Natural Food Contaminants

Many, many times I have answered questions from this audience reflecting that ‘natural food’ or ‘natural ‘herbs’ may not be safe. From my readings I found this reference to Green Tea, a valuable suggested antioxidant with possible cancer properties. Clearly, all of these product are not created equal so this is just a warning for those of you who think that natural is always safe (let alone effective). There is never a guarantee that the products that you buy actually contain what you are buying. To get what you think, you need to be sure that these products are using ‘Good Manufacturing Processes” (GMP) and known term of art for quality manufacturing. The following piece comes from the ConsumerLab.com Newsletter:

CANCER PREVENTION SUPPLEMENTS (GREEN TEA, LYCOPENE, AND SELENIUM) JUST RELEASED — Certain foods and nutrients are associated with reduced risk of cancer. Many of these are anti-oxidants, scavenging free radicals that can otherwise damage cells. Supplements containing three popular ingredients — green tea , lycopene or selenium — were purchased and tested.

But problems were detected in three green tea products : Two were contaminated with lead and another contained only 71% of its claimed level of EGCG, a key compound in green tea. One selenium supplement contained only 38% of its ingredient .