Lead in Protein Powder? Whole-Food Smoothie Protein Alternatives Ep 129

A recent Consumer Reports article raised concerns about lead levels in protein powders. Should you be worried? Should you stop using them?

In this episode, Performance Nutritionist Chris Newport explains what NSF certification means, why this issue is confusing, and how you can meet your protein needs using whole foods instead of powders.

Learn how to build high-protein smoothies using unconventional, high protein foods that are not only safer, but delicious too!

Experience the breakthrough when everything finally clicks! Train with expert coaches, fuel with incredible chef-prepared meals, and connect with athletes who love triathlon as much as you do. Join us April 22–26 at beautiful Lake Jocassee for four unforgettable days of swim, bike, run, learning, and community. Spots are almost full: Reserve yours here.

Transcript

Lead Scare Hits Protein Powders

Coach Carlie 1:31

Hey folks, and welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast. I am your host, Coach Chris Newport, and I am excited you are here. So I've been hearing a lot of concern about a recent consumer reports article. And if you're watching on YouTube, I've got it pulled up right here. It's called Protein Powders and Shakespeare High Levels of Lead. So they took 23 different products, and they say that more than two-thirds of them contain more lead in a single serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day. So as I scroll down on this, if you haven't seen this before, I'll link to it below. So, should lead be in our diet? The short answer is no. And I will have to say that I made a boo-boo and the top products that they have to avoid, I'm not going to say them out loud because I don't want to necessarily bias anyone against these particular companies, but one of them is considered a mass gainer. Anytime you say a mass gainer, not only is a lot of protein, but probably also has a lot of carbs in it. And it's by a particular company that my automatic thought when I read this was the whole company must be bad. So I want to be totally transparent with you guys that that was that's on me. That I made a boo-boo, and then I had a client who was like, oh, but I'm taking this product, um, and it wasn't this exact same product. But from all the information that I could find, the particular whey product that she was taking was actually perfectly fine. So then it got me thinking, like, okay, uh, where are some of these coming from? What's the safest thing to do? Because one of the recommendations they have, and I'm showing it here again if you're watching on YouTube, and I'll tell it if you're just listening, but they recommend limiting to once a week is a product that I'm commonly recommending for folks. It's a garden of life product, it's their sport organic plant-based protein in vanilla. So the reason why I'm a little perplexed about this is because this Garden of Life particular product is NSF certified and NSF certified for sport. So, what I am in the process of doing, and let me back up, what that means is if it's NSF certified, they have been tested for heavy metals and should be okay. NSF for sport goes even further and says they don't have any ingredients that could make you test positive if you're training for something like the Olympics or you're a professional athlete and you cannot have any uh illegal substances in your body at all. So this particular product says maybe limit it to one and a quarter servings per week based on their concerns for lead. So then it got me thinking, okay, what can we do if we're not gonna do a protein powder? Because at the end of the day, a protein powder is a wonderfully convenient option for getting increased amount of protein. And recently the recommendations for protein by the government used to be 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, and now it has gone up to 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight. So if you take your body weight in pounds and you divide it by 2.2, there you've got your amount in kilograms, and then you can multiply it by the low end 1.2 or the high end 1.6. I like for the ease of calculation, I typically do 1.5 for most of our athletes. But if we've got, depending on the goals, we may even go higher. Generally, not an issue to that, especially if you're getting plenty of water and there's no specific kidney issues that you have. So here's my promise to you. I have already reached out to NSF and I want to get to the bottom of this and figure out why this product is NSF certified, and yet it's saying it has high levels of lead. So I will get back to you because the products that I am picking out for folks and that have been tried and true for me, I want to make sure that your trust is not broken in me, not only as a dietitian, but also the entire profession. Like here we are trying to give you the best information that's gonna be the healthiest for you. And it's like, what? This stuff is contaminated with lead. Where lead is typically coming from, which is, you know, plant-based, oftentimes, is it's somewhere in the soil, typically. But instead of going, oh, whoa is meat, everything's gonna kill me. Let's let's back up a little bit. How can we focus on some high food options instead? So I'm gonna pop over to a different screen. So if you're watching this, you'll be able to see what are some whole food sources that we can get instead of using a protein powder. Again, protein powder is great as a convenient source of additional protein, that it's especially great for our elderly population, maybe who aren't eating a lot, or somebody who maybe just recently had some sort of a mouth surgery and they're not able to chew, or for athletes who need the extra