How Toxic Is Your Favorite Chocolate? (Ranked)

Bryan Johnson

Jul 12, 2024

Episode description

I had 10 popular dark chocolate brands independently tested for heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury), and healthy cocoa flavanols. Total flavanols / total heavy metals = final score.

🍫 Blueprint Cocoa - https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.com/products/cocoa-powder

❓WHAT IS BLUEPRINT
Like past explorers, I’ve asked an unthinkable question: is death still inevitable or is a new era of longevity here?

After selling my company Braintree Venmo for $800 million, I built a team of dozens of medical professionals, became the most measured person in history, and achieved arguably the best comprehensive biomarkers in the world.

And I share everything with you, for free.

After having poor health habits as a kid, running myself into the ground from 20 years of building companies, and a decade of chronic depression, now, at the chronological age of 46, my biomarkers are in the top 1%.

And not just the top 1% of 46 year olds, but on many markers, such as my cardiovascular fitness, I’m in the top 1% of 18 year olds.

Top 1%: Speed of aging
Top 1%: Muscle mass & function
Top 1%: Fat mass
Top 1%: Inflammation
Top 1%: Cardiovascular
Top 1%: Bone mass
Top 1%: Sleep
Top 1%: Combined clinical markers
Top 1%: Nighttime erections

Blueprint is an algorithm, built by science, that takes better care of me than I can myself.

Check out the Blueprint website for recipes, exercise, and other protocols. Become the next evolution of human: https://protocol.bryanjohnson.co/

🔗 SOCIALS + WEBSITE
https://www.instagram.com/bryanjohnson_
https://www.tiktok.com/@_bryan_johnson_
https://twitter.com/bryan_johnson
Website: https://www.bryanjohnson.com/

Correction:
9:24 - Typo: the correct heavy metal score for Vosges is 2.0 micrograms, not 4.51. The overall score is accurate.

Episode description

I had 10 popular dark chocolate brands independently tested for heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury), and healthy cocoa flavanols. Total flavanols / total heavy metals = final score.

🍫 Blueprint Cocoa - https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.com/products/cocoa-powder

❓WHAT IS BLUEPRINT
Like past explorers, I’ve asked an unthinkable question: is death still inevitable or is a new era of longevity here?

After selling my company Braintree Venmo for $800 million, I built a team of dozens of medical professionals, became the most measured person in history, and achieved arguably the best comprehensive biomarkers in the world.

And I share everything with you, for free.

After having poor health habits as a kid, running myself into the ground from 20 years of building companies, and a decade of chronic depression, now, at the chronological age of 46, my biomarkers are in the top 1%.

And not just the top 1% of 46 year olds, but on many markers, such as my cardiovascular fitness, I’m in the top 1% of 18 year olds.

Top 1%: Speed of aging
Top 1%: Muscle mass & function
Top 1%: Fat mass
Top 1%: Inflammation
Top 1%: Cardiovascular
Top 1%: Bone mass
Top 1%: Sleep
Top 1%: Combined clinical markers
Top 1%: Nighttime erections

Blueprint is an algorithm, built by science, that takes better care of me than I can myself.

Check out the Blueprint website for recipes, exercise, and other protocols. Become the next evolution of human: https://protocol.bryanjohnson.co/

🔗 SOCIALS + WEBSITE
https://www.instagram.com/bryanjohnson_
https://www.tiktok.com/@_bryan_johnson_
https://twitter.com/bryan_johnson
Website: https://www.bryanjohnson.com/

Correction:
9:24 - Typo: the correct heavy metal score for Vosges is 2.0 micrograms, not 4.51. The overall score is accurate.

Mindsip insights from this episode:

Avoid Theo chocolate due to high heavy metal levels

Theo chocolate was the lowest-scoring brand tested, with two of its bars containing dangerously high levels of heavy metals.

Beware of heavy metals in 'clean label' products

The Alter Eco 100% cacao bar, despite having only two ingredients and no sugar, contained the highest level of heavy metals.

Beware heavy metals in chocolate linked to serious health risks

Heavy metals commonly found in chocolate are linked to cancer, high blood pressure, kidney disease, and low sperm count.

Choose superior Blueprint Cocoa for enhanced health benefits

The speaker's own Blueprint Cocoa powder is claimed to have a health score more than double that of the best-performing chocolate bar.

Prioritize transparent data over marketing claims for chocolate health benefits

The most important takeaway is that marketing and health claims on chocolate are meaningless without transparent data on flavanols and heavy metals.

Choose Vosges Haut-Chocolat for optimal flavanol benefits

Vosges Haut-Chocolat was the top-scoring bar with the best ratio of high flavanols to low heavy metals.

Question health marketing claims of 'healthy' brands

The popular 'healthy' brand Hu, which promotes getting 'back to human,' had a mediocre score due to its heavy metal content.

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© Mindsip 2025 – Made with ❤ in Vilnius

Unlock the wisdom of longevity

© Mindsip 2025 – Made with ❤ in Vilnius