Heavy metal blasting in the gym may get you amped up enough to lift heavy but the one place you wouldn’t expect to find heavy metal is your protein shake. Yet, according to Consumer Reports, all the major brands of protein powder they tested have detectable levels of toxic lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury in varying amounts that could be harmful over time.

The proteins that had the highest were products from EAS and Muscle Milk. Predictably, the protein manufacturers claim that the levels are below FDA limits for safety. We report, you decide.

Personally, I can’t get all worked up over this alarmist report. There are heavy metals present in some whole foods as well. I would be more concerned about excessive consumption of protein drinks, many of which use inferior quality proteins. You are better off with eggs, chicken and fish, (oops, more heavy metal) and they are less expensive than the megadose powders.

Ori Hofmekler sells a product called “Warrior Whey” that is of the highest quality with no heavy metals and tastes great. I am not selling his product but have been an enthusiastic consumer of it for some time. Ori is very strict about the quality and efficacy of his products.

Another clean protein supplement, endorsed by Mike Mahler is a rice-based protein called SunWarrior. I have not used SunWarrior and it looks like a good product, but they make no mention on possibly heavy metal content in their product.

So, since you probably already strive to eat as clean as possible, don’t eat crappy protein.