Holy mother of all that's holy!
This is gonna be a short diary, but one I am sure that will rock your world. Especially those of you with kids!
Apparently the FDA has known, since at least 2005, that 50% of commercial High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)samples, and that 1/3 of final products containing HFCS tested positive for mercury!
That's no typo folks. That's no casual omission of a medically irrelevant factoid. That's a conscious coverup of a potential disaster to the children of this country!
I am sure that most of you that watch TV have seen the recent HFCS astroturfing campaign...wherein a seemingly intelligent kid chides his slightly moronic older brother for saying that HFCS isn't good for you.
Well folks, the verdict is in, and it most definitely isn't!
Recently in the journal Environmental Health (link takes you to an abstract of the article) a study was published that was apparently completed sometime in 2005.
And then, lo and behold, just last fall the FDA goes and lays this on us
High fructose corn syrup may be labeled natural when synthetic fixing agents do not come into contact with it during manufacturing, said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), fuelling further debate on the controversial sweetener.
The decision, written to the Corn Refiners Association and considered a backtrack for the FDA by organizations opposed to the ingredient, followed a meeting that was prompted by a FoodNavigator-USA.com article published in April this year.
Now the problem with HFCS and mercury comes, not from the corn itself, but from the method of extraction from the kernel.
From the Ethicurian:
How did the heavy metal get in there? In making HFCS — that "natural" sweetener, as the Corn Refiners Associaton likes to call it — caustic soda is one ingredient used to separate corn starch from the corn kernel. Apparently most caustic soda for years has been produced in industrial chlorine (chlor-alkali) plants, where it can be contaminated with mercury that it passes on to the HFCS, and then to consumers.
This is getting ridiculous. Folks, there is no safe level of mercury exposure. Zero. None. I, for one, have luckily weaned my kids from HFCS (except for the Grandma exposure...but I expect this should take care of that!), and I strongly urge any parents out there to do the same.
This is not a hippy-trippy, paranoid delusion (despite my pseudonym). Between this and the peanut butter scandal, we need to do something to make sure that the FDA actually takes food security seriously!
[update]
There are some comments who seem to think I have blown this out of proportion, due to the low levels of detected mercury. According to Wikipedia (not a scientific source, I know, but anyway) the per capita consumption of HFCS in the US is 28.4 Kg (62.5 lbs) per year. Given that, and the fact that mercury doesn't leave your system ever voluntarily, I think this is a big deal. The biggest problem is that it is entirely avoidable! If the manufacturing process used the pricier, mercury free, caustic soda, there would be no problem at all!
Just another tidbit from the Environmental Health article, which was the study actually performed for the FDA:
When university researchers outside of the government attempted to obtain
additional HFCS samples direct from the manufacturer they were unable to get them.
However, with 45% of the HFCS samples containing mercury in this small study, it would be prudent and perhaps essential for public health that additional research be conducted by the FDA or some other public health agency to determine if products containing HFCS also contain mercury.
Now why would the manufacturers refuse samples of their publicly consumed, commercially available product?
[Update 2]
from the comments below: (hat tip to Catte Nappe)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today reintroduced the Missing Mercury in Manufacturing Monitoring and Mitigation Act, which prohibits the use of mercury in chlorine or caustic soda manufacturing by the year 2012. This legislation was prompted by an in-depth report published by the Chicago Tribune that highlighted the extent of mercury contamination in the fish eaten by Americans. Much of the mercury emitted into the environment today is a result of chlorine and caustic soda production. Oceana, an environmental group, today released a report highlighting that several chlorine production plants continue to threaten public health through their mercury production.
Nice to have the adults in charge again, huh?
some additional links
IADF report: (warning - PDF!)
The murky world of HFCS