protein. So, what can you do, in particular to something like a smoothie, so that you're not as worried about lead content and that you're really focusing on whole foods. So, one of my favorite things to put in smoothies, hang with me here, folks, we got this, is cooked beans and lentils. Because that's kind of what a vegan protein powder is already. I prefer to use things like white beans, like a cannellini or a navy bean. Yes, those are legitimately different things, but they are very neutral tasting. So that's a great option. You can also throw in chickpeas. I find that they have a little bit more of a distinct flavor, so I can kind of pick it out in my smoothie a little bit more than something like a white bean or a navy bean or a cannellini bean. Uh, you can also throw lentils in there. You're probably gonna want to go for a more neutral type of lentil, uh, maybe like a green, um, brown. It tends to be a little earthier, red has a little bit more of a distinct flavor, but you can also do combinations of these. And then there's also yellow split peas. Those are, I find, a little bit more neutral. But at the end of the day, this is kind of what your protein powders are doing anyway. They're drying out a lot of these pea proteins and then grinding them up and putting them into a protein powder, which is why so many people have vegan protein powders and they're like, they taste like dirt. I'm like, well, yeah, that's kind of where they came from. So if you want to be more discerning about whether something has heavy metals or other toxins in it, you can soak them. So if you're just getting them dried, which is a great cheap way that you can do it, you can soak them, or you can buy them sprouted. So those have already been soaked, and then they're gonna be a little bit nicer on your belly, especially if you're somebody who doesn't eat beans and lentils, which we're not even gonna talk about fiber today because that's a whole nother conversation about longevity and fabulousness. So I hope that you all are pooping at least once a day. So um sorry to Kirk, who always says that my uh podcasts are wonderfully timed to when he's eating a meal and it doesn't make him want to eat a meal anymore. So my apologies to all you folks, but this is what we as dietitians like to talk about. So, anyway, you can do combinations of cooked bees or lentils, you can soak them beforehand if you want, and then you can just like leave them in the fridge, or you can buy already sprouted lentils and then or beans, uh, any type of bean or pea. You do want to cook them before you put them in your smoothie, if that's what you're using. All right, next thing up, and again, this is common. What you're gonna see in a lot of vegan protein powders are seeds, different types of seeds. With beans and seeds in particular, you just want to make sure that you have some sort of other food that's in the mix there, so we get all of your essential amino acids. So if you're doing just hemp seeds uh as like a protein powder, just make sure it's a combination. It's got maybe like chia or pumpkin seed powder and hemp seeds, or just use your own. So you can buy hemp seeds. I had a woman once who was a vegan and she was incredibly committed to it, which is great. And I love to see that people are committed to their health, no matter what dietary plan you're following. And for every smoothie she made, she would put in, and I'm not kidding, a half a cup of hemp seeds. And man, she was freaking crushing it with her protein. There's 10 grams in every three tablespoons. So consider that four tablespoons is a quarter of a cup. So she's getting as much, if not more, protein from her half a cup of hemp seeds than she would be buying from some sort of protein powder. And same kind of thing. If you want to soak those, great. Um, chia seeds are another option that you can put into your smoothies. However, if you soak them, it they are going to get their texture is gonna change, which is fine if you like that. Keep in mind that if you don't like the black chia seeds, you can use white chia seeds. So those are super easy to find in something like a Whole Foods, maybe even a Wegman's, um, or certainly online. I will do a little warning about chia seeds because they hold so much water, which they are they're magical if you have high cholesterol. They're fantastic for basically like soaking up, did you guys like that sound? Soaking up all of the cholesterol and then dumping it into your gut so that you can get rid of it. So super absorbent. It tends to turn a smoothie into more of like a pudding type of consistency. So if you want to turn your smoothie into a pudding and then portion it out to multiple days, like you know, three portions of your chia protein smoothie or chia protein pudding, knock yourself out. Like, how convenient is that? That you don't have to dirty the blender multiple times, you just do it once. Uh for me, I don't like the whole chia seeds that get in my teeth and it's not my jam. But if you blend them first or you like in like a coffee grinder, if you grind them first, then you won't have as many problems with that. It'll also like change the appearance. It won't necessarily change the texture, but it'll uh, well, if you grind the chia seeds, it will change the texture of whatever it is that you're making. And those pesky little chia seeds won't necessarily get caught in your teeth. Doesn't necessarily make them easier to digest. Uh, flax seeds are the one. If you use flax seeds, you do want to make sure those are ground because we are not sophisticated enough to break down flax seeds and like crack the seed open. So you do have to grind those first. So that is something certainly that you can put into your smoothies. Flax seeds are a great source of