by Justin Lakso ’25

If you’re a male in high school who wants to get in shape for the summer, chances are you regularly go to the gym. It’s also likely that you’ve had a Fairlife Protein Shake. These chocolate milkshakes with incredibly high amounts of protein are usually a gym goer’s favorite recovery drink, but it might be time to reconsider that choice.

In a recent article by HealthNews.com, a study by Consumer Reports (CR) found that Fairlife Protein Shakes contained astronomical amounts of phthalate microplastics, roughly 20,500 nanograms per serving. For reference, fast food chains such as Burger King have less microplastics in their food than Fairlife does, and who even knows what Burger King burgers are made of?! High consumption of these phthalate microplastics are linked to increased risk of diabetes, infertility, and most ironic of all, lowered testosterone. Even worse, the FDA isn’t appropriately regulating these microplastics. Tunde Akinleye, a CR scientist who supervised the tests, said that many of these government thresholds for appropriate microplastic levels in foods do not reflect scientific knowledge and may not protect against the potential health effects. If you want to get in shape, avoid microplastics, and avoid Fairlife. It could save you in the future.