues, things are gradually getting better (leaded petrol having been phased out, PBDEs are on the way out, average quantities of things like phthalates and PFOA in people's blood I believe are dropping in most places). The shift away from fossil fuels could be another massive health improvement - studies on fine particulate matter in the last few years show that they might be far, far worse for our health than was thought, and phasing out especially diesel and petrol for transport, as well as coal power and switching homes from gas to electric appliances will make a huge difference.
But it's also comforting to me seeing what smokers do - if they can suck down that many toxins, time after time, day after day, and it still takes decades to kill them, then as a non-smoker (in a country where smoking is very well regulated so you don't get exposed to a lot of second hand smoke either), that does give me comfort in how robust the human body is!
Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead
#37I hate this. I’m up to my eyeballs trying to keep my newborn away from all the toxic shit that’s in every part of his life, BP* in plastics, flame retardants in clothes and mattresses and rugs, heavy metals in baby food and now in herbs, micro plastics in food, radioactivity and mercury in farmland around coal fired power plants, etc etc etc. The negative externalities on dangerous chemicals is so very high; what am…
The kids have always been exposed to this stuff, it's unavoidable. Focus on the big wins and don't worry about the small stuff - law of diminishing returns. Eliminating ppb of lead isn't going to move the needle versus getting your kid immunized.
You'll drive yourself crazy otherwise.
Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead
#38> In 31 products, levels of lead were so high that they exceeded the maximum amount anyone should have in a day, according to CR’s experts. Uhh there is no amount of lead anyone should have in a day. It's cumulative and harmful and we don't need it for anything. > Think twice about bringing back herbs and spices from travel abroad. Heavy metal content can be much higher in those products, according to other research.…
Uhh there is no amount of lead anyone should have in a day.
Unless you want to isolated yourself from everything, you're going to be exposed to things like arsenic, lead and other toxins from natural sources. That's why we have minimal allowable exposure limits.
Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead
#39All the thymes and oreganos? Wow
I wonder if those plants are just particularly good at leaching lead from soil. Phytoremediation is an area of active study for cleaning toxic soils.
Arsenic in rice is due to exactly that, pulling naturally occurring arsenic from the water used for irrigation.
Re: Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any risk of getting those elements in them if you grow them yourself, through the soil, water, fertilizer, products or the seeds?
what about hydroponics
Probably the only reasonable way of guaranteeing clean plant food sources is to use hydroponics, and to manufacture fertilizer yourself. Distilling water is easy, and buying the chemicals for fertilizer seems doable. But you'll want to make your own hdpe containers, and silicone tubing, so you don't get unlisted phthalates or plasticizer. GRAS and "food safe" classifications are fine, for things that are actually looked for, but mistakes are made, and most failures seem to favor producers, not consumers.
The question boils down to the actual harms you're mitigating and what constitutes the appropriate response.