Ways to prevent heavy metals in your baby's food

Ways to prevent heavy metals in your baby's food

Heavy metals like arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury are everywhere in our environment and it's almost impossible to avoid them in your baby's diet. These metals have even been found in store-bought baby foods, including organic brands in unsafe levels.

But there are ways to lower the likelihood of your baby ingesting them. Here is what you can do.

​Why are metals present in baby food?

All the food, including baby food, contains some heavy metals. Metals are naturally present in water, soil and air. But metals also enter our food through pesticides and pollution. It has been found that some of America's biggest baby food manufacturers have been selling food with high levels of these metals. An analysis of 168 baby foods was done in the year 2019, it was found that 95 per cent of them had toxic metals in them. All the products have a measurable amount of at least one heavy metal, about one-third has worrisome levels of these metals and 15 per cent has health risk if eaten once a day.

Excessive consumption of these heavy metals can cause health issues and damage a child's developing brain. Public health experts have suggested that the Food and Drug Administration set safety standards for baby foods and provide more transparent labels. Currently, the FDA does not regulate the heavy metals in most baby foods.

How to avoid metal in baby's food?

It is not possible to completely avoid heavy metals lurking in your baby's food and snacks. But here are a few steps you can take to lower your baby's risk of ingesting too many metals in their diet.

- Serve them a wide variety of food that is rich in nutrients. Feeding them with a wide variety of nutrients help limit the risk of long-term exposure to heavy metals. You can start with pureed vegetables and fruits.

- Limit the rice cereals and snacks made with rice flour. Rice absorbs 10 times more arsenic than other grains. Go for whole grains instead, like barley and oats.

- Instead of processed snacks, give your child whole foods as much as possible. Snacks that are low in heavy metals include apples, unsweetened applesauce, avocados, bananas, barley with vegetables, cheese, grapes, beans, hard-boiled eggs, peaches, strawberries and yoghurt.

- Choose to breastfeed over formula milk if possible.

- Get your home's water tested for lead, if you use it for preparing the formula or cereals. Metals can get in tap water, especially if it comes through older pipes. You can use bottled water to make your baby's food.

- Avoid giving them fruit juice. No juice at all for infants and no more than 4 ounces per day for 1-3 years old, recommends the American Academy of Pediatrics.

- Limit their carrot and sweet potato intake. These two usually have heavier metals than other ground vegetables. This is because they are grown in the ground. 

​Can heavy metal in food harm the baby?

It is a bit unlikely but not impossible. As per the American Academy of Pediatrics, the heavy metals found in baby foods pose a small risk to children. But the exposure should be minimised as it can be harmful to the developing brain.

Many other things like the environment and genetics put them at risk, metal from food is just one of these factors.

Our government must regulate and set rigorous safety standards for baby food.

Should you make baby food instead of buying it?

Heavy metals are present in the products we buy, so even making homemade baby food will not make much difference. But making it at home is still a better option as they will avoid the manufacturing and packaging chemicals.  

 

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Decorative ceramics wares in your homes may raise cancer risk

Love to decorate your homes with ceramics wares and glass painting? Beware, they may contain high levels of cadmium that can raise the risk of cancer, warns researchers.

Cadmium is commonly used to give products a bright red, orange or yellow pigment, but over time the decoration on glass can start to flake and the glaze on ceramics fail, ingestion of which can potentially raise risks to human health as well as the environment. 

The findings showed that cadmium was also found in everyday household products like second-hand plastic toys, drinking glasses, alcoholic beverage bottles. 

The surfaces of these common items were covered by cadmium more than the recommended levels which is said to be ranging from 50 to 800 parts per million (ppm).

The highest readings of up to 70,000 ppm were recorded on the enamels of old and new drinking glasses and bottles, with cadmium detected in about 70 per cent of the 197 logos, patterns, text, pictures and cartoons tested on 72 products, the researchers revealed in the paper published recently.

"If you asked most people about cadmium, they would probably know very little about it. But it is listed among the World Health Organisation's 10 chemicals of major public health concern, alongside substances such as lead and asbestos," said a Prof.

"The health risk depends on how easily the cadmium can flake off or leach out. Additional tests performed indicate that this is greatest for enamelled glassware," said the Prof.

In addition, cadmium was found in new ceramic items such as mugs, plates and bowls, with the highest recorded level of 40,000 ppm, and in old plastic products including toys, with a maximum 35,000 ppm in a decorative brooch.

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Drinking glasses may contain toxic levels of lead

Enamelled drinking glasses, including beer, wine and spirit bottles, may contain potentially harmful levels of lead and cadmium, a study warned today. 

Researchers carried out 197 tests on 72 new and second-hand drinking glass products, including tumblers, beer and wine glasses, and jars. 

They found lead present in 139 cases and cadmium in 134, both on the surface of the glasses and, in some cases, on the rims, with concentrations of lead sometimes more than 1,000 times higher than the limit level. 

Tests showed that flakes of paint often came away from the glass under when simulating sustained use, indicating the substances could be ingested over a prolonged period. 

"The presence of hazardous elements in both the paint and glaze of decorated glassware has obvious implications for both human health and the environment," said a researcher.

"So it was a real surprise to find such high levels of lead and cadmium, both on the outside of the glassware and around the rim," he said. 

There are genuine health risks posed through ingesting such levels of the substances over a prolonged period, so this is clearly an issue that the international glassware industry needs to take action on as a matter of urgency," he said. 

More than 70 per cent of the products (52 out of 72) tested positive for lead, and the metal was found in all recorded colours, including the decorated gold leaf of some items, according to the study published. 

A similar number (51 out of 72) tested positive for cadmium, with the highest concentrations usually encountered in red enamel. 

The lead concentrations ranged from about 40 to 400,000 parts per million (ppm), while quantities of cadmium ranged from about 300 to 70,000 parts per million (ppm), the researchers noted. 

According to the US Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the limit levels for the externally decorated lip area of drinking glass are 200 ppm and 800 ppm respectively. 

Turner said additional analyses confirmed that hazardous elements are also used to decorate a wider range of consumer glassware that has the potential to be in contact with food. 

These include the exteriors of bottles for the storage of beer, wine or spirits, the external text and logos on egg cups, jugs and measuring cups, and the undersides of coasters and chopping boards. 

"Given that safer alternatives are available to the industry, the overall results of this study are both surprising and concerning," he said.
  THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                      

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