For those who like a quick answer when they read blog posts:
Garlic.
That’s it. Eat all the garlic and move on.
Thanks for reading! 🙂
P.S. Tomatoes, berries, onions and grapes are good too! [Link]
Links to the science supporting the efficacy of garlic for removing heavy metals from the body are at the bottom of the post.
For the rest of you… (interested in the details and science and some yummy garlic focused recipes from my friends)… continue reading below the disclaimer!
Disclaimer:
- I am not a doctor and any advice on this website should not take the place of medical advice from your doctor! [But hopefully your doctor will also encourage you to eat garlic!]
- In the case of acute high level lead poisoning a child may need medical chelation which is usually done in a hospital with close supervision by a doctor.
- However… it is interesting to note that one of the studies linked below supports the use of garlic for heavy metal detox and also specifically mentions that even children undergoing medical chelation may see additional benefits from adding garlic to their diet (in conjunction with other interventions deemed by their doctor to be medically necessary.)
Tamara why did you write this post with this sensational headline?
Frankly I get sick of everyone sharing with me about their new “detox protocol”. I haven’t yet found any prepared concoction (pill, powder or liquid) that itself has been rigorously tested for Lead contamination to standards that I currently* feel are appropriate (that has been tested and found to be 100% Lead-free – or in the low single digit parts per billion level — the only level that is actually protective of children’s health). While some natural chelation products used in medical / hospital settings or scientific studies may, in fact, be Lead-free – their readily available counterparts (that one can easily buy retail online for example) may not be.
- Bentonite clay has Lead (and the nonsense about it being “ionically charged to be non-bioavailable” is total BS). [Link]
- Some Modified Citrus Pectin has been found to have Lead. [More about MCP chelation here.]
- TRS has not yet been tested for Lead to my knowledge, but zeolite (in general) has been found to contain Lead. [Link]
- Some (but not all) commercial extracts/suspensions/tinctures (etc.) of Cilantro and Chlorella have been tested and found to contain unsafe levels of Lead. [More about those chelation methods here.]
IF a substance (any substance) is purported to “molecularly bond to Lead to help expedite the secretion and elimination of Lead”, there’s a pretty good chance it may be contaminated with Lead (by virtue of the very nature of the properties that people are extolling as a health benefit!)
While I did use a natural chelation product with my children when their levels were first high (and that product was a cilantro and chlorella based product that was the closest to an independently tested “Lead-free” product I could find), I have always talked about the benefits of diet, and the need for natural chelation efforts to be based in fresh, whole foods whenever possible. The one whole food that has been very well-studied (by multiple sets of independent scientists, no less!) and as I understand it, has been shown to effectively remove Lead both from the blood and from tissue (like muscles and organs) is garlic. These scientific studies have been conducted on both humans and other animals (including rats and chickens).
Your grandmother was right apparently… garlic fixes (cures?) everything!
To read more about my thoughts on garlic, click here (post has direct links to some of the science supporting the use of natural garlic as a good detox method.)
Looking for some quick, easy and creative ways to incorporate more garlic into your diet? Scroll down for links to some garlic-focused recipes provided by some of my cooking blogger friends. Personally I love adding it to green juice, eating it raw (in thin slices, or just nibbling on a clove), or roasting it whole and then spreading it on crackers. It’s also super easy to grow garlic in your garden in many U.S. climates.
Once something comes in a bottle or a powder or a capsule (including garlic!), I cease automatically trusting it as a potentially truly Lead-free supplement. The commercial manufacturing processes – of bottling, concentrating, grinding or encapsulating otherwise beneficial ingredients almost always adds (or concentrates) Lead. This is aggravated by the fact that a lot of equipment & machinery across all industries today (and this applies to both older and new equipment and includes equipment in the food and supplement industries), is still covered in Leaded paint, and/or employs the use of Leaded brass components to facilitate the functions of the machine.]
Related: Q. “Tamara, do you use supplements?” A. See this link!
PLEASE stop trying to get me to try, endorse, mention, discuss, comment on… the remedy you have chosen to use. Instead, do your own homework and make an educated decision based on the information you have at the time (along with the advice of your naturopath or doctor.) Do your best, do your best for your children – with the caveat that one should never eat clay – k? [Especially clay that is being sold and marketed as having magical healing properties!]
