Have you (or anyone else) found a good review of the cadmium levels, flavonal levels, etc. in the raw cacao powder options? Consumer labs is focused on all on the processed products.
I wonder about the cadmium levels of products like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Terrasoul-Superfoods-Organic-Cacao-Powder/dp/B00EFE7R8K
I like buying nuts and cocoa powder from Costco precisely for this reason. Cadmium, lead, and mercury are specifically listed as chemicals covered by Costco’s “Smart Screening protocols”. https://www.costco.com/wcsstore/CostcoUSBCCatalogAssetStore/feature-pages/Attachment/Costco-Smart-Screening-Statement-170926.pdf.
The cocoa powder I bought from Costco’s baking aisle is labeled “Organic, Fair Trade Cocoa Powder”, distributed by Volupta LLC, Santa Monica (https://www.volupta.com/organic-cacao).
It appears you can buy it here (https://www.amazon.com/Volupta-Organic-Trade-Unsweetened-Powder/dp/B07CNSG3FB) at double the price at Costco (though they do not always carry it in store).
For what it is worth Bryan Johnson just answered a question on twitter about what provider he used for his 100% chocolate pieces and it seems to be
And to supplement with coco flavanols he uses (which may have been discussed earlier on this thread and was the basis of the trial in the title of this thread):
FWIW had my hair analysed recently and the results showed virtually zero for all the heavy metals but a high level of arsenic.
All the various nuts I eat are organic and the chocolate I consume is the 100% Montezuma brand.
Who knows what is responsible for the high arsenic level.
Flavanols can come from a number of sources.
I just wanted to give another boost to FlavaMix Performance Chocolate | FlavaNaturals.
@scta123 and @RapAdmin mentioned their product earlier in the thread. I took a deep-drive on cocoa flavanols a few years ago. I was even making my own chocolate bars using the baker’s chocolate recommended by ConsumerLabs, along with cocoa butter and allulose. But now I just use the high-flavanol chocolate powder from FlavaNaturals. Back when I was comparing all the options, they were one of the few (if not the only) company to actually list the amount of flavanols on the supplement facts label.
Here is what FlavaNaturals had to say:
FlavaMix® can generally be added to hot or warm liquids with no material loss in cocoa flavanols. However, cocoa flavanols are sensitive to extended exposure to heat so it is best to add FlavaMix® to hot liquids after they have already been heated.
It’s not a direct answer to your question, but (Ioannone et al. 2014) compared flavanol and proanthocyanidin content at three different roasting temperatures: 125, 135 and 145 °C. That’s 257, 275, and 293 °F. In all cases, much hotter than a cup of coffee! This is an abridged table from the paper:
| T (°C) | Time (min) | Epicatechin | Catechin | Epigallocatechin | Gallocatechin | P1 | P2 | P3 | P4 | P5 | P6 | P7 | P8 | P9 | P10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Control | 0 | 1.12 | 1.34 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.76 | 2.24 | 2.00 | 1.58 | 1.17 | 0.60 | 0.38 | 0.26 | 0.15 | 0.12 |
| 125 | 6 | 1.11 | 1.34 | 0.37 | 0.26 | 4.22 | 2.29 | 2.09 | 1.56 | 1.24 | 0.71 | 0.42 | 0.28 | 0.17 | 0.12 |
| 125 | 22 | 0.88 | 1.06 | 0.93 | 1.70 | 2.54 | 1.35 | 0.86 | 0.80 | 0.39 | 0.17 | 0.15 | 0.09 | 0.07 | – |
| 135 | 5 | 0.68 | 1.19 | 0.54 | 0.18 | 3.76 | 2.24 | 2.00 | 1.58 | 1.17 | 0.60 | 0.38 | 0.26 | 0.15 | 0.12 |
| 135 | 15 | 0.53 | 1.14 | 1.30 | 1.84 | 4.03 | 2.40 | 2.10 | 1.75 | 1.40 | 0.61 | 0.35 | 0.22 | 0.11 | 0.07 |
| 145 | 9 | 0.50 | 1.17 | 0.54 | 0.18 | 2.23 | 1.33 | 0.28 | 0.60 | 0.25 | 0.20 | 0.09 | 0.10 | 0.08 | 0.05 |
| 145 | 20 | 0.32 | 0.79 | 0.82 | 1.36 | 3.22 | 1.82 | 1.22 | 0.77 | 0.66 | 0.16 | 0.10 | 0.07 | 0.07 | – |
Interestingly, epigallocatechin and gallocatechin appear to be products of the roasting process (as they were absent in the control cocoa beans). A more relevant takeaway is that six minutes at 125 °C (257 °F) resulted in minimal degradation for the flavanols and the proanthocyanidin (P1 - P10). It’s feasible that post-processed cocoa powder would respond to boiling water differently than pre-processed cocoa beans respond to roasting, but it’s not something I worry about.
