report

Some Baby Foods Contain High Levels of Toxic Heavy Metals, Report Finds

Herbert M. Pickett 2 months ago

As a parent, you only want the very best for your child, especially when it comes to the foods she eats. So it’s understandable that you may be concerned about a new congressional report finding that ingredients in a number of baby food products contain elevated levels of heavy metals like arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury.

Citing data from four major baby food companies — Beech-Nut, Gerber, Nurture (which makes Happy Family Organic and HappyBABY products) and Hain (producer of Earth’s Baby Organics) — the report by the U.S. Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy calls for stronger federal regulations and oversight when it comes to baby food products and their manufacturers.

But are these latest findings, which are similar to those of previous baby food ingredients studies, really something to worry about? Here’s what pediatricians have to say to parents about baby food purées and other snacks.

Should parents

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‘QAnon shaman’ granted organic food in jail after report of deteriorating health

Herbert M. Pickett 2 months ago

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered that the “QAnon shaman,” who was charged with taking part in the deadly riots at the Capitol, get organic food in a D.C. correctional facility after his lawyer told the court that his client needed the special diet for religious and health reasons.



a person wearing a costume and holding a sign: Jacob Anthony Chansley, a Qanon believer, speaks to a crowd of Donald Trump supporters in Phoenix on Nov. 5, 2020.

© AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills
Jacob Anthony Chansley, a Qanon believer, speaks to a crowd of Donald Trump supporters in Phoenix on Nov. 5, 2020.

Because of his “shamanic belief system and way of life,” eating food that isn’t organic or has “unnatural chemicals” would cause the client, Jacob Chansley, “systemic responses that are not simply discomforting, but debilitating and, notably, dehydrating,” attorney Albert Watkins wrote in a filing on Wednesday. Chansley had lost more than 20 pounds and his condition was “declining,” Watkins wrote.

“[N]on-organic food, which contains unnatural chemicals, would act as an ‘object intrusion’ onto his body and

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Levels of toxic metals found in baby food brands, congressional report finds

Herbert M. Pickett 2 months ago

We are bombarded daily by toxins in our environment as well as our food supply, and as a result, our health and well-being suffer. And, although this onslaught is devastating to human health at all ages, in babies and children, toxic heavy metals can cause serious and often irreversible damage to brain development, reports say.

According to a report by PBS New Hour, a congressional investigation has found levels of arsenic, lead and other toxic metals in many popular baby foods, including organic brands.

PBS cited a report released Thursday by a U.S. House Subcommittee, which stated that in 2019 it had requested internal data from seven companies, including Walmart, after the results of tests done on baby foods – performed by a nonprofit called Healthy Babies Bright Futures – were published.

Of those seven companies, the subcommittee said that four responded.

“Gerber, Beech-Nut, Earth’s Best Organics maker Hain

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A new report shows toxic metals in manufactured baby food. Here’s how to make your own.

Herbert M. Pickett 2 months ago

If there was ever a time to consider making your own baby food, it might be right now.

On Thursday, February 4, Congress released an investigation that showed four leading baby food manufacturers knowingly sold baby food that contained high levels of toxic heavy metals. The chemicals found included arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury, which are in the World Health Organization’s top 10 chemicals of concern for infants and children.

The investigators found internal communications at the companies — Gerber; Beech-Nut Nutrition Company; Nurture, Inc., which sells Happy Baby products; and Hain Celestial Group, Inc., which sells Earth’s Best Organic — that revealed the companies’ own internal testing showed levels of heavy metals far above limits set for bottled water by the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They continued to sell the products regardless.

This scary news might have some parents — perhaps even

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