Links to the science supporting the efficacy of garlic in removing heavy metals from humans and animals are at the bottom of the post.
Continue reading below the recipes.
Some quick ways to add garlic to your diet:
As always, thank you for reading and for sharing my posts! [& a special thanks to my blogger friends for the above links!]
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
More garlic study and article links:
- Chickens: https://www.livestrong.com/article/199912-what-natural-herbs-can-be-taken-for-chelation/
- Chickens: https://pharmacologia.com/fulltext/?doi=pharmacologia.2014.110.119
- Chickens: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/073e/5ee1fba5fc024d51d8517d310a560e576beb.pdf
- Rats: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5598274/
- Rats: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f708/b59d7caca50e8b9118211594cf1f779e5a95.pdf
- Humans: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22151785
*When I first found NDF by BioRay I understood it to be “Lead-free”, my understanding of the definition of “Lead-free” (in the various contexts in which that term is used) has evolved over the years. I now understand it to mean that a product is known to be “Lead-free” given a set limit of detection used in testing a particular product, not necessarily 100% “Lead-free”. So NDF by BioRay has been tested (and is rigorously regularly tested) and found to be “Lead-Free” with the limit of detection (low threshold) being <0.050 ug/g. In “English” this is “less than 0.05 micrograms per gram”. That translates to “less than 0.05 parts per million”, so “less than 50 parts per billion.” While “less than 50 ppb” is a good place to start for a liquid supplement, given what I know now I would love to see more specific testing down to the single digit parts per billion if at all possible.
Hello,
I would like to incorporate more garlic in my diet. Can you recommend a safe garlic roaster?
Hi Lynn – we used to have an excellent terra cotta one -Here’s a link to a similar one, but I have not tested this exact product (aflink): https://amzn.to/3pNpi5I [So I cannot guarantee that the clear glaze on the food surface is lead-free.]
Personally I just stick it in the oven on a baking sheet and skip the special roasting dish these days – it really works just as well.
Tamara
Dear Tamara,
do you know if pickled garlic still be beneficial?my daughters could go through a whole jar if I let them.
Should we be avoiding buying minced garlic in glass jars.. would that be considered processed and possibly contaminated?
And thank you so much for touching on TRS! I am SO curious about it, but so paranoid it might do more harm than good. Its still too new to tell.
Thank you thank you!
Hello Tamara,
I am so grateful to found you! I just did a lab test on my son and the result is quite shocking, so he is full of High alumunium, Tin , mercury and lead, aluminium and tin is the highest one. Is stainless steel pan would be a great choice? thank you and looking forward to hearing from you!
Yes, stainless steel pans are a great choice! Here is Tamara’s post about pots and pans with guidelines on buying safe cookware 🙂 https://tamararubin.com/2021/01/i-want-to-buy-some-nontoxic-cookware-which-pots-pans-are-the-safest-for-cooking-which-pots-pans-are-the-least-toxic/
Yes, stainless steel pans are a great choice! Here is Tamara’s post about pots and pans with guidelines on buying safe cookware 🙂 https://tamararubin.com/2021/01/i-want-to-buy-some-nontoxic-cookware-which-pots-pans-are-the-safest-for-cooking-which-pots-pans-are-the-least-toxic/
Thanks for raising this Tamara. Much like yourself, I had read a lot of positive literature on the benefits of garlic when it comes to lead exposure.
Do you have any information on whether the cooking process denatures the beneficial effects of the garlic? I have experimented with eating raw cloves, however it does cause a rather anti social odour compared with using it as a cooking ingredient.
Hi! Do you know if the beneficial functions of garlic are passed through breast milk? My baby is not eating food yet, exclusively breastfed. She just tested at 2.81. it’s from our house which we will be staying out of until we resolve the problem. Also I second the previous person’s question about the benefits of raw versus cooked garlic. Thank you!
Do you have thoughts on prepped, jarred minced garlic (such as the massive purple one from Costco), versus fresh? I see you notes about supplements, but don’t know if that applies to jarred minced garlic. Thank you as always for your wonderful work.