 There are certain nutrients whose intake has been associated with lower lead levels in the body. For example, women with higher thymine intake, vitamin B1 intake, tended to have lower blood levels, the same with lead-exposed steel workers. Fiber and iron intake were also associated with lower lead levels in the body to a lesser degree. The thinking is that the fiber might glom onto the lead and flush it out of the body, and the iron would inhibit the lead absorption, whereas the thymine may accelerate lead removal through the bile. Thus, they suggest eating lots of iron, fiber, and especially thymine-rich foods may induce rapid removal and excretion of lead from the tissues. But thymine's never been put to the test, where you give people thymine and see if their lead levels drop. The closest I could find is a thymine intervention for lead-intoxicated goats. And much of the fiber data is just from test tube studies like this, where under simulated intestinal conditions, complete with flasks of feces, both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber were able to bind up large amounts of mercury, cadmium, and lead to such an extent that it may be able to block absorption in a small intestine. So when our good gut flora then eat the fiber, some of the heavy metals may be re-released down in the colon, so it's not completely fail-safe. And like thymine, there haven't been controlled human studies. But look, where's thymine found? Here are some of the healthiest sources that also contain fiber-concentrated, super-healthy foods, like beans and greens that we should all be eating anyway. So even if thymine and fiber-rich foods don't actually lower your lead levels, you'd still end up healthier. Iron was put to the test, though, and it failed to improve the cognitive performance of lead-exposed children, failed to improve behavior or ADH symptoms. No surprise, because it failed to bring down lead levels as did zinc supplementation. Turns out that while iron may limit the absorption of lead, it may also inhibit the excretion of lead that's already in your body. And iron may not even inhibit lead absorption in the first place. That was based on rodent studies, and it turns out we're not rodents. Same story with zinc. It may help to protect rat testicles, but didn't seem to help children. Nevertheless, iron is routinely prescribed in children with lead poisoning. Given the lack of scientific evidence supporting the use of indiscriminate iron supplementation in children with lead poisoning, its routine use should be reexamined. Though obviously if you have iron deficiency, supplementation may help. High fat intake has been identified as something that may make things worse for lead-exposed children. Dietary fat has been associated with higher lead levels and cross-sectional snapshot-in-time type studies. And there is a plausible biological mechanism. Dietary fat may boost lead absorption by stimulating extra bile, which in turn may contribute to lead absorption. But you really don't know until you put it to the test. In addition to testing iron, they also tested fat. They gave a group of intrepid volunteers a cocktail of radioactive lead. Then with like a Geiger counter, they could measure how much radiation they retained in their body. Drinking the lead with iron or zinc didn't change anything. But adding about two teaspoons of vegetable oil boosted lead absorption into the body from about 60% up to around 75%. The only thing that seemed to help dropping lead absorption down to about 40% was eating a light meal with the lead drink. What was the meal? Coffee and a donut. I think this is the first donut intervention I've ever seen with a positive outcome. Could it have been the coffee? Unlikely, as if anything, coffee drinking has been associated with a tiny increase in blood levels. If fat makes things worse and the one sugar they tried didn't help, they figured it was just eating food, any food, and taking in lead on an empty stomach that made the difference. And indeed, if you repeat the study with a whole meal, lead absorption doesn't just drop from 60 down to 40%, but all the way down to just 4%. That's extraordinary. That means it's 15 times worse to ingest lead on an empty stomach.