10/23/2025
Excess lead in your protein shake? 🤨
“A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.”
There’s a scary-sounding article making the rounds in the fitness-sphere right now, but is it actually cause for concern? In a word, no. breaks it down in less than 3 minutes.
Basically, the benchmark Consumer Reports is using is Prop 65, an artifact of a consumer protection law passed in 1986 *in California only* whose standards have become unmoored from anything actually connected to public health (like the FDA or CDC guidelines, for example). Many commonly-consumed foods would also fail the same benchmark.
In any case, your protein powder likely isn’t even the worst thing you consume daily in terms of Prop 65, and California’s Disneyland resort infamously has a Prop 65 warning sign when you enter the theme park that warns that *the resort itself* contains chemicals “known to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.” Its only real function anymore is to deter lawsuits, and as mentioned in the video, in California, companies are “better safe than sued.”
Since your protein shake lands somewhere between a single square of dark chocolate and entering the Disneyland theme park in terms of risk, you’re probably okay. Another big nothingburger that aims to fearmonger and give a bad name to an otherwise [usually!] good industry.
