February 24, 2021 • 48 mins
From formula to pureed carrots, baby food is a massive -- and necessary -- industry. Each year millions upon millions of families search for the best, most nutritious food to feed their children, and there's no shortage of advice from experts and parents alike. However, it appears there's a secret to this industry: Numerous baby food products contain ingredients parents can't see on the label, including contaminants like mercury, lead, arsenic and more. How long has this been occurring? What did the manufacturers know, and when? Tune in to learn more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of I Heart Radio. Hello, welcome back to the show.
(00:26):
My name is Matt. Our compatriot Noel is on adventures,
but we'll be returning. They called me Ben. We're joined
as always with our super producer, all mission control decads.
Most importantly, you are you. You are here, and that
makes this stuff they don't want you to know. Matt.
I don't often say this, uh, because I don't want
(00:48):
to be alarmist, but today's episode is something that everyone
needs to pay close attention to. Uh. This is an
ongoing situation. This is a serious situation, and it's one, frankly,
that we could use your help with. We meaning not
just Matt and Paul and myself, um, but everyone listening,
(01:11):
especially parents with young children. Let's start with something wholesome.
You will be glad we did. I can aassure you so, Matt,
you remember the Gerber Baby. I do remember the Gerber Baby.
I've recently seen the Gerber Baby as of several years ago,
when I was taking their products and putting them into
my son. Yes. Yeah, the Gerber baby is probably one
(01:37):
of the most famous babies in modern history. And like
the Marlborough Man of old, the Gerber baby is actually
several different babies, uh, since night or so, the companies
used this adorable face of this type to sell their
products to parents around the US and the world old.
(02:01):
The interesting fact, for a long time, the identity of
the actual baby was a secret until the late seventies,
but as the years went on, the company began holding
these wildly popular contests to choose the next Gerber baby.
So there are there are probably people in the crowd
today who were contestants in that, you know, without their consent.
(02:25):
Of course, it was their parents or people who have said, hey,
my baby's cute, babe, my baby is Gerber baby cute.
In some ways, it's like this American tradition now and
it's probably gonna stand the test of time, But not
for the reason you might think it's gonna stand the
test of time, because nowadays Gerber is a subsidiary of
another much much larger company, Yeah, one that we've talked
(02:49):
about before. For us, it was in the context of water,
which they are very much known for, and there's also
a lot of water and gerber products, but that doesn't
mean that's why we're talking about them. The company you'll
remember is Nestle, known for their chocolate, the activities they
(03:10):
engage in to get that chocolate from a bean state
to your local grocery store. Known of course for bottled
water and their extensive work in that regard. We've covered
these as as Matt said in previous episodes, but did
you know conspiracy realists that Nestley is also this country's
(03:30):
largest purveyor of baby food, just the umbrella term baby food.
That's where our story begins. It's a story that we
have all been characters in, whether our part in the
story started when we were four to six months of age,
when babies typically begin eating solid food, or whether our
story starts later in life when we were parents, babysitters,
(03:55):
elder siblings, or guardians. This industry, at some point in
some way affects every single person on the planet. So
let's talk about it. Let's dive in. Here are the facts.
Baby food, Yeah, baby food. A lot of times, the
first food is milk from your mother. If you're a mammal,
(04:16):
that's generally how the story goes, but for a myriad
of reasons, that's not always in the cards for everyone.
So there are things like baby products, baby formula, baby food,
and like Ben said, around four to six months, that
food starts to change. And my goodness, we were all
babies and we all need food, and it is a
(04:38):
difficult thing to make baby food for your own child
on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. So that and that
means there's a lot of baby food, and it means
that it's a large market essentially, lots of people trying
to buy different baby food, which means it's a huge
competitive industry, lots of companies trying to buy for that
(05:00):
market share and retail sales in the baby food segment.
We're about seventy one point four billion US dollars in WOW,
and it's expected that in three years that number seventy
one point four billion dollars will jump to ninety eight
(05:20):
point nine billion dollars um And that's that jump is
a whole bunch of reasons, everything from inflation to the
number of people actually eating the baby food. There. There's
a bunch of stuff that goes into that projection, but
it is going to grow and we're getting some of
these from STATISTICA. So those numbers you just heard our us.
(05:41):
But UH, this projection, Uh, this projection has a lot
of different factors that can come into play. I love
that you pointed that Outmatt. We're not just talking about
projected births. Were also talking about parts of the world
where people have rising income. So people who were traditionally
(06:02):
having to make baby food at home can maybe now
spend a little bit more of that extra income at
the grocery store buying these products. In China officially became
the largest single market for baby food. UH. India comes
in second place. The US ranks six one incredibly depressing
(06:23):
US baby food fact I found because, as you know, Matt,
I'm not conventionally reading about baby food. Uh. Baby food, dude,
it is one of the most frequently shoplifted items in
the entirety of the US. That's that. That is a
statement that is true and has uh an anthology of
(06:45):
heartbreaking stories behind it. You know, it reminds me of
that old short story that so often attributed unprovably to
Hemingway for sale baby shoes never worn. Yeah, Hemingway, you
got it right, and it's not always shoplifting. Many times
it's oh wow, this kid grew a lot faster than
we expected. My son went I think he had he's
(07:09):
had two pairs of shoes now that we bought for him.
He tried them on war him for about a week
and then it was over and he couldn't wear them anymore.
And that's just how it goes. But yeah, you're right,
there are a lot of reasons why, through circumstances, you
may have to turn to getting food for your baby,
or you know something that you need for your baby
and you just can't afford it. It's it's terrible. Yeah,
(07:32):
Necessity is one of the greatest motivators for the breaking
of social norms right where the breaking of laws. So
let's look at the players in the baby food industry
right now. If you look at baby food in general,
and you include infant formula which can replace the mother's
(07:54):
milk that that you have mentioned, Matt, you will see
that this market is largely dominated it by three outfits Nestley,
a group called Brecket ben Keiser also known as Mead Johnson,
and another one that I wasn't too familiar with. I
don't know if you had heard of the Matt Danone, Danoni,
No I know Dannon, I don't know Danoni, d A
(08:17):
N O n E. I'm not sure about them. But yeah,
together those three firms control forty five cent of the
global market share when it comes to this stuff. That's
that's a lot of control for three companies. Oh, also
fact check fact check live, which we usually don't have
to do. Uh, it's a French company. It's pronounced donn
(08:40):
so so sorry about that for anybody who's gonna hear. Uh,
the conspiracy were unraveling and their primary objection would be
the mispronunciation there if that's what we got in front
of that. Yeah, think about that. They control almost half
of the global market share. And there are other players
in the game, of course, but these are the titans
(09:01):
of this industry. Ingredients regulations, all right, let's say it.
Baby food I just always assumed was not considered particularly
appetizing to many adults or many kids for that matter. Uh.
I was somewhat incorrect in that assumption. I found that
(09:21):
there there's a a whole wealth of literature of recipes
that use baby food as ingredients for for adults, and
there's some adults like baby food either way, it's not
going to hurt you if you eat it as an adult.
It does play this vital role in childhood development, like
you were saying, Matt, and I remember you know when
(09:44):
when your son was even younger, you were like, this
kid is growing so fast. I'm like, that's a wholesome
and a heart roar. I mean, and you're like, no, dude,
I have to buy clothes and stuff. Yeah, Like right
now he's out of clothes essentially because he's outgrown them
over the past couple of months. And my goodness it is.
(10:08):
It's not cheap, you guys. Thank goodness for places. Oh
I'm gonna blank on the name now Kid to kid,
I think is what it's called places like that where
it's hand me down clothes that because all these parents, everyone,
you are probably in the same situation out there where
you just you need to get rid of these clothes.
You need to get new clothes. You can trade them.
Kid to kid not sponsored by them, but they're great.
(10:29):
It is so true. And and this baby food is
highly important, as you said, for the for the nutrition
of these children. And I'm gonna have to point out
some of the newer baby foods at least newer to
me since I become a parent. Are actually pretty good.
It's essentially like a fruit and vegetable smoothie, but it's
more of a puree than um, you know, um, a
(10:53):
juice or something, and it's actually pretty tasty because it's
just you know, you're you're getting actual strawberries in there. Um,
it's not so bad. At least it doesn't taste immediately
so bad. Yeah, there we go. I mean kids, human
kids grow at a breakneck pace and have need a
steady supply of nutritious food. This is not a hot take.
