Love Your Heart with Clean Supplements
Mar 13, 2025
Love Your Heart with Clean Supplements
Chocolate is everything that’s good about life. In the US, we eat almost 9kg of it each per year. It’s supplement form, often taken as cacao is a rising star in the food and supplement world because it’s packed with flavonoids, antioxidants, and minerals. Touted for better skin, improved digestion, and even to support heart health and exercise performance. It’s a lot more than just chocolate. But cacao supplements may carry some risks. Research reveals heavy metals like lead and cadmium may linger in cacao products, even when in supplement form. While cacao or other supplements may promise to nurture your health, they might inadvertently sabotage it without good quality control. Sound familiar? It should. All supplements, include those that aim to support heart health, and even CBD products face similar challenges with hidden contaminants like heavy metals and pharmaceuticals that may be lurking in fields or in water and can become concentrated in plants through biomagnification.
A Sweet, Dark, Metallic Truth
Dark chocolate has a well-earned rep as a guilt-free wellness food. A recent paper in Frontiers in Nutrition found that while it packs in nutrients that support cardiovascular health not all chocolate is created equal. After eight years of testing, researchers found dark chocolate regularly had concerns with high levels of heavy metals. 43% of the tested products exceeded California’s Prop 65 allowable limits for lead. 35% had elevated levels of cadmium – a heavy metal used in batteries that can negatively impact bone health. Even more surprising, organic dark chocolate, which many feel is the top dog of purity, had higher contamination levels than conventional options.
Why the issues with heavy metals? Well, this comes from the cacao plants’ natural ability to absorb heavy metals from soil, air, and water. Drying, industrial pollution, and manufacturing methods may worsen the heavy metal issue. The risks may be low for the average chocolate lover who indulges occasionally however, if you use cacao supplements daily, the potential for harm might increase. Nobody wants heavy metals in their chocolate, cacao, or other dietary supplements. Unfortunately, heavy metals are only one of the quality issues consumers face with dietary supplements as questions over label claims and contamination with pharmaceuticals and banned substances in sport are also on the rise.
The CBD Connection
Cacao isn’t the only popular health supplement with quality issues. The CBD market is going strong thanks to its potential to reduce anxiety, improve sleep, and alleviate pain, but it has also had its share of contamination concerns. A study published in Science of the Total Environment tested 121 edible CBD products and revealed some startling truths: 42% contained lead, 37% tested positive for mercury, 28% had arsenic, and 8% showed cadmium contamination. If those stats where’s weren’t concerning enough, only 42% of the products contained CBD levels that matched their labels. More than half of the products carried misleading labels, with some delivering doses that wildly differed from what they advertised. One of the most troubling findings was that certain CBD products contained lead levels exceeding California’s Proposition 65 safety limits with just two servings. Just like cacao, CBD’s contamination issues shine a light on the need for rigorous oversight and third-party certification to verify product quality.
Third-Party Certification is A Beacon of Quality
These issues are where the BSCG Certified Quality and Certified CBD programs are a game-changer. They allow consumers to see the quality of products through analytical test results. Unlike reactive regulatory systems that address problems after they occur, BSCG takes a proactive approach with third-party certification. Products are rigorously tested for more than 500 banned substances in sport and other pharmaceuticals as well as heavy metals, pesticides, and microbiological agents. Label claims are verified to ensure what’s on the label is what’s in the product. For cacao or other supplements, BSCG certifications mean consumers can enjoy the health benefits without worrying about hidden quality control or health concerns. These programs provide peace of mind to athletes, consumers, and brand owners alike as BSCG third-party certification provides quality you can trust and verify.
How to Protect Yourself
Whether you’re reaching for a square of dark chocolate, a CBD product, or another heart healthy supplement, here are a few tips to ensure your choices provide what you’re looking for, without heavy metals or other contaminants.
Third-party certification is quality you can verify
Programs like BSCG’s Certified Quality and Certified CBD programs conduct rigorous testing to check for drugs, or environmental contaminants, and verify accurate labeling.
Educate yourself on third-party seals
Read labels carefully and research brands to ensure they prioritize transparency and safety and look for third-party certification seals that provide quality you can verify and trust.
The Sweet Spot
While dark chocolate and CBD can be healthy additions to your supplement routine, the contamination risks mean they’re not all created equal. The solution? Informed choices backed by trusted certifications. A product bearing a third-party seal from a trusted provider like BSCG means that you’re getting what you pay for with screening for contaminants you don’t want. Whether it’s cacao for heart health or CBD for stress relief, certified products ensure you’re reaping the benefits without the hidden risks. Don’t settle for sweet lies when you can have the certified truth. Love your heart, love your health, and love the certifications that keep you and your brand thriving.
CERTIFIED CLIENTS
Search by Lot, Product, Brand, Category, or Other Keyword.
Certified Drug Free
Certified Quality
Certified GMP
