“I’d like a side of lead and cadmium with my dark chocolate”–

said nobody, ever.

I was paging through the February 2023 issue of Consumer Reports and discovered that these heavy metals are apparently exactly what I have been unknowingly getting. You know, in dark chocolate? The kind that is supposed to be “better for you” (p. 34)?

I think of the couple of bars of Green & Black’s that I have sitting in my desk drawer that are now going into the trash instead of my body. Before throwing them out, I looked at the Nutrition Facts label. Shockingly, lead and cadmium are missing from the list! I looked at the list of ingredients and once again, lead and cadmium are omitted. I wonder what other foods and products contain toxic ingredients that somehow never made it on the packages ingredients list.

I remember my husband telling me a while back that he wasn’t so sure that dark chocolate was a good thing to be eating and that maybe milk chocolate was better. I remember brushing that–what turned out to be the voice of reason–off at the time. I mean, what was he talking about? Everyone knows that dark chocolate is “healthier” than milk chocolate!

My takeaway from this? Question everything and never trust any other opinion over your own–except maybe my husband’s.