All Videos for Safety Limits

Is There Too Much Aluminum in Tea?

The tea plant concentrates aluminum from the soil into tea leaves, but phytonutrients in tea bind to the metal and limit its absorption.



Four Nuts Once a Month

A single serving of Brazil nuts may bring cholesterol levels down faster than statin drugs and keep them down even a month after that single ingestion.



How Many Cancers Have Been Caused by Arsenic-Laced Chicken?

Arsenic-containing drugs intentionally added to poultry feed to reduce the parasite burden and pinken the meat are apparently converted by cooking into carcinogenic inorganic arsenic compounds.



Is Liquid-Smoke Flavoring Carcinogenic?

Different brands of liquid smoke flavorings have been tested for DNA-damaging potential, p53 activation, and levels of known carcinogens. Smoked foods such as ham, turkey, barbequed chicken, herring, and salmon were also tested.



Who Says Eggs Aren’t Healthy or Safe?

Freedom of Information Act documents reveal that the U.S. Department of Agriculture warned the egg industry that saying eggs are nutritious or safe may violate rules against false and misleading advertising.



Who Determines if Food Additives Are Safe?

The safety of food additives is determined not by the FDA, but by the manufacturers of the chemicals themselves.



Chicken Salmonella Thanks to Meat Industry Lawsuit

The meat industry sued the federal government, winning the right to sell food known to be contaminated with food-poisoning bacteria.



Who Shouldn’t Consume Curcumin or Turmeric?

Just because something is natural and plant-based doesn’t mean it’s necessarily safe. Those who are pregnant, have gallstones, or are susceptible to kidney stones may want to moderate their turmeric consumption.



Is Caramel Color Carcinogenic?

Concern that one of the most commonly-consumed food colorings may cause cancer has led to changes in soft drink formulation in California.



Fish Intake Associated with Brain Shrinkage

Exposure to mercury during pregnancy appears to influence fetal brain development, as detected by decreased size of a newborn’s brain.



How Many Poppy Seeds Are Too Many?

Soaking and cooking poppy seeds can lower their morphine and codeine levels—but those undergoing drug testing may want to avoid them altogether.



Butter-Flavored Microwave Popcorn or Breathing

The artificial butter flavoring diacetyl has been linked not only to deaths of workers handling the chemical, but also to serious lung disease in consumers of microwave popcorn.



Infant Seizures Linked to Mother’s Spirulina Use

Contamination of spirulina supplements with toxins from blue-green algae raises safety concerns.



Safety of Noni & Mangosteen Juice

Multilevel marketing companies accused of using exaggeration and pseudoscience to promote potentially dangerous products, such as Metabolife and Hydroxycut, by designing studies that appear to purposely mislead consumers.



Is Carrageenan Safe?

Carrageenan is a food additive used as a thickener and fat substitute in a variety of dairy and nondairy products. Concerns about potential intestinal tract damage are placed in the context of dietary consequences.



More than an Apple a Day: Preventing the Most Common Diseases

Dr. Greger has scoured the world’s scholarly literature on clinical nutrition, and developed this brand-new live presentation on the latest in cutting-edge research on how a healthy diet can affect some of our most common medical conditions.



Eggs and Cholesterol: Patently False and Misleading Claims

Egg industry claims about egg safety found to be patently false, misleading, and deceptive by the U.S. Court of Appeals.



Trans Fat in Meat & Dairy

About half of America’s trans fat intake now comes from animal products.



Fukushima & Radioactivity in Seafood

The majority of radioactive fallout from the Fukushima nuclear power plant tragedy was absorbed by the Pacific Ocean. What does that mean for seafood safety?



Childhood Tea Drinking May Increase Fluorosis Risk

Green tea consumption may help prevent cavities, but excessive consumption among young children may lead to dental fluorosis, due to the natural fluoride content of the plant.



Breast Cancer and Alcohol: How Much Is Safe?

Nearly 5,000 breast cancer deaths a year may be attributable to just light drinking (up to one drink a day).



The Safety of Tarragon

Longstanding concerns about certain isolated components of the spice tarragon have broadened into questions about the safety of even the leaves themselves.



Don’t Eat Too Much Nutmeg

The spice nutmeg may have a relatively narrow margin of safety.



Update on Cinnamon for Blood Sugar Control

Cinnamon can no longer be considered a safe and effective treatment for diabetes.



Ractopamine in Pork

BREAKING NEWS video: An analysis of yesterday’s Consumer Reports finding that 1 in 5 samples of retail pork tested positive for the growth-promoting drug ractopamine. Tomorrow, I’ll cover their findings on Yersinia contamination.



How Much Soy Is Too Much?

To maintain the low IGF-1 levels associated with a plant-based diet, one should probably eat no more than 3-5 servings of soy foods a day.



Too Much Soy May Neutralize Benefits

Vegans consuming 7 to 18 servings of soy foods a day may end up with circulating IGF-1 levels comparable to those who eat meat.



Chamomile Tea May Not Be Safe During Pregnancy

For the same reason aspirin should be avoided in pregnancy, chamomile has such powerful anti-inflammatory properties that regular consumption may result in a serious fetal heart problem—premature constriction of the fetal ductus arteriosus, which allows the fetus to “breathe” in the womb.



Zero Tolerance to Acceptable Risk

The fish and poultry industries propose moving from a zero tolerance policy on certain dangerous foodborne pathogens to an “acceptable risk” policy—given how widely contaminated their products are with potentially deadly fecal bacteria.



Maggot Meat Spray

Given their inherent resistance to food-poisoning bacteria, maggots can be used to create an antibacterial food additive to increase the safety of the meat supply.



Which Brand of Tuna Has the Most Mercury?

In a survey of three national brands of tuna in the United States, most cans exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s safety level for human consumption.



Nerves of Mercury

Studies of the neurobehavioral toxicity of mercury on children suggest that no level of mercury exposure can be considered safe, but pressure from the fish industry may be preventing safety limits from dropping further.



Hair Testing for Mercury before Considering Pregnancy

The EPA safety limit on mercury in fish may not sufficiently protect pregnant women in the United States. This has led to a recommendation that fish-eating women get tested for mercury before considering getting pregnant.



Creatine Brain Fuel Supplementation

Vegetarians appear to get more of a cognitive boost than meat-eaters from creatine supplementation.



The Safer Cinnamon

There are four common types of cinnamon: Vietnamese, Chinese (cassia), Indonesian, and Ceylon (true) cinnamon. Which is safest in terms of the level of coumarin, which may damage the liver at toxic doses?



What About the Caffeine?

Caffeine has positive cognitive and physiological effects at moderate doses.



How Much Broccoli Is Too Much?

Four cups of broccoli sprouts a day may exceed the safe dose of the cruciferous phytonutrient sulforaphane.



Liver Toxicity Due to Broccoli Juice?

6,000 cups of broccoli a year is probably too much.



Amla & Triphala Tested for Metals

Both U.S.-made and imported Ayurvedic dietary supplements have high contamination rates of toxic metals such as mercury—though only a small fraction of the levels found in canned tuna.



Carcinogenic Putrescine

Biogenic amines such as spermine, cadaverine, and putrescine are chemical compounds of decay that may have adverse health effects. Which foods are most contaminated: beer, blue cheese, feta cheese, kimchi, miso, sardines, sauerkraut, sausage, soy sauce, tempeh, tuna, or wine?