Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/Czo9yNOrFDg/ We all love chocolate, but the latest Consumer Reports’ exposé reveals that about one in every three chocolate products contains unacceptably high levels of the toxic heavy metals cadmium and lead.  These elements work wonderfully in batteries; not so well in your food or in your body.   The lead in tainted chocolate is most dangerous for the nervous systems of growing children and the fetuses growing within pregnant women.  Cadmium accumulates in the body and leads to weakened bones and kidney damage. Lead lands on the cocoa beans during processing. Cadmium originates from the soil in which the cocoa plants grow.  Ultimately, both toxins end up in all chocolate products, but in some more than others.  Then too, chocolate also contains some mercury and arsenic.   Consumer Reports uses California’s Prop 65 maximal allowable levels of cadmium and lead in foods to define which products are unacceptably risky if consumed repeatedly.   Dark chocolate contains