(11:17):
The multiple a multitude of studies show that a lack
of proper nutrition, even in one specific area where another,
can have these damaging permanent effects on people throughout the
rest of their lives. Malnutrition is a great example, like
if you look at certain generations of people born in
(11:39):
South Korea and people born in the DPRK, you'll notice
that there is a observable, statistically consistent difference in height
because residents of the DPRK the vast majority for time
where lavery under food and security. So everybody knows this
is true. Everybody knows this is not the part that's
(12:00):
a hot take. These are just the facts, folks. In
the US, there's an outfit called the Center for Food
Safety and Applied Nutrition. They're responsible for the regulation of
infant formula specifically admit a number of other things. So
we have people with eyes on this, and even the
most extreme opponents of big government in the audience, even
(12:22):
even the most extreme of libertarians, can see the value
inherent in having some sort of authority keeping eye on
food manufacturers here. So this should be the opposite of
a hot button or controversial issue, right, yeah, of course,
why why would there be any problems here? I mean, right,
there is a problem, and it's a problem that's been
(12:45):
around for a while, and we're gonna tell you exactly
what it is and how bad it is. Right after
a word from our sponsor. Here's where it gets crazy. So, uh,
contamination baby food. It's real thing. It's not some alarmist
(13:08):
opinion whatever. There was a landmark congressional study just released
earlier this month. As Matt and I record this on
February four, Congress found that despite the existence of some regulations,
literal tons and tons and tons of baby food products
(13:32):
are contaminated such that you probably want to think twice
before you give them to your children. This wasn't an
isolated incident, folks. This was not like Company A, some
factory for Company A had a bad day, or got
some crap carrots and used them anyway, or some apple
(13:52):
cherry puree. I don't even know if that's a thing, Matt.
But instead this study they found that a wealth of
baby food products are contaminated with something called toxic heavy
metals inorganic arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury in particular. And
(14:13):
these aren't the only toxic heavy metals that historically have
been found in foods, especially in baby foods, but these
four are the ones that are focused on in this
congressional study, and the four metals they're bad, you guys.
All four are considered by the WHO to be the
(14:36):
top in the top ten chemicals of concern when it
comes to children, infants and younger younger children. Um. All
of them have been linked to things like cancer, chronic
diseases of all sorts of neurotoxic effects, learning disabilities, all
kinds of things, and their detrimental effects are way worse
(14:58):
for developing brains for young brains as compared to adults
and uh, you know, grown grown folks such as us. Um,
it's I mean, I am again in this episode, we're
gonna make a little bit light of some of this
in order to get through it. But this is very,
very serious and we're going to take it seriously. Yeah,
(15:20):
I mean consider, I know, as soon as a lot
of us heard that the L word, as soon as
a lot of us heard lead in baby food, were
thinking of the longitudinal studies linking crime to early lead exposure,
right often through pipes and you know, some water systems
and so on. But yeah, it gets worse, It gets much,
(15:42):
much worse. According to Representative Rajah Krishna Morte, who is
the chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy,
the congressional investigation that the subcommittee conducted quote revealed that
manufacturers knowingly sell, not sold, knowingly sell tainted baby food
(16:03):
to unsuspecting parents in spite of internal company test results
showing high levels of these toxic metals without any warning labels, right,
which from a pure profit motive makes sense. You're a parent,
You're going to you have to buy some kind of
baby food. You pick up two items next each other
(16:25):
on the shelf, you'll flip them around, look at the ingredients,
and one of them has a warning that says may
contain lead, which what are you gonna go for? You know, yeah,
or you know, may contain lead, arsenic, cadmium, and other
terrible things like mercury. Um. Yeah, you're not gonna buy that. Um.
And there we're gonna we're gonna break this stuff down
(16:46):
even further in their reasons why there are no labels
on there, and there are also reasons why that the
testing that has done why these companies is flawed. But
for now, what it does mean is that the manufacturers
of a lot of these baby foods were aware that
these substances were in their products, and they still let
let them get purchased, and they still manufactured them, and
(17:07):
they just kept going UM because that they knew that
there were potential dangers. And it doesn't mean that these
at least right now. If you're a parent listening to
this and you probably just fed your child some something
from beech nut or Gerber or whoever it was, UM,
it doesn't mean your baby is immediately in you know,
(17:29):
in peril because of this. It doesn't mean your child
is at risk right now, in this moment because you've
had them one thing, a baby food, but it does
mean feeding them over time could be a real risk.
And the companies that sold it to you new uhs
and kept doing it. That's just in the US, but
around the world they were explicitly aware of the potential
(17:51):
dangers here. So according to a guy named Dr Leonardo Trussande,
who is a professor of pediatric at the n y
U Grossman School of Medicine also the director of the
Center for the Investigation of Environmental Hazards over at n
y U. According to this doctor, critics have been raising
(18:12):
concerns about the possibility of this contamination for years. This
is not breaking news to the public. I mean it
definitely wasn't breaking news to the company's There was a
nonprofit organization still around called Clean Label Project, and they
release findings from a study they had commissioned that showed
(18:34):
the same thing we're talking about today. I think they
focused specifically on arsenic lead and mercury and their findings
and they found these again in the leading brand brand
name products for infant formula and baby food. And then
there was another study that came out just last year. Wait, No.
Two years ago. Now this came out in Yes, Yes,
(18:57):
study from Healthy Babies Bright Futures came out in October
of nineteen. They took it a step further from the
seventeen study. They looked at a hundred and sixty eight
baby foods. They were looking for the same stuff arsenic, led, mercury, academy, um,
and they found some terrible things. And right now, if
you go online and search I think how I found
(19:19):
it was toxic baby food, that's a good way to
find it. Or just look up that organization Healthy Babies
Bright Futures, you can find what we're about to tell you. Um.
They found of all of these foods that they tested
contained at least one of the heavy metals, and one
and four of the baby foods contained all four. So
(19:41):
a quarter of that hundred and sixty eight different types
of baby food contained all four heavy metals. Yeah, and
amid these metals, lead was the worst offender. So we
we know a lot about how lead can affect developing
human minds. Uh, of the baby foods tested contains some
(20:04):
degree of lead, Cadmium and arsenic followed. They were in
about three quarters around three quarters of all the baby
food tested, and you're always thinking that, uh, maybe there's
a way for manufacturers to spin things that contain I
don't think you could get away with this with lead,
too many people know about it. But if what if
(20:26):
you change to the label to now with ten more cadmium.
Cadmium sounds just enough like calcium that people would be fooled.
If you used a selective font, you can probably get
away with it. Make it papilous, make it something classy.
Uh right, So, uh, mercury was the least common of these.
(20:51):
Mercury was in less than a little less than one
third of the food tested, so comparatively, I guess that's
not so bad. This is stark. But you can find
like one other thing they found that is useful for
any parent listening today is that, um, some foods were
(21:12):
more likely to have this stuff. And we'll also explain
why later in today's episode. Yeah, well, we'll talk about
rice in particular, which is something that tends to have
more arsenic So rice based cereals and snacks were particularly
high in the stuff. And juices, dude, there have been
so many studies over the years about juices and and
(21:34):
it's for the same things we're going to talk about today,
the same processes that these heavy metals get into these products.
We're going to tell you about that. But juice is good. Lord.
Cranberry juice, you guys, was my absolute, all time favorite
thing for so many years, and now I'm just thinking twice.
I feel like my i Q has been reduced several points,
(21:56):
at least according to some of the studies, because of
the amount of cranberry I have taken into my body.
Well wait, wait, doctors recommend the cranberry juice for people
with kidney problems. Yeah, well, I guess where heavy metals
go your kidneys. I'm just choking. Oh my god, I'm
just joking. I'm kind of joking about that part. But
(22:17):
I really did drink a lot of cranberry juice. Um.
Another thing, are like tubers, especially sweet potatoes, things that
grow in the ground root vegetables. They can be especially
dangerous as well. Yeah, which has got to be a
surprise for a lot of us, because rice snacks are
often sold as a healthy alternative, right um, to various things.
(22:40):
And of course they're all over I almost said the
cereal community. They're all over the big cereal brands you know,
because rice is an inexpensive food stuff and it can
be very nutritious. So four of the seven rice cereals
that are specifically for infants that the study tested UH
(23:02):
contained inorganic arsenic, and that's the more toxic form of
of this metal. The levels of arsenic, of this type
of arsenic that we're in there exceeded the FDA's proposed
limit of one parts per billion. So the FDA for
this arsenic for this case does have a proposed limit,
(23:25):
which is, hey, guys, like you're talking allowed kids at
a dorm, Hey, guys, keep your arsenic levels down to
one parts per billion. Um. We're going to talk about
the FDA and baby foods. Yeah, only there is a
little bit of light in the tunnel, but it's faint
(23:47):
and it's distant. Of the one hundred and sixty eight
baby foods tested, some were found not to contain traces
of any of these four medals. Exactly nine baby foods
of a hundred and sixty eight were found to be clean.