Personally, I usually mix the cocoa powder in with protein powder or meal shakes (e.g. Plenny), so high heat doesn’t come into play.
A lot of these molecules have considerable similarities and I would assume that epigallocatechin and gallocatechin come from metabolisation of the other molecules. (see the paper I cited upthread for more info on this).
It is also clear that these are molecules where generally we want to avoid high temperature cooking or long period cooking.
Cocoa flavanols is a flawed measurement, as any vendor can take some cacao powder and spike it with one of the flavanols in cacao to get the result they want, like EGCG. And since it’s the supplement industry it’s probably what’s happening for all supplements.
Are you sure it’s not in water you are drinking?
I doubt it as half the population of London would have the same thing. Then again, you could be correct, and no one knows. Thanks for the idea.
Having caught up on a few other threads it see it’s possible that it could be in my taurine or glycine.
I’m going to try to find out what any long term implication might be as it feels like a Herculean costly task to work out what the cause is when there could be so many.
Do you drink tap water? I do, but it goes through triple filtration first. I should test my hair to see what’s there.
You could try chelation therapy or vitamin C to get rid of arsenic.
Tap water that comes from the aquifers under London but I do filter it as well.
Good idea on upping the vitC dose, thanks.
Make and eat large amounts of pesto made with cilantro.
Cilantro chelates heavy metal
One on many articles, search and you will locate more.
From a basic search;
“Cilantro has significant chelating properties that bind to heavy metals that are removed from the body through our excretory system. According to various studies, cilantro and chlorella can naturally remove an average of 87% of lead, 91% of mercury, and 74% of aluminum from the body within 45 days.134 To detoxify other neurotoxins such as phthalates, plasticizers, and insecticides, cilantro and chlorella can be added to smoothies, stir-fries, salads, juices, dressings, sauces, and rice.3 To prevent any metals from being deposited in the colon, a form of calcium bentonite clay called Pascalite can be taken mixed with water three times a day between meals while using cilantro for a detox period of two weeks.0 However, some studies have shown that cilantro leaves can produce a chelating effect in water spiked with heavy metals and that cilantro can reduce absorption of lead when food tainted with it is fed to mice.”
Why the general population does not hear about this?
It is not profitable, look up the cost of “conventional” medical chelation for lead. One of the few “FDA approved” methods.
Disclosure I do not care for consensus medicine.
Thank you for all the good ideas.
Isn’t rice a known source of arsenic?
I rarely eat rice.
…………
Arsenic is regulated and under strict limits in the United States, Canada, the UK, and I would assume all wealthy countries. And in all three of these countries one can get annual and sometimes more frequent water reports disclosing the actual amounts of regulated impurities in one’s water. Here is the water report for Stepney, a randomly-selected service zone for water in London. As you can see the regulated maximum is 10 μg/l; the mean level is 1.05 and the maximum was 1.40.
The main cause for concern would be if you get your water from a private well or the very unusual circumstance of a regulated utility being out of compliance. And of course there are very few regulations and next to no oversight on bottled water.
Remind yourself frequently: you think you’re just going about your business, but there are regulators and public health workers laboring in the background every day to keep you safe and alive.
This claim is unproven at best.
