SuperGreens, et av Innerlights mestselgende produkter, er blitt testet av amerikanske consumerlab.com, sammen med flere lignende produkter. De tester en rekke produkter, bl.a. helsekost, medikamenter, sportsdrikker, vitamintilskudd, mat og drikke etc etc. De tester ikke effekten av produktene i seg selv, men om de inneholder det produsenten påstår, og om de inneholder forurensning eller skadelige stoffer. Resultatene for de «grønne pulverne», bl.a. SuperGreens, var ikke så veldig hyggelige. En fjerdedel av alle pulverne inneholdt bly og/eller kadmium. SuperGreens inneholdt 19mcg bly pr dagsdose, noe som er betraktelig høyere enn man ville forvente fra et slikt produkt, og godt over det som anses forsvarlig.
US Pharmacopeias øvre grense for forsvarlig blyinnhold* i en dagsdose av et enkeltprodukt er 10mcg. Øvre grense for totalt daglig inntak av bly for barn er 6 mcg, for gravide kvinner 25 mcg.
Farmakopeen anbefaler at produkter inneholder maks 10 mcg pr dagsdose (denne evdien er kritisert for å være altfor høy). Staten California er strengere – deres grense er 0,5 mcg, og produkter som inneholder mer enn det skal utstyres med en advarsel.
Ifølge denne målingen blyinnholdet i SuperGreens altså dobbelt så høyt som US Pharmacopeias øvre grense, og 40 ganger høyere enn Californias grense. Det bemerkes at alle produkter som inneholdt mer enn grenseverdi ble sendt til et uavhengig laboratorium for dobbeltsjekking. Laboratoriet fikk ikke vite hvilket produkt det gjaldt.
*Idealet er selvfølgelig null innhold av bly, men som med andre giftstoffer er realiteten at det ofte er en viss mengde forurensning i matvarer.
Her er utdrag fra rapporten (siden krever innlogging, jeg har fått dette fra en ernæringsfysiologstudent med tilgang til databasen)
Greens and Whole Foods products were tested for their potential contamination with arsenic, cadmium, lead, and chlorinated pesticides. Analyses for the heavy metals arsenic, cadmium and lead were made using Inductively Coupled Plasma/Mass Spectroscopy (ICP/MS).
(…)
Any product that did not pass the testing was sent to another independent laboratory to repeat testing for at least one of the criteria on which it did not pass. The identities of the products were not disclosed to the laboratories performing the testing.
To meet ConsumerLab.com quality criteria, a product had to:
Heavy Metal Contamination
Lead – For products with single serving weights of 5 grams or more, not to exceed 2.5 micrograms of lead per serving nor exceed 4.0 micrograms of lead per recommended daily serving. For products with single serving weights of less than 5 grams, shall not exceed the State of California’s Prop 65 limits for lead in supplements in a recommended daily serving: 0.5 mcg of lead per daily serving with an additional allowance of 1.0 mcg for supplements containing 1,000 mg/day or more of elemental calcium and 0.5 mcg for supplements containing specific other minerals. For supplements not marketed for use by children, ConsumerLab.com provides an additional allowance of 0.5 mcg if containing 250 to 499 mg/day of elemental calcium or 1.0 mcg if containing 500 to 999 mg/day of elemental calcium and an allowance of 0.5 mcg for if containing one whole herb (not extract) ingredient or 1.0 mcg for two or more whole herb ingredients. If a maximum recommended daily serving is not defined, a daily serving size will be determined and applied by CL. (…)
None of the tested products exceeded contamination limits for arsenic or pesticides, but two products exceeded limits for lead and/or cadmium:
Contaminated products
InnerLight SuperGreens contained 19.6 mcg of lead in a 4-scoop daily serving. The amount of lead was surprisingly high for a relatively modest amount (12 grams) of powder. Toxicity from lead is a function of total exposure to all foods, beverages and your environment. The amount of lead in InnerLight SuperGreens alone exceeds the FDA’s provisional total daily tolerable intake limit for children (6 mcg) and approaches the daily limit for pregnant women (25 mcg). For other adults (for whom the FDA tolerable limit is 75 mcg of lead) it represents a significant and unnecessary exposure to lead. The amount of lead found is many times higher than the California Proposition 65 limit (0.5 mcg per daily serving), above which a warning label is required on the product. It also exceeds a proposed US Pharmacopeia limit of 10 mcg per daily serving (a limit which ConsumerLab.com has criticized for being too lenient). It is difficult to know the source of lead in this product as it lists over forty different plants in its “rich herbal blend of grasses, leafs, vegetables, and sprouts.”
Nature’s Way Alive! Whole Food Energizer Ultra Shake Vanilla contained 4.3 mcg of lead and 12.8 mcg of cadmium in a 1-scoop daily serving. This product is different from the others tested in that it contained a large amount of protein (primarily as rice and pea protein) and its daily serving amount was by far the largest (39 grams). Although the amount of cadmium would not be expected to cause an immediate problem, long-term exposure may pose unnecessary risk to the kidneys. The federal cadmium limit in drinking water, for example, equates to 10 mcg per day in two liters of water (the typical daily consumption of water by adults).»
Pernille Nylehns blog 