So these studies are in large part what prompted this
(24:07):
congressional investigation. And in the course of this investigation, the
Congress has seven of the largest maybe food producers in
the US to give their own internal documents and their
own test results, because naturally, you know, part of being
a food company and selling to the public means that
you have to have internal testing. There are safety standards
(24:30):
of some sort you have to meet. Here's the thing, though, Matt.
Four companies replied to the request, Nurture, Beechnut, Hayne, and Gerber,
But a couple of companies just didn't do it. Imagine that, like,
what level are you at when Congress ask you for
something and you go, ah, well, you're at Walmart level? Right?
(24:54):
Specifically Sure, which is one of the companies that did
not respond all So Campbell, like Campbell Soup, they produced
quite a bit of baby food as well as Sprout
Organic Foods, which I have to say is one of
the biggest brands that my family chose to feed our son, uh,
(25:15):
which troubles me greatly, But that's okay, that's okay. So yeah,
they didn't respond. They didn't They didn't give the investigators anything, um,
and it made them, you know, the people were looking
into this quote greatly concerned. Yeah, and that's that is
a verbatim quote, but it doesn't doesn't quite nail the
(25:37):
reaction that people people would be having, right. So, uh,
several of the companies we should not to be fair
I have released public statements in response to this or
have responded to members of the media asking them about it.
You can read those statements online. They are pretty much
exactly what you expect, which is uh. The gist is
(26:00):
we test rigorously for any materials or anything that can't
legally be included in this stuff. Or the way it
will sometimes be phrased is we rigidly adhere to all
federal guidelines something or FDA standards or something like that.
And one of the major things you'll read in these
statements is that they test each product as it comes in.
(26:26):
So one of the major things we're going to continue
on here is that they test the carrot when it
comes in and gets ready for the manufacturing process. They
test the apple, they test you know, the individual foods.
The big question though, is are they actually testing the
end product and where where are those numbers? Because that's
(26:46):
what this investigation was looking at the actual product and
the containers to write that's how they would That's some
of the metrics the studies use, or some of the
language so specific Examples of this kind of stuff include
a or speech not gerber, that's a bummer, Plum Organics,
parents Choice, Manny Manny, many many more. And I know
(27:09):
these names are familiar to a lot of folks listening
to the show today, and maybe to my co host, Dude,
I know the plumb Organics one too. Do you, as
a parent like you're trying to You're trying to give
your kid the best stuff. No matter who you are,
no matter where you are, you want to give your
kid the best stuff you can afford. And you know
(27:29):
the best foods. You have access to the healthiest things.
And I swear to you, man, a lot of these
foods market themselves and convey They market themselves as being healthy.
They convince you as a parent that you're doing the
right thing. And I'm not saying that you're doing the
wrong thing by feeding your kids these things. It's just
(27:49):
it's a it feels like a real betrayal knowing that
they knew right right. And of course none of this
is medical advice. We're just we're giving you the lay
of the lay of this um disturbing land. So how
how about this We should point out that there doubtlessly
(28:10):
other products out there containing these poisons. This is the
beginning of what may end up being an even larger list.
We're going to pause for a word from our sponsor
and will return to talk a little bit about how
we as a society got here, the potential health effects,
and what if anything, you can do as an individual
(28:33):
or your communities can do as a group to combat
this problem. We're back. The danger here is not theoretical.
The danger here has proven. It is clear these substances
(28:54):
can cause harm to a baby's developing brain and nervous system,
both while they're in utero and after birth. Impacts can
include things like the permanent loss of intellectual capacity, and
they've also been linked to things like a d h
D or autism. All four of these antagonists in this
(29:17):
story are linked to i Q loss from exposures early
in life. The evidence is here. There's hard science behind it.
The science behind it spans decades. The research is ongoing,
and it keeps proving the same stuff. There were at
least twenty three studies published in the last seven or
eight years that confirm the impact specifically of these toxic
(29:42):
heavy metals on the healthy development of children. These studies
are available. These studies are things that manufacturers of baby
food would have been well aware of at the time,
at least in part it appears, according to congress because
their own internal testing confirmed it. Yeah, so let's let's
(30:03):
let's now jump to the f d A and like,
what do they say? What are what are the safe
levels of some of these heavy metals? Are there any
safe levels? What does that look like? How do you
measure that kind of stuff? Well, in order to get
a handle on this, we are forced to look at
drinking water statistics and FDA gu FDA guidelines and a
(30:24):
couple like E p A guidelines for drinking water. So,
according to this Congressional report, and according to the Food
and Drug Administration, the f d A has a limit
allowable level of some of this stuff in bottled water.
So when you're talking about when you're talking about arsenic,
it's ten parts per billion of this inorganic arsenic, this
(30:45):
particular type of the metal. When you're talking about lead,
it's capped at five parts per billion as the allowable amount,
and academium five parts per billion. Okay, so really low
ten five and five parts per billion to be safe
in drinking water. The E p A. When it looks
(31:06):
at this has capped the allowable level of mercury and
drinking water at two parts per billion. Again almost nothing,
almost zero. Um. But then we got to look at
the test results of these baby foods and it is
pretty astounding the levels that were found. Right the test
(31:28):
results four baby food and their ingredients. Back to your
earlier point, Matt h. Congress says, they eclipse those levels.
There are results that are up to nine U one
times the allowable level of arsenic again embottled water, up
to a hundred and seventy seven times the level of lead,
(31:50):
sixty nine times nice the level of cadmium, and up
to five times the level of mercury. And again remember
we said mercury is the one that seems to a
or the least often. So why are we using bottled water? Why?
Why did why did you say we're forced to use
the standards for bottled water. Well, that's because there are
(32:13):
no f d A standards for these heavy metals in
baby food. Um, they don't, they don't exist. There are
no standards for them. That's wild because of their babies. Sorry,
sorry that was at the meter. Yeah, it's just it
(32:34):
feels like insanity. I don't understand. Yeah, it's unacceptable. And
you know, we want to be clear when we're talking
about institutions doing this kind of stuff. We're not saying, uh,
you working for the FDA or your friend working for
the f d A is somehow inherently a bad person.
These are things that happen collectively with institutions. There. Maybe
(33:00):
there were some lobbyists putting their thumb on the scale.
I would not at this point be in the least surprised. Um,
maybe there was just uh, an overwhelming amount of paperwork.
But the end result is that kids are literally eating
lead and cat or snake and mercury. So that is
(33:24):
where we are now. There are some proposed limits, but
the FDA doesn't have these hard limits in That's why
we had to compare it to bottled water. What is
to be done? Well, as we said at the top,
this does not have an easy answer. There's not one
particular institution that can correct it. If the f d
(33:45):
A came back today and said these levels have to
be this, then manufacturers would of course be legally bound
to scramble to meet those constraints. But look, it's it's
so easy to make someone the bad guy. It's not
as if these manufacturers are like sitting around on their
(34:08):
coffee break from their Illuminati meeting or their Bohemian grove
meeting and saying, you know, it would be fun if
you're real, like a real kick for all of us. Uh,
since we're out of adrenal chrome, why don't we just
start adding stuff to baby food. They didn't think about
it like that. They didn't scheme to purposefully put dangerous
(34:29):
substances in your children's food. That food comes from somewhere else.
It doesn't come from those factories, right, It comes from
the soil, and that food grows in the soil using
nutrients and using water. When the land and the water
and the air are contaminated, then we are already starting
(34:49):
out at a fundamental disadvantage in the supply chain. Even
if you're a billion dollar company. Right now, there are
only so many places in the world old where you
can get certain crops. It's true, that's just the reality.
It's not to take. So these substances are also all
elements that are occurring in the wild now because they've
(35:12):
been frequently used in pesticides like the last century or
so and they didn't ever go away. They're still in
the soil, they're still in the groundwater, even if they
stopped being used in pesticides a decades ago. That doesn't
mean that doesn't mean the the missteps of the past
were somehow negated and the billing bill and short comes due. Yeah,
(35:37):
that's very true. And there's also a lot of these
particularly lead that were just pumped out into the air
through automobiles for a long time. When you're when you're
thinking about diesel and the lead that was contained in
their lead paint, all kinds of lead products that just
ended up in the environment. Uh, there are a lot
of reasons that the soil itself, as you said, ben
(35:59):
is going to be contaminated, because the air was contaminated,
because the water was contaminated at some point, because X
was contaminated at some point. It continues to be polluted
and contaminated. And it's um it's it is a very
tough situation knowing that, knowing that I think it's around
one percent of the Earth's land area is actually able
(36:21):
to be or to be used for producing crops. It's
a very small amount of the earth that humanity can
actually use to grow its food. And you know, what
are you gonna do when you can't use it? Let alone?
