Apple Podcasts | Spotify

That cancer warning on your favorite protein powder might actually be proof it’s the cleanest option in your pantry. I’m pulling back the curtain on the Just Ingredients lawsuit that’s been blowing up your social feeds and covering why it might prove they’re one of the good guys. It’s scary to hear that there could be heavy metals in food, but it might not mean what you think. The Prop 65 lawsuit against Just Ingredients is proof.

California’s Prop 65 warnings have created a bizarre reality where companies using real, organic ingredients are penalized while synthetic alternatives fly under the radar. As an environmental attorney, I’ll explain why Just Ingredients chose to stick with whole foods rather than switch to artificial flavors, even when faced with legal challenges.

By the end of this episode, you’ll be equipped to see through the social media outrage and make truly informed choices about your supplements, staying “informed but not afraid” in this confusing wellness landscape.

In this episode, we’re chatting about:

• The truth behind California’s Proposition 65 warnings and what they actually mean
• Why whole food supplements might trigger warning labels while synthetic ones don’t
• The difference between naturally occurring trace elements and dangerous contamination
• How Just Ingredients maintains transparency through rigorous testing protocols (see their press release here)
• Why I still trust these products for my own family despite the controversy

Proposition 65 in California

If you don’t live in California, you may have never heard of this law because it only applies in that state. Proposition 65 was passed in the 1980s to let consumers know if there were contaminants in products that could cause cancer, reproductive toxicity, or birth defects. The state of California really wanted to dissuade brands from using toxic chemicals in their products, so they forced brands to put a label on their packaging, no matter what they were selling.  There are 900 chemicals on that list that require a Prop 65 warning label.

The idea was that brands would not want to put this warning label on their products, so they would stop using bad chemicals, and the public would become more educated. If there’s a Prop 65 label on something, people are less likely to buy it. 

As an environmental attorney and somebody who really has spent her entire life lobbying and advocating for cleaning up toxic chemicals out of our environment, I’m here for it. I support the intent of Prop 65. And it’s working nationwide, not just for the people in California. When companies selling in California don’t want to put Prop 65 on their labels, they reformulate their products. The rest of the country benefited because companies changed their formulas entirely.

We even have some population data that shows that people in California have lower concentrations of some of these chemicals in their blood than in other places in the country. We actually do know this is working.

So, we know that Prop 65 was meant to incentivize good behavior from companies selling products in California. People assume that a Prop 65 label means there is a certain amount of a chemical that reaches a safety level that is concerning. Unfortunately, that’s actually not true. 

Flavors in Supplements

Supplement companies have a few options. They can use artificial flavors, which is bad and not good for us. They could use natural flavors (Just Ingredients absolutely will not use natural flavors in their products.) They could source real fruit and filter out the heavy metals, which also filter out a lot of that whole fruit. With this option, you don’t get all the benefits of having real food. You’re filtering out the good stuff, too. 

So what does Just Ingredients do? They built their company on the premise that they wanted everything they sold to be whole, real food. The only way to flavor something with real food is to use the whole fruit, and they source organic fruits. When you source organic real fruit, the amount of fruit you have to use to make something really flavorful sometimes can be a lot. When you put whole food into a product instead of natural flavors, fillers, and artificial ingredients, you are providing a product that is the healthiest version of that product.

The other core values of Just Ingredients are testing and transparency. They’re one of the only companies that has third-party testing done at the source. You can find those results on their website. They’ve proven that they test below Prop 65 limits. 

Why Did Just Ingredients Get Sued?

The Environmental Research Council sued them. According to their website, they claim they tested 10 Just Ingredients products that potentially have amounts slightly over 0.5.

Nobody has seen the testing or knows what’s happening behind those settlement negotiations. Just Ingredients has said these are only allegations, but there’s a lot of money at stake if the Environmental Research Council wins this lawsuit. 

I have worked with so many brands that are selling in the state of California that will not even touch this. They have the testing that shows they have never gone above those limits, and it doesn’t matter. They put the Prop 65 label on their packaging because they said it was not worth the litigation risk. The other issue with Prop 65 is that companies with 10 people or less are completely exempt.

So, in stores, you might have four protein powders on the shelf:

1. All synthetic garbage, and no Prop 65 warning. 
2. Better ingredients, but is full of natural flavors and no Prop 65 warning. 
3. Whole foods and no Prop 65 warning. 
4. Just Ingredients with a Prop 65 warning. 

You are going to assume that the ones that don’t have those Prop 65 labels are better or don’t have the same trace heavy metal content, and that might not be true at all. It just might be a smaller company under that 10-employee exclusion. You just never know. You shouldn’t rely solely on the Prop 65 label to determine whether a product has heavy metals in food.

After the lawsuit was filed, Just Ingredients started putting Prop 65 labels on a handful of their products containing a lot of fruit or chocolate. Those are the ones that typically have higher trace amounts of heavy metals in food. Again, whole fruit is full of all the things that help you process and detox from heavy metal, so we want that healthy food.

Just Ingredients had a few options:

• Filtered their fruit (they said no)
• Switched to natural flavors (they said no)
• Continue to make whole real food supplements (they chose this option)

They are unwavering. To do that and protect themselves as a company, they started putting Prop 65 labels on those handful of products. You can go to their website and read their testing reports about how they consistently test under Prop 65 limits and naturally occurring heavy metals in food. 

My Takeaways From This Lawsuit

Whole foods are always the better option. When I read a label, I want to see real food, and Just Ingredients offers that.

The other thing is that Prop 65 warnings don’t always mean a company is doing the wrong thing. As I explained, they actually mean this company is doing the right thing. 

Finally, I care about testing and transparency. I love that Just Ingredients posts the heavy metal testing right on its website. It’s public, and you can read it. If you email them, they’ll give you even more information about it. Just Ingredients is easily one of the cleanest brands on the market. 

I encourage everybody to read their press release. It’s disheartening to see one of the only whole food brands on the market get dragged through the mud when they really do produce one of the best options for supplements, protein powders, flavored electrolytes, and personal care products on the market.

I will continue to support them as a brand. Let’s stay informed but not be afraid. If you want to try their amazing products, use code WENDYKATHRYN for 10% off your Just Ingredients order.

Related Episodes:

Episode 39: What to Know About the 4 Food Additives Banned by California

Episode 56: Stanley Cup Lead Poisoning Lawsuits: How to Protect Yourself From Lead Poisoning

Episode 72: The Only at-Home Lead Detection Kit You Need to Prevent Lead Poisoning in Kids with Eric Ritter

Episode 101: Lead in Food: What You Actually Need to Know (And What’s Just Fear)