Test Your Knowledge on Heavy Metal Contamination in Food and Its Health Effects

Heavy Metal Contamination in Food and Its Health Effects

• Three well-timed meals per day are recommended to prevent metabolic diseases.
• The recommended daily intake for an adult includes vegetables and fruits (400 g), protein (60 g), fat/vegetable oil (312.3 g kg-1), salt (5 g), free sugar (74 g), fish and seafood (150 g), and carbohydrate (130 g).
• Vegetables, fruits, seeds, almonds, nuts, fish, and seafood are sources of polyphenols, fibers, minerals, vitamins, unsaturated fatty acids, and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids.
• Regular intake of healthful fats/vegetable oils is correlated with gut microbiota balance, short-chain fatty acid production, and prevention of several metabolic and neurological diseases, autoimmune diseases, and cancers.
• Some heavy metals are essential in optimal consumption amounts, but hazardous in high quantities, while others are toxic and carcinogenic even in low quantities.
• Heavy metal and metalloid concentrations in grains, vegetables, fish, poultry, meat, and milk follow a decreasing order of Pb > Cu > Cr > As > Zn > Cd > Ni > Fe > Mn > Hg > Co > Al > Se.
• Overuse of fertilizers and pesticides, mechanization, industrial and vehicle fumes, wastewater, contaminated irrigation water, solid mineral soil, growing and super population, welding, plating, workshopping industries, oil, pharmaceutical, and petrol industry, harvesting, storage, and commercialization processes contribute to heavy metal and metalloid contamination in food.
• Heavy metal and metalloid toxicity can cause cancer, cardiovascular, neural and renal disorders, diabetes, and other correlated metabolic diseases.
• Heavy metal and metalloid toxicity can increase reactive oxygen species formation and decrease antioxidant effects, causing damage to cell membrane lipids and macromolecular destruction.
• Heavy metal and metalloid toxicity can cause problems correlated with cell adhesion, cellular signaling, maturation, apoptosis, ionic transportation, regulation, organ toxicity, neurological dysfunctions, and others.
• Table 2 summarizes heavy metal and metalloid concentrations in food, while Table 3 lists the range of chemical elements quantified in main food products compared to acceptable limits recommended by FAO/WHO and WHO.
• Heavy metal and metalloid contamination in food can harm the health benefits of food consumption and cause several diseases, including those mentioned above.

Toxic and Essential Metal Elements Found in Food and Their Health Effects

• Manganese is an essential metal element found in vegetables, fish, rice, and wheat, with concentrations higher than the recommended limit.
• Adequate intake of manganese is beneficial for gut microbiota modulation, reducing anemia, neurodevelopment, and preventing metabolic diseases.
• High amounts of manganese in food consumption are associated with toxicity, including hepatocyte, lung, reproductive and fetal toxicity, neurotoxicity, and metabolic diseases.
• Mercury is a highly toxic metal element found in poultry and fish, with concentrations higher than the recommended parameters.
• Hazardous organic methyl or ethyl mercury contaminated food consumption is correlated with neurological diseases, oxidative stress, liver damage, kidney dysfunction, and inflammation diseases.
• Cobalt is an essential element found in vegetables, meat, and fish, with levels higher than the recommended limits.
• Cobalt is beneficial for cobalamin (vitamin B12) generation, which plays an important role in the formation of amino acids and proteins of neurons.
• High quantities of cobalt are correlated with toxicity, inflammatory diseases, hypersensitivity reactions, and neurological, cardiovascular, and endocrine deficiency.
• Aluminum is a toxic metal element found in vegetables, poultry, and fish, with concentrations higher than the recommended parameter.
• Higher aluminum consumption is related to oxidative stress, toxicity, genotoxicity, immunological and enzymatic dysfunction, metabolic dysregulation, and various diseases, including dementia, autoimmune diseases, and cancer.
• Selenium is an essential element found in fish, Brazil nuts, and various vegetables, with levels higher than the recommended parameter in some sources.
• High levels of selenium in the diet are correlated with toxicity, hair loss, dermatitis, gastrointestinal dysfunctions, neurological disorders, respiratory diseases, inflammation, and various diseases, including cancers and cardiovascular diseases.