The whole was it the phosphorus. It was the phosphorus
thing where we're running out it really it's not my mind, dude,
(36:46):
to take us and maybe a slightly less hopefully less
depressing tangent. Did you know that phosphorus is being considered
as one of the markers of possible life on other
planets or intelligent life like in the search in the
search for stuff we've been the human species has been
(37:06):
looking for uh, evidence of water, evidence of other things
like carbon, etcetera. But phosphorus may end up being the key.
It's more important than a lot of people think. And
don't don't let them fool you, Ben. They're just looking
for phosphorus so that we can take it and bring
it back here because we need it. Phosphorus heist and
down I would be. I would crue on that mission.
(37:28):
According to the World Bank, the percentage of arable land
the world percentage of the world's total land area that
could be considered agricultural. It's pretty high, it's thirty seven
point seven. But the part that can be considered arable land,
which is what I think we're really talking about is
only ten point six and that that number may decrease
(37:51):
over time, but a little better than so thank goodness, well,
thank goodness for all. But but okay, so here's another question.
If the f d A has not set those minimal levels,
it's a messed up question. But it's when or show
has to ask, are these manufacturers breaking the law in
(38:15):
their conspiracy to put profits over the health of children?
It is a conspiracy totally, but is it an a
legal conspiracy at this point? That's tough. I'll have them
talk to my attorneys. Wait, I'll have to hire some attorneys.
But yeah, I don't want to get sued by these guys,
you know, by Big Baby. No, not that so uh,
(38:40):
there are there are advocates who believe that there's a
strong legal case here. About a week after that report
published earlier this February, a law firm got involved. Their
name is Balm, Headland, Eresty and Goldman, and they have
started accepting lawsuit cases about toxic baby food for parents
(39:02):
who purchase food from any of those brands, uh and
have children who have been diagnosed with autism or a
d h D Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Uh but again,
but again, none of that cleanses the ecosystem of these contaminants,
and from what we understand of the current science, nobody
(39:26):
really knows how to get the genie back in the
bottle here, or if there is a way, it's still
largely theoretical, and multiple institutions are unwilling to bear the
cost of the attempt itself. So the current hope right now,
amidst the nonprofit groups, the concerned parents, the politicians, everybody,
(39:51):
is that the findings of these and other studies might
spur manufacturers to do more testing and to change their practice.
Is as much as possible to get these levels down.
But then we have to ask. We have to ask
about the other folks in the in the crowd, the
other folks who are affected by this supply chain, the parents,
(40:14):
Like what if? What if you are listening to this
episode and this is the first time you're learning about this,
your first question is what the hell do I do? Now? Yeah? Yeah,
what the hell do I do? And in order to
discuss that, you have to talk about a few things.
The first one is that, um, it appears because of
(40:40):
how these heavy metals function We are talking about a
cumulative effect when it comes to these things. And it's
not a you get dosed one time by eating you know,
a particular baby food that has some arsenic in it,
and then now your child has issues. The problem is
it's cumulative. So I've been watching way too much daytime
(41:03):
TV where they've had experts on talking about this's been
I've been watching so much. Do you remember that show
The Doctors. They did a fairly good job actually by
having numerous experts on and getting some competing opinions here. Um,
But the takeaway from all of them together, I would
say is that pediatricians say that you just need to
(41:27):
if you are feeding your child baby food, you need
to just limit the number of these things they're eating
and supplement it with really fresh fruits generally, it's what
what they're saying, and grains not rice. Um. That that's
just the first thing. I'm just gonna put that out there.
That's what I have heard, and that your child is not,
(41:48):
you know, in danger just for eating you know, one
pouch or whatever that has some of these medals in it.
Right right, this is not a death sentence. This is
there there's a cumulative aggregate effected play with exposured almost
any substance. But it does make it there's a trust
issue then that I have, at least personally when it
(42:08):
comes to this stuff, because as a parent, it feels
like my trust, like the trust between me and these
baby food manufacturers has been broken. Then it's making me
question you know, the advice I'm getting from daytime TV
experts who are being paid to go on television and
you know who a lot of times are sponsored by
(42:29):
these big companies. Uh So it's it's tough to know.
It's really tough to know. The good thing is that
there are all kinds of resources out there online that
you can check out. You can educate yourself, and you
can make the best decisions, you know, at least for
that you can for you and your family. Yeah. Yeah,
(42:49):
And and some of the nonprofits we mentioned earlier have
have advice as well on how to combat the rate
of heavy metal consumption by exactly as you describe, Matt,
finding safer alternatives to baby foods that may be on
these lists or found to contain these substances, you know,
(43:11):
oatmeal instead of rice, cereal or barley, etcetera. Maybe frozen
bananas to replace teething cookies or biscuits. However, as any
current or expecting parent knows, the world is full of
advice for you. The cup of unsolicited parenting advice runneth over,
(43:32):
you know, like, and these sources of advice are not
created equally. Uh, don't don't be fooled. I mean you
don't don't assume that everybody's automatically a bad actor. But
don't let someone's opinion or persuasive writing fool you into
thinking what you're reading is automatically factual. Uh. It stinks
(43:55):
right now that the burden of researches on people who
have often us entered the busiest time of their adult
lives and are trying to like sleep occasionally. It stinks
that part of that part of that burden falls on
you as a parent, to do the digging, do the research.
(44:16):
To not be afraid of writing directly to companies with
questions if you don't feel like you're getting satisfactory answers,
uh searching online. The I guarantee these companies have people
whose entire job, their full time job, is to field
and answer these questions, so they will be there. Um
and then even if you find a blog that you
(44:39):
really like, look for the science, look for the boring stuff,
look for the numbers, look for the studies. That congressional
report is available freely online. The studies that we mentioned
are also freely available online. This stuff is not you know,
this is not a secret military program. Hopefully. Uh. This
stuff should all be declassified and for public consumption. And
(45:02):
now we arrive at your part of the story, fellow
conspiracy realist, as bat and I said at the top,
we need your help. How do you think this contamination
can or should be addressed? Do these companies owe any
kind of compensation to the children and the parents involved?
I mean, how would that even work? That's a huge question. Uh.
(45:25):
And and perhaps most importantly, do you have a personal
story or experience you would like to share with us
or your fellow listeners. If so, please let us know.
We try to be easy to find online. And that's right.
You can find us on Facebook and Twitter where we
are Conspiracy Stuff Conspiracy Stuff Show. On Instagram, you can
(45:46):
check out Here's where it Gets Crazy. That is our
group on Facebook with by the way, some of the
best mods on the planet, coolest human beings you will
ever meet, Uh. Hopefully you you won't cross them and
have to meet them that way, you'll meet them in
a happy way. On here's where it gets crazy. If
(46:06):
you if you don't like using social media, well, hey,
you can find us via your phone. Yes, that's right, Matt.
We have a phone number one eight three three S
T D W y t K. Call. You'll hear, You'll
hear a voicemail message. You'll have three minutes. Those three
minutes belong to you. We can't wait to hear from you.
(46:28):
We have some tips for you that will help you,
help you get around some of the weirdness of speaking
into the void for three minutes. First, go ahead and
open with uh, your name or your nickname uh, and
let us know whether or not you are okay with
your voice and name being used on air where your
(46:49):
nickname uh. Second, tell us what's going on, give us
the scoop, give us the skinny, hip us, hit us
to the story. Uh. And then third, if there's anything
you want to just say to us, then leave that
for the end. If if it's something you just want Matt, Noel,
Alexis or Paul or me to know uh. And then fourth,
(47:11):
last thing most important, If there's a really long story
that's on your mind. Uh, go ahead and write to
us at our email address and we'll we'll give you
that email address. We we made some pretty good progress
I think going through our voicemail Q. And you did that, dude,
(47:31):
We thank you. We did it. And Matt had to
be a one man army for a very long time.
So we instituted something that without any hint of irony
or pretension. We were calling operations sportsed Earth voicemail mail.