isoflavones, which is fantastic. I also love pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds in smoothies because, again, high protein quarter cup of pumpkin seeds is nine grams of protein, quarter cup of sunflower seeds, seven grams of protein. Also a good source of vitamin E, which is a great antioxidant. Pumpkin seeds, great source of magnesium, fantastic for electrolytes and athletes, and they grind a little bit better than uh an almond, which is incredibly hard and will do a number on your blender if you're not prepared for it. You can also use nut butters, so that's a great segue to things like okay, well, if I'm not gonna put almonds in it, maybe I can use almond butter. You absolutely can. Pick your butter, people peanut butter, almond butter, walnut butter, cashew butter, like woo, now we're going crazy, y'all. Look out. So those are sort of pre-blended, so you won't break your blender, and then adds a little bit of um satisfying fat to your smoothie and good sources of fat too, as well as giving yourself a whole foods natural protein source. I have a picture up here of an organic nutso power fuel product, which is seven different nuts and seeds, which is kind of fun if you want to go that way. So, but again, you know, pick whichever one is is your jam, especially like if you're allergic to something, then you have so many options. Like if you're allergic to all nuts, you can use sunflower butter. So lots of options. The other option that you can put into your smoothies and use as a whole food protein source is tofu. Soy gets such a bad wrap. And we do have a separate blog on that, and I'm happy to link to that below of like what are the pros and cons of soy? But any soy product is has all of your essential amino acids. So that's fantastic for giving your muscles what they need in addition to the rest of your body, your immune system, etc., because protein does so many different things in the body. I prefer silken tofu for smoothies versus like a firm tofu that you would cook for, like, say, like a stir fry. Um, if you're concerned about GMOs, make sure to buy organic because organic should not have anything GMO. So what else do we have on here? Okay, this is a popular one: Greek yogurt, or and the Icelandic version of Greek yogurt, which is skier, or an even different type of Greek yogurt, which is called kefir. So they're all very similar. They're just used as different bacterias to ferment the milk. So Greek yogurt versus skir, which is Sky R, versus like kefir, which is more of like a liquid yogurt. So that might blend a little bit easier for you. But three quarters of a cup of skir or Greek yogurt, half a cup of blueberries, a banana, and some coconut water, like high potassium protein punch. Look out, y'all. That is a fantastic one that you can do post-workout or pre-workout, or just for breakfast. Another one that I would encourage you to try is, uh, and I don't have it listed on here, but I'm gonna add it, is cottage cheese. So this is one of those, this is like the 1970s cool kit on the block, but people now are like, oh, I hate cottage cheese, or they're like, oh yeah, I haven't thought about cottage cheese in so long. I'm in that camp. I I actually very much enjoy cottage cheese, but it doesn't matter because it's you eating the product, not me. But it's super easy to put cottage cheese into your smoothie and it blends all the curds, especially if you don't like the texture of cottage cheese, and then just add whatever you want to your smoothie to give it the flavor that you want. So you can add bananas, peanut butter. I like a peanut butter and jelly smoothies. So sometimes I'll add like strawberries, peanut butter, maybe a banana, and either Greek yogurt or skier or cottage cheese, or you could do a combination, like if too much cottage cheese gives it a certain flavor that you're not loving, maybe it's half Greek yogurt, half cottage cheese, because cottage cheese is so rich in protein and just a great source there. So the next one I'm going to tell you about might be a little bit of a shocker for some. It's egg whites. And no, I'm not asking you to crack open your egg from your local grocery store and like save the yolks over to the side. You buy the egg whites in the pre-paste carton. And holy casmole, it has so much protein in it, and it's pretty much flavorless. I used to make this a lot for my kids. I would do liquid egg whites, and then I would add um blueberries and I don't know, something else, like a banana or something, and then I would blend it, and then I would make them into pops, into popsicles, and they loved them. And they were like so great on a hot day where you get lots of protein and also you're getting some fruit. So you would be shocked at how easy it is to make a smoothie with egg whites. Again, make sure to buy them from the carton so that you know they're pasteurized. And you two can be like Rocky. And if you don't know that reference, um, I'm just going to pretend you didn't. So hopefully that was helpful and not sad, like, oh gosh, what am I gonna do about all these protein powders that are contaminated with lead? Not all of them are like that. We do need to be judicious about what goes into our body, but know that you can still get a lot of protein and some really great quality nutrition from whole foods. So if this was helpful for you, let me know. If you have other things that you want me to do a podcast about, shoot me a message, shoot us a DM on Instagram, contact us on our website, send me a carrier pigeon, whatever you can do. I love to help you guys out. This is like so my favorite thing to talk about food and talk about lunch ebony and talk about exercise. So let me know what you want to hear about. Thank you so much for listening and stay healthy.