You guys,
I didn’t know baby food toxicity was a thing.
Sam and I were days away from introducing food to our 6-month-old when we listened to Darya Rose (Ph. D and author of Foodist) and Evelyn Rusli (co-founder of Yumi) discussing the subject on Clubhouse.
This led us to a report published earlier this month by the U.S. House of Representatives titled, Baby Foods Are Tainted with Dangerous Levels of Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium, and Mercury.
I was still a bit skeptical as I opened the report. Baby food companies wouldn’t sell unsafe products. And the FDA certainly would allow them to if they tried.
But I read the 59-page report and immediately threw out the HappyBABY organic infant rice cereal I’d purchased earlier that week.
The report explains that even low levels of exposure to toxic heavy metals can cause severe damage to brain development. Yet there are high levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury in baby foods. And there is no federal standard or labels to warn parents of these toxins.
Here’s just one worrisome example from the report:
While the FDA limits lead in bottled water to 5 parts per billon, it has failed to regulate lead levels in baby foods. It has taken steps to regulate lead in products for older children. For example, it recommends a maximum lead level of 100 ppb in candy and 50 ppb in some juice.
The report states, “It is not sound logic to say that water is unsafe to drink if it contains over 5 ppb lead, but candy and fruit juice can be ten and twenty times higher than that limit.”
What I read was, “This is fucking insane and completely unacceptable.”
I’ll save my full summary of the report for another time. In the meantime, George will only be introduced to real fruits and vegetables. But not sweet potatoes. Because apparently they also contain high levels of heavy metals (thanks, Darya and Evelyn!).
Essay of the Week
For nine years I thought the best day of my life was the day I stepped on the scale and weighed 110 pounds.
But at 29 years old I did molly for the first time and experienced a new “best day of my life.”
I wrote an essay about how my definition of “the best day of my life” has changed over the past 16 years.
My Guilty Pleasure
Once again, the best part of last night’s episode of The Bachelor was during the closing credits when Michelle asked, “Does anyone crack backs?”
This immediately brought me back to high school, when my girlfriends and I cracked each other’s backs in the same exact fashion that Serena P. pressed with all her might onto a face-down-on-the-floor Michelle who exhaled with relief as we heard the loud CRUNCH of her spine.
This seems like something we should not be doing to each other unless we’re a doctor or something??
Anyway, Michelle also insisted on doing a few quick push-ups before giving her toast because she wanted her arms to look good for the camera.
My vote is Michelle for the win.
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Until next week,
Charlie