That was better. We should have That's what we should
(47:51):
have gone with. But but so we can't wait to
hear from you. But if you do not feel comfortable
with the social meds, uh, if you don't really dig
using the phone, totally get it. That's why we are
always here for you. There's one easy way you can
always contact us. There's our good old fashioned email address
(48:12):
where we are conspiracy at i heart radio dot com.
(48:35):
Stuff they don't want you to know is a production
of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
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learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of I Heart Radio. Hello, welcome back to the show.
(00:26):
My name is Matt. Our compatriot Noel is on adventures,
but we'll be returning. They called me Ben. We're joined
as always with our super producer, all mission control decads.
Most importantly, you are you. You are here, and that
makes this stuff they don't want you to know. Matt.
I don't often say this, uh, because I don't want
(00:48):
to be alarmist, but today's episode is something that everyone
needs to pay close attention to. Uh. This is an
ongoing situation. This is a serious situation, and it's one, frankly,
that we could use your help with. We meaning not
just Matt and Paul and myself, um, but everyone listening,
(01:11):
especially parents with young children. Let's start with something wholesome.
You will be glad we did. I can aassure you so, Matt,
you remember the Gerber Baby. I do remember the Gerber Baby.
I've recently seen the Gerber Baby as of several years ago,
when I was taking their products and putting them into
my son. Yes. Yeah, the Gerber baby is probably one
(01:37):
of the most famous babies in modern history. And like
the Marlborough Man of old, the Gerber baby is actually
several different babies, uh, since night or so, the companies
used this adorable face of this type to sell their
products to parents around the US and the world old.
(02:01):
The interesting fact, for a long time, the identity of
the actual baby was a secret until the late seventies,
but as the years went on, the company began holding
these wildly popular contests to choose the next Gerber baby.
So there are there are probably people in the crowd
today who were contestants in that, you know, without their consent.
(02:25):
Of course, it was their parents or people who have said, hey,
my baby's cute, babe, my baby is Gerber baby cute.
In some ways, it's like this American tradition now and
it's probably gonna stand the test of time, But not
for the reason you might think it's gonna stand the
test of time, because nowadays Gerber is a subsidiary of
another much much larger company, Yeah, one that we've talked
(02:49):
about before. For us, it was in the context of water,
which they are very much known for, and there's also
a lot of water and gerber products, but that doesn't
mean that's why we're talking about them. The company you'll
remember is Nestle, known for their chocolate, the activities they
(03:10):
engage in to get that chocolate from a bean state
to your local grocery store. Known of course for bottled
water and their extensive work in that regard. We've covered
these as as Matt said in previous episodes, but did
you know conspiracy realists that Nestley is also this country's
(03:30):
largest purveyor of baby food, just the umbrella term baby food.
That's where our story begins. It's a story that we
have all been characters in, whether our part in the
story started when we were four to six months of age,
when babies typically begin eating solid food, or whether our
story starts later in life when we were parents, babysitters,
(03:55):
elder siblings, or guardians. This industry, at some point in
some way affects every single person on the planet. So
let's talk about it. Let's dive in. Here are the facts.
Baby food, Yeah, baby food. A lot of times, the
first food is milk from your mother. If you're a mammal,
(04:16):
that's generally how the story goes, but for a myriad
of reasons, that's not always in the cards for everyone.
So there are things like baby products, baby formula, baby food,
and like Ben said, around four to six months, that
food starts to change. And my goodness, we were all
babies and we all need food, and it is a
(04:38):
difficult thing to make baby food for your own child
on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. So that and that
means there's a lot of baby food, and it means
that it's a large market essentially, lots of people trying
to buy different baby food, which means it's a huge
competitive industry, lots of companies trying to buy for that
(05:00):
market share and retail sales in the baby food segment.
We're about seventy one point four billion US dollars in WOW,
and it's expected that in three years that number seventy
one point four billion dollars will jump to ninety eight
(05:20):
point nine billion dollars um And that's that jump is
a whole bunch of reasons, everything from inflation to the
number of people actually eating the baby food. There. There's
a bunch of stuff that goes into that projection, but
it is going to grow and we're getting some of
these from STATISTICA. So those numbers you just heard our us.
(05:41):
But UH, this projection, Uh, this projection has a lot
of different factors that can come into play. I love
that you pointed that Outmatt. We're not just talking about
projected births. Were also talking about parts of the world
where people have rising income. So people who were traditionally
(06:02):
having to make baby food at home can maybe now
spend a little bit more of that extra income at
the grocery store buying these products. In China officially became
the largest single market for baby food. UH. India comes
in second place. The US ranks six one incredibly depressing
(06:23):
US baby food fact I found because, as you know, Matt,
I'm not conventionally reading about baby food. Uh. Baby food, dude,
it is one of the most frequently shoplifted items in
the entirety of the US. That's that. That is a
statement that is true and has uh an anthology of
(06:45):
heartbreaking stories behind it. You know, it reminds me of
that old short story that so often attributed unprovably to
Hemingway for sale baby shoes never worn. Yeah, Hemingway, you
got it right, and it's not always shoplifting. Many times
it's oh wow, this kid grew a lot faster than
we expected. My son went I think he had he's
(07:09):
had two pairs of shoes now that we bought for him.
He tried them on war him for about a week
and then it was over and he couldn't wear them anymore.
And that's just how it goes. But yeah, you're right,
there are a lot of reasons why, through circumstances, you
may have to turn to getting food for your baby,
or you know something that you need for your baby
and you just can't afford it. It's it's terrible. Yeah,
(07:32):
Necessity is one of the greatest motivators for the breaking
of social norms right where the breaking of laws. So
let's look at the players in the baby food industry
right now. If you look at baby food in general,
and you include infant formula which can replace the mother's
(07:54):
milk that that you have mentioned, Matt, you will see
that this market is largely dominated it by three outfits Nestley,
a group called Brecket ben Keiser also known as Mead Johnson,
and another one that I wasn't too familiar with. I
don't know if you had heard of the Matt Danone, Danoni,
No I know Dannon, I don't know Danoni, d A
(08:17):
N O n E. I'm not sure about them. But yeah,
together those three firms control forty five cent of the
global market share when it comes to this stuff. That's
that's a lot of control for three companies. Oh, also
fact check fact check live, which we usually don't have
to do. Uh, it's a French company. It's pronounced donn
(08:40):
so so sorry about that for anybody who's gonna hear. Uh,
the conspiracy were unraveling and their primary objection would be
the mispronunciation there if that's what we got in front
of that. Yeah, think about that. They control almost half
of the global market share. And there are other players
in the game, of course, but these are the titans
(09:01):
of this industry. Ingredients regulations, all right, let's say it.
Baby food I just always assumed was not considered particularly
appetizing to many adults or many kids for that matter. Uh.
I was somewhat incorrect in that assumption. I found that
(09:21):
there there's a a whole wealth of literature of recipes
that use baby food as ingredients for for adults, and
there's some adults like baby food either way, it's not
going to hurt you if you eat it as an adult.
It does play this vital role in childhood development, like
you were saying, Matt, and I remember you know when
(09:44):
when your son was even younger, you were like, this
kid is growing so fast. I'm like, that's a wholesome
and a heart roar. I mean, and you're like, no, dude,
I have to buy clothes and stuff. Yeah, Like right
now he's out of clothes essentially because he's outgrown them
over the past couple of months. And my goodness it is.
(10:08):
It's not cheap, you guys. Thank goodness for places. Oh
I'm gonna blank on the name now Kid to kid,
I think is what it's called places like that where
it's hand me down clothes that because all these parents, everyone,
you are probably in the same situation out there where
you just you need to get rid of these clothes.
You need to get new clothes. You can trade them.
Kid to kid not sponsored by them, but they're great.
(10:29):
It is so true. And and this baby food is
highly important, as you said, for the for the nutrition
of these children. And I'm gonna have to point out
some of the newer baby foods at least newer to
me since I become a parent. Are actually pretty good.
It's essentially like a fruit and vegetable smoothie, but it's
more of a puree than um, you know, um, a
(10:53):
juice or something, and it's actually pretty tasty because it's
just you know, you're you're getting actual strawberries in there. Um,
it's not so bad. At least it doesn't taste immediately
so bad. Yeah, there we go. I mean kids, human
kids grow at a breakneck pace and have need a
steady supply of nutritious food. This is not a hot take.
