 The Consumer's Union, publishers of Consumer Reports, recently celebrated its 75-year anniversary. They were among the first to point out the risks of smoking, the toxic effects of ephedra weight loss supplements. Well, one of their latest investigations questions the safety of protein powders and drinks. They concluded that we don't need the extra protein, or the heavy metals their tests found. They sent 15 protein supplements off to an outside lab to test for toxic compounds such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury, and found that the amount of lead in a single daily serving of 8 out of the 15 protein supplements they tested would require that the products carry a warning in California under their Prop 65 law for toxin-containing substances. So athletes should get the lead out by choosing whole food sources of nutrition.