According to recent research that had been commissioned by the Healthy Babies Bright Futures organization, a great deal of baby food on the shelves today might contain harmful toxic metal.

They tested over 100 samples of baby food, that came from more than 60 different brands, with 168 testing positive for the presence of at least 4 heavy metals, including lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium.

95 percent of the samples tested positive for containing toxic metals.

This isn't the first time that studies have found alarming levels of toxic metals in baby foods that are being sold on the shelves. Parents who are concerned about the prevalence of toxic metals have been warned to try and reduce infant exposure, though it's claimed that there hasn't been any single brand or container that is behind the contamination.

Still, advocates warn that parents should try to eliminate foods that have been found to contain more contaminates, such as rice cereal, rice puffs, and other rice-based snacks.

Fruit juice samples have also been found to contain a great deal of heavy metal toxins too.

At least 30 or more of the bestselling fruit drinks for children on the market today have been deemed unhealthy and they are bringing a lot of added sugar into children's diets.

As well, a majority of juice samples don't even contain any juice.

The FDA has claimed that toxic metals cannot be entirely eliminated from foods because they are found in the soil, water, and air, as well as taken up by plants that we grow. However, they do monitor the levels to try and reduce the risk but it seems they aren't doing a very good job of it at present. They might say that there is no cause for concern, meanwhile researchers assert that these toxins can negatively impact the growth of babies' brains, potentially lower their IQ, and even increase their risk of cancer.

Some steps that have been suggested for parents to take to try and eliminate the toxins include reducing those concerning items like rice puffs and fruit juices, being picky about what types of rice the child consumes. For example, brown rice was found to contain more inorganic arsenic. And they can opt to go with snacks that might be lower in heavy metal toxins.

By simply making the move to replace popular juice options with water, parents can potentially reduce the child's risk exposure by more than 65 percent.

Sweet potatoes and carrots were also found to contain high amounts of toxins, researchers suggest then that replacing those vegetables with other options can help to reduce a child's exposure by more than 70 percent.

Unfortunately, going organic also won't solve this problem, though it could help too, as researchers insist that going organic cannot effectively reduce much heavy metals, not in the way that it can reduce pesticide exposure. Now, baby food manufacturers say that they are on a mission to make changes in an effort to reduce those toxins though, by voluntarily seeking to make changes to the growing, manufacturing, and distribution process etc.

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