(11:17):
The multiple a multitude of studies show that a lack
of proper nutrition, even in one specific area where another,
can have these damaging permanent effects on people throughout the
rest of their lives. Malnutrition is a great example, like
if you look at certain generations of people born in
(11:39):
South Korea and people born in the DPRK, you'll notice
that there is a observable, statistically consistent difference in height
because residents of the DPRK the vast majority for time
where lavery under food and security. So everybody knows this
is true. Everybody knows this is not the part that's
(12:00):
a hot take. These are just the facts, folks. In
the US, there's an outfit called the Center for Food
Safety and Applied Nutrition. They're responsible for the regulation of
infant formula specifically admit a number of other things. So
we have people with eyes on this, and even the
most extreme opponents of big government in the audience, even
(12:22):
even the most extreme of libertarians, can see the value
inherent in having some sort of authority keeping eye on
food manufacturers here. So this should be the opposite of
a hot button or controversial issue, right, yeah, of course,
why why would there be any problems here? I mean, right,
there is a problem, and it's a problem that's been
(12:45):
around for a while, and we're gonna tell you exactly
what it is and how bad it is. Right after
a word from our sponsor. Here's where it gets crazy. So, uh,
contamination baby food. It's real thing. It's not some alarmist
(13:08):
opinion whatever. There was a landmark congressional study just released
earlier this month. As Matt and I record this on
February four, Congress found that despite the existence of some regulations,
literal tons and tons and tons of baby food products
(13:32):
are contaminated such that you probably want to think twice
before you give them to your children. This wasn't an
isolated incident, folks. This was not like Company A, some
factory for Company A had a bad day, or got
some crap carrots and used them anyway, or some apple
(13:52):
cherry puree. I don't even know if that's a thing, Matt.
But instead this study they found that a wealth of
baby food products are contaminated with something called toxic heavy
metals inorganic arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury in particular. And
(14:13):
these aren't the only toxic heavy metals that historically have
been found in foods, especially in baby foods, but these
four are the ones that are focused on in this
congressional study, and the four metals they're bad, you guys.
All four are considered by the WHO to be the
(14:36):
top in the top ten chemicals of concern when it
comes to children, infants and younger younger children. Um. All
of them have been linked to things like cancer, chronic
diseases of all sorts of neurotoxic effects, learning disabilities, all
kinds of things, and their detrimental effects are way worse
(14:58):
for developing brains for young brains as compared to adults
and uh, you know, grown grown folks such as us. Um,
it's I mean, I am again in this episode, we're
gonna make a little bit light of some of this
in order to get through it. But this is very,
very serious and we're going to take it seriously. Yeah,
(15:20):
I mean consider, I know, as soon as a lot
of us heard that the L word, as soon as
a lot of us heard lead in baby food, were
thinking of the longitudinal studies linking crime to early lead exposure,
right often through pipes and you know, some water systems
and so on. But yeah, it gets worse, It gets much,
(15:42):
much worse. According to Representative Rajah Krishna Morte, who is
the chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy,
the congressional investigation that the subcommittee conducted quote revealed that
manufacturers knowingly sell, not sold, knowingly sell tainted baby food
(16:03):
to unsuspecting parents in spite of internal company test results
showing high levels of these toxic metals without any warning labels, right,
which from a pure profit motive makes sense. You're a parent,
You're going to you have to buy some kind of
baby food. You pick up two items next each other
(16:25):
on the shelf, you'll flip them around, look at the ingredients,
and one of them has a warning that says may
contain lead, which what are you gonna go for? You know, yeah,
or you know, may contain lead, arsenic, cadmium, and other
terrible things like mercury. Um. Yeah, you're not gonna buy that. Um.
And there we're gonna we're gonna break this stuff down
(16:46):
even further in their reasons why there are no labels
on there, and there are also reasons why that the
testing that has done why these companies is flawed. But
for now, what it does mean is that the manufacturers
of a lot of these baby foods were aware that
these substances were in their products, and they still let
let them get purchased, and they still manufactured them, and
(17:07):
they just kept going UM because that they knew that
there were potential dangers. And it doesn't mean that these
at least right now. If you're a parent listening to
this and you probably just fed your child some something
from beech nut or Gerber or whoever it was, UM,
it doesn't mean your baby is immediately in you know,
(17:29):
in peril because of this. It doesn't mean your child
is at risk right now, in this moment because you've
had them one thing, a baby food, but it does
mean feeding them over time could be a real risk.
And the companies that sold it to you new uhs
and kept doing it. That's just in the US, but
around the world they were explicitly aware of the potential
(17:51):
dangers here. So according to a guy named Dr Leonardo Trussande,
who is a professor of pediatric at the n y
U Grossman School of Medicine also the director of the
Center for the Investigation of Environmental Hazards over at n
y U. According to this doctor, critics have been raising
(18:12):
concerns about the possibility of this contamination for years. This
is not breaking news to the public. I mean it
definitely wasn't breaking news to the company's There was a
nonprofit organization still around called Clean Label Project, and they
release findings from a study they had commissioned that showed
(18:34):
the same thing we're talking about today. I think they
focused specifically on arsenic lead and mercury and their findings
and they found these again in the leading brand brand
name products for infant formula and baby food. And then
there was another study that came out just last year. Wait, No.
Two years ago. Now this came out in Yes, Yes,
(18:57):
study from Healthy Babies Bright Futures came out in October
of nineteen. They took it a step further from the
seventeen study. They looked at a hundred and sixty eight
baby foods. They were looking for the same stuff arsenic, led, mercury, academy, um,
and they found some terrible things. And right now, if
you go online and search I think how I found
(19:19):
it was toxic baby food, that's a good way to
find it. Or just look up that organization Healthy Babies
Bright Futures, you can find what we're about to tell you. Um.
They found of all of these foods that they tested
contained at least one of the heavy metals, and one
and four of the baby foods contained all four. So
(19:41):
a quarter of that hundred and sixty eight different types
of baby food contained all four heavy metals. Yeah, and
amid these metals, lead was the worst offender. So we
we know a lot about how lead can affect developing
human minds. Uh, of the baby foods tested contains some
(20:04):
degree of lead, Cadmium and arsenic followed. They were in
about three quarters around three quarters of all the baby
food tested, and you're always thinking that, uh, maybe there's
a way for manufacturers to spin things that contain I
don't think you could get away with this with lead,
too many people know about it. But if what if
(20:26):
you change to the label to now with ten more cadmium.
Cadmium sounds just enough like calcium that people would be fooled.
If you used a selective font, you can probably get
away with it. Make it papilous, make it something classy.
Uh right, So, uh, mercury was the least common of these.
(20:51):
Mercury was in less than a little less than one
third of the food tested, so comparatively, I guess that's
not so bad. This is stark. But you can find
like one other thing they found that is useful for
any parent listening today is that, um, some foods were
(21:12):
more likely to have this stuff. And we'll also explain
why later in today's episode. Yeah, well, we'll talk about
rice in particular, which is something that tends to have
more arsenic So rice based cereals and snacks were particularly
high in the stuff. And juices, dude, there have been
so many studies over the years about juices and and
(21:34):
it's for the same things we're going to talk about today,
the same processes that these heavy metals get into these products.
We're going to tell you about that. But juice is good. Lord.
Cranberry juice, you guys, was my absolute, all time favorite
thing for so many years, and now I'm just thinking twice.
I feel like my i Q has been reduced several points,
(21:56):
at least according to some of the studies, because of
the amount of cranberry I have taken into my body.
Well wait, wait, doctors recommend the cranberry juice for people
with kidney problems. Yeah, well, I guess where heavy metals
go your kidneys. I'm just choking. Oh my god, I'm
just joking. I'm kind of joking about that part. But
(22:17):
I really did drink a lot of cranberry juice. Um.
Another thing, are like tubers, especially sweet potatoes, things that
grow in the ground root vegetables. They can be especially
dangerous as well. Yeah, which has got to be a
surprise for a lot of us, because rice snacks are
often sold as a healthy alternative, right um, to various things.
(22:40):
And of course they're all over I almost said the
cereal community. They're all over the big cereal brands you know,
because rice is an inexpensive food stuff and it can
be very nutritious. So four of the seven rice cereals
that are specifically for infants that the study tested UH
(23:02):
contained inorganic arsenic, and that's the more toxic form of
of this metal. The levels of arsenic, of this type
of arsenic that we're in there exceeded the FDA's proposed
limit of one parts per billion. So the FDA for
this arsenic for this case does have a proposed limit,
(23:25):
which is, hey, guys, like you're talking allowed kids at
a dorm, Hey, guys, keep your arsenic levels down to
one parts per billion. Um. We're going to talk about
the FDA and baby foods. Yeah, only there is a
little bit of light in the tunnel, but it's faint
(23:47):
and it's distant. Of the one hundred and sixty eight
baby foods tested, some were found not to contain traces
of any of these four medals. Exactly nine baby foods
of a hundred and sixty eight were found to be clean.
So these studies are in large part what prompted this
(24:07):
congressional investigation. And in the course of this investigation, the
Congress has seven of the largest maybe food producers in
the US to give their own internal documents and their
own test results, because naturally, you know, part of being
a food company and selling to the public means that
you have to have internal testing. There are safety standards
(24:30):
of some sort you have to meet. Here's the thing, though, Matt.
Four companies replied to the request, Nurture, Beechnut, Hayne, and Gerber,
But a couple of companies just didn't do it. Imagine that, like,
what level are you at when Congress ask you for
something and you go, ah, well, you're at Walmart level? Right?
(24:54):
Specifically Sure, which is one of the companies that did
not respond all So Campbell, like Campbell Soup, they produced
quite a bit of baby food as well as Sprout
Organic Foods, which I have to say is one of
the biggest brands that my family chose to feed our son, uh,
(25:15):
which troubles me greatly, But that's okay, that's okay. So yeah,
they didn't respond. They didn't They didn't give the investigators anything, um,
and it made them, you know, the people were looking
into this quote greatly concerned. Yeah, and that's that is
a verbatim quote, but it doesn't doesn't quite nail the
(25:37):
reaction that people people would be having, right. So, uh,
several of the companies we should not to be fair
I have released public statements in response to this or
have responded to members of the media asking them about it.
You can read those statements online. They are pretty much
exactly what you expect, which is uh. The gist is
(26:00):
we test rigorously for any materials or anything that can't
legally be included in this stuff. Or the way it
will sometimes be phrased is we rigidly adhere to all
federal guidelines something or FDA standards or something like that.
And one of the major things you'll read in these
statements is that they test each product as it comes in.
(26:26):
So one of the major things we're going to continue
on here is that they test the carrot when it
comes in and gets ready for the manufacturing process. They
test the apple, they test you know, the individual foods.
The big question though, is are they actually testing the
end product and where where are those numbers? Because that's
(26:46):
what this investigation was looking at the actual product and
the containers to write that's how they would That's some
of the metrics the studies use, or some of the
language so specific Examples of this kind of stuff include
a or speech not gerber, that's a bummer, Plum Organics,
parents Choice, Manny Manny, many many more. And I know
(27:09):
these names are familiar to a lot of folks listening
to the show today, and maybe to my co host, Dude,
I know the plumb Organics one too. Do you, as
a parent like you're trying to You're trying to give
your kid the best stuff. No matter who you are,
no matter where you are, you want to give your
kid the best stuff you can afford. And you know
(27:29):
the best foods. You have access to the healthiest things.
And I swear to you, man, a lot of these
foods market themselves and convey They market themselves as being healthy.
They convince you as a parent that you're doing the
right thing. And I'm not saying that you're doing the
wrong thing by feeding your kids these things. It's just
(27:49):
it's a it feels like a real betrayal knowing that
they knew right right. And of course none of this
is medical advice. We're just we're giving you the lay
of the lay of this um disturbing land. So how
how about this We should point out that there doubtlessly
(28:10):
other products out there containing these poisons. This is the
beginning of what may end up being an even larger list.
We're going to pause for a word from our sponsor
and will return to talk a little bit about how
we as a society got here, the potential health effects,
and what if anything, you can do as an individual
(28:33):
or your communities can do as a group to combat
this problem. We're back. The danger here is not theoretical.
The danger here has proven. It is clear these substances
(28:54):
can cause harm to a baby's developing brain and nervous system,
both while they're in utero and after birth. Impacts can
include things like the permanent loss of intellectual capacity, and
they've also been linked to things like a d h
D or autism. All four of these antagonists in this
(29:17):
story are linked to i Q loss from exposures early
in life. The evidence is here. There's hard science behind it.
The science behind it spans decades. The research is ongoing,
and it keeps proving the same stuff. There were at
least twenty three studies published in the last seven or
eight years that confirm the impact specifically of these toxic
(29:42):
heavy metals on the healthy development of children. These studies
are available. These studies are things that manufacturers of baby
food would have been well aware of at the time,
at least in part it appears, according to congress because
their own internal testing confirmed it. Yeah, so let's let's
(30:03):
let's now jump to the f d A and like,
what do they say? What are what are the safe
levels of some of these heavy metals? Are there any
safe levels? What does that look like? How do you
measure that kind of stuff? Well, in order to get
a handle on this, we are forced to look at
drinking water statistics and FDA gu FDA guidelines and a
(30:24):
couple like E p A guidelines for drinking water. So,
according to this Congressional report, and according to the Food
and Drug Administration, the f d A has a limit
allowable level of some of this stuff in bottled water.
So when you're talking about when you're talking about arsenic,
it's ten parts per billion of this inorganic arsenic, this
(30:45):
particular type of the metal. When you're talking about lead,
it's capped at five parts per billion as the allowable amount,
and academium five parts per billion. Okay, so really low
ten five and five parts per billion to be safe
in drinking water. The E p A. When it looks
(31:06):
at this has capped the allowable level of mercury and
drinking water at two parts per billion. Again almost nothing,
almost zero. Um. But then we got to look at
the test results of these baby foods and it is
pretty astounding the levels that were found. Right the test
(31:28):
results four baby food and their ingredients. Back to your
earlier point, Matt h. Congress says, they eclipse those levels.
There are results that are up to nine U one
times the allowable level of arsenic again embottled water, up
to a hundred and seventy seven times the level of lead,
(31:50):
sixty nine times nice the level of cadmium, and up
to five times the level of mercury. And again remember
we said mercury is the one that seems to a
or the least often. So why are we using bottled water? Why?
Why did why did you say we're forced to use
the standards for bottled water. Well, that's because there are
(32:13):
no f d A standards for these heavy metals in
baby food. Um, they don't, they don't exist. There are
no standards for them. That's wild because of their babies. Sorry,
sorry that was at the meter. Yeah, it's just it
(32:34):
feels like insanity. I don't understand. Yeah, it's unacceptable. And
you know, we want to be clear when we're talking
about institutions doing this kind of stuff. We're not saying, uh,
you working for the FDA or your friend working for
the f d A is somehow inherently a bad person.
These are things that happen collectively with institutions. There. Maybe
(33:00):
there were some lobbyists putting their thumb on the scale.
I would not at this point be in the least surprised. Um,
maybe there was just uh, an overwhelming amount of paperwork.
But the end result is that kids are literally eating
lead and cat or snake and mercury. So that is
(33:24):
where we are now. There are some proposed limits, but
the FDA doesn't have these hard limits in That's why
we had to compare it to bottled water. What is
to be done? Well, as we said at the top,
this does not have an easy answer. There's not one
particular institution that can correct it. If the f d
(33:45):
A came back today and said these levels have to
be this, then manufacturers would of course be legally bound
to scramble to meet those constraints. But look, it's it's
so easy to make someone the bad guy. It's not
as if these manufacturers are like sitting around on their
(34:08):
coffee break from their Illuminati meeting or their Bohemian grove
meeting and saying, you know, it would be fun if
you're real, like a real kick for all of us. Uh,
since we're out of adrenal chrome, why don't we just
start adding stuff to baby food. They didn't think about
it like that. They didn't scheme to purposefully put dangerous
(34:29):
substances in your children's food. That food comes from somewhere else.
It doesn't come from those factories, right, It comes from
the soil, and that food grows in the soil using
nutrients and using water. When the land and the water
and the air are contaminated, then we are already starting
(34:49):
out at a fundamental disadvantage in the supply chain. Even
if you're a billion dollar company. Right now, there are
only so many places in the world old where you
can get certain crops. It's true, that's just the reality.
It's not to take. So these substances are also all
elements that are occurring in the wild now because they've
(35:12):
been frequently used in pesticides like the last century or
so and they didn't ever go away. They're still in
the soil, they're still in the groundwater, even if they
stopped being used in pesticides a decades ago. That doesn't
mean that doesn't mean the the missteps of the past
were somehow negated and the billing bill and short comes due. Yeah,
(35:37):
that's very true. And there's also a lot of these
particularly lead that were just pumped out into the air
through automobiles for a long time. When you're when you're
thinking about diesel and the lead that was contained in
their lead paint, all kinds of lead products that just
ended up in the environment. Uh, there are a lot
of reasons that the soil itself, as you said, ben
(35:59):
is going to be contaminated, because the air was contaminated,
because the water was contaminated at some point, because X
was contaminated at some point. It continues to be polluted
and contaminated. And it's um it's it is a very
tough situation knowing that, knowing that I think it's around
one percent of the Earth's land area is actually able
(36:21):
to be or to be used for producing crops. It's
a very small amount of the earth that humanity can
actually use to grow its food. And you know, what
are you gonna do when you can't use it? Let alone?
The whole was it the phosphorus. It was the phosphorus
thing where we're running out it really it's not my mind, dude,
(36:46):
to take us and maybe a slightly less hopefully less
depressing tangent. Did you know that phosphorus is being considered
as one of the markers of possible life on other
planets or intelligent life like in the search in the
search for stuff we've been the human species has been
(37:06):
looking for uh, evidence of water, evidence of other things
like carbon, etcetera. But phosphorus may end up being the key.
It's more important than a lot of people think. And
don't don't let them fool you, Ben. They're just looking
for phosphorus so that we can take it and bring
it back here because we need it. Phosphorus heist and
down I would be. I would crue on that mission.
(37:28):
According to the World Bank, the percentage of arable land
the world percentage of the world's total land area that
could be considered agricultural. It's pretty high, it's thirty seven
point seven. But the part that can be considered arable land,
which is what I think we're really talking about is
only ten point six and that that number may decrease
(37:51):
over time, but a little better than so thank goodness, well,
thank goodness for all. But but okay, so here's another question.
If the f d A has not set those minimal levels,
it's a messed up question. But it's when or show
has to ask, are these manufacturers breaking the law in
(38:15):
their conspiracy to put profits over the health of children?
It is a conspiracy totally, but is it an a
legal conspiracy at this point? That's tough. I'll have them
talk to my attorneys. Wait, I'll have to hire some attorneys.
But yeah, I don't want to get sued by these guys,
you know, by Big Baby. No, not that so uh,
(38:40):
there are there are advocates who believe that there's a
strong legal case here. About a week after that report
published earlier this February, a law firm got involved. Their
name is Balm, Headland, Eresty and Goldman, and they have
started accepting lawsuit cases about toxic baby food for parents
(39:02):
who purchase food from any of those brands, uh and
have children who have been diagnosed with autism or a
d h D Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Uh but again,
but again, none of that cleanses the ecosystem of these contaminants,
and from what we understand of the current science, nobody
(39:26):
really knows how to get the genie back in the
bottle here, or if there is a way, it's still
largely theoretical, and multiple institutions are unwilling to bear the
cost of the attempt itself. So the current hope right now,
amidst the nonprofit groups, the concerned parents, the politicians, everybody,
(39:51):
is that the findings of these and other studies might
spur manufacturers to do more testing and to change their practice.
Is as much as possible to get these levels down.
But then we have to ask. We have to ask
about the other folks in the in the crowd, the
other folks who are affected by this supply chain, the parents,
(40:14):
Like what if? What if you are listening to this
episode and this is the first time you're learning about this,
your first question is what the hell do I do? Now? Yeah? Yeah,
what the hell do I do? And in order to
discuss that, you have to talk about a few things.
The first one is that, um, it appears because of
(40:40):
how these heavy metals function We are talking about a
cumulative effect when it comes to these things. And it's
not a you get dosed one time by eating you know,
a particular baby food that has some arsenic in it,
and then now your child has issues. The problem is
it's cumulative. So I've been watching way too much daytime
(41:03):
TV where they've had experts on talking about this's been
I've been watching so much. Do you remember that show
The Doctors. They did a fairly good job actually by
having numerous experts on and getting some competing opinions here. Um,
But the takeaway from all of them together, I would
say is that pediatricians say that you just need to
(41:27):
if you are feeding your child baby food, you need
to just limit the number of these things they're eating
and supplement it with really fresh fruits generally, it's what
what they're saying, and grains not rice. Um. That that's
just the first thing. I'm just gonna put that out there.
That's what I have heard, and that your child is not,
(41:48):
you know, in danger just for eating you know, one
pouch or whatever that has some of these medals in it.
Right right, this is not a death sentence. This is
there there's a cumulative aggregate effected play with exposured almost
any substance. But it does make it there's a trust
issue then that I have, at least personally when it
(42:08):
comes to this stuff, because as a parent, it feels
like my trust, like the trust between me and these
baby food manufacturers has been broken. Then it's making me
question you know, the advice I'm getting from daytime TV
experts who are being paid to go on television and
you know who a lot of times are sponsored by
(42:29):
these big companies. Uh So it's it's tough to know.
It's really tough to know. The good thing is that
there are all kinds of resources out there online that
you can check out. You can educate yourself, and you
can make the best decisions, you know, at least for
that you can for you and your family. Yeah. Yeah,
(42:49):
And and some of the nonprofits we mentioned earlier have
have advice as well on how to combat the rate
of heavy metal consumption by exactly as you describe, Matt,
finding safer alternatives to baby foods that may be on
these lists or found to contain these substances, you know,
(43:11):
oatmeal instead of rice, cereal or barley, etcetera. Maybe frozen
bananas to replace teething cookies or biscuits. However, as any
current or expecting parent knows, the world is full of
advice for you. The cup of unsolicited parenting advice runneth over,
(43:32):
you know, like, and these sources of advice are not
created equally. Uh, don't don't be fooled. I mean you
don't don't assume that everybody's automatically a bad actor. But
don't let someone's opinion or persuasive writing fool you into
thinking what you're reading is automatically factual. Uh. It stinks
(43:55):
right now that the burden of researches on people who
have often us entered the busiest time of their adult
lives and are trying to like sleep occasionally. It stinks
that part of that part of that burden falls on
you as a parent, to do the digging, do the research.
(44:16):
To not be afraid of writing directly to companies with
questions if you don't feel like you're getting satisfactory answers,
uh searching online. The I guarantee these companies have people
whose entire job, their full time job, is to field
and answer these questions, so they will be there. Um
and then even if you find a blog that you
(44:39):
really like, look for the science, look for the boring stuff,
look for the numbers, look for the studies. That congressional
report is available freely online. The studies that we mentioned
are also freely available online. This stuff is not you know,
this is not a secret military program. Hopefully. Uh. This
stuff should all be declassified and for public consumption. And
(45:02):
now we arrive at your part of the story, fellow
conspiracy realist, as bat and I said at the top,
we need your help. How do you think this contamination
can or should be addressed? Do these companies owe any
kind of compensation to the children and the parents involved?
I mean, how would that even work? That's a huge question. Uh.
(45:25):
And and perhaps most importantly, do you have a personal
story or experience you would like to share with us
or your fellow listeners. If so, please let us know.
We try to be easy to find online. And that's right.
You can find us on Facebook and Twitter where we
are Conspiracy Stuff Conspiracy Stuff Show. On Instagram, you can
(45:46):
check out Here's where it Gets Crazy. That is our
group on Facebook with by the way, some of the
best mods on the planet, coolest human beings you will
ever meet, Uh. Hopefully you you won't cross them and
have to meet them that way, you'll meet them in
a happy way. On here's where it gets crazy. If
(46:06):
you if you don't like using social media, well, hey,
you can find us via your phone. Yes, that's right, Matt.
We have a phone number one eight three three S
T D W y t K. Call. You'll hear, You'll
hear a voicemail message. You'll have three minutes. Those three
minutes belong to you. We can't wait to hear from you.
(46:28):
We have some tips for you that will help you,
help you get around some of the weirdness of speaking
into the void for three minutes. First, go ahead and
open with uh, your name or your nickname uh, and
let us know whether or not you are okay with
your voice and name being used on air where your
(46:49):
nickname uh. Second, tell us what's going on, give us
the scoop, give us the skinny, hip us, hit us
to the story. Uh. And then third, if there's anything
you want to just say to us, then leave that
for the end. If if it's something you just want Matt, Noel,
Alexis or Paul or me to know uh. And then fourth,
(47:11):
last thing most important, If there's a really long story
that's on your mind. Uh, go ahead and write to
us at our email address and we'll we'll give you
that email address. We we made some pretty good progress
I think going through our voicemail Q. And you did that, dude,
(47:31):
We thank you. We did it. And Matt had to
be a one man army for a very long time.
So we instituted something that without any hint of irony
or pretension. We were calling operations sportsed Earth voicemail mail.
That was better. We should have That's what we should
(47:51):
have gone with. But but so we can't wait to
hear from you. But if you do not feel comfortable
with the social meds, uh, if you don't really dig
using the phone, totally get it. That's why we are
always here for you. There's one easy way you can
always contact us. There's our good old fashioned email address
(48:12):
where we are conspiracy at i heart radio dot com.
(48:35):
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