March 5, 2009

Update/Continuation on Poisonous High Fructose Corn Syrup

So a while back I posted a blog about Mercury being found in HFCS.

Since then, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy has done its own study on this discovery, and the results aren't good. Half of commercial High Fructose Corn Syrup was found to have mercury in it. And 1/3 of products where HFCS is the first or second ingredient were found to be contaminated with mercury as well. Some of the brands included in that 1/3 of products are Quaker, Hunt’s, Manwich, Hershey’s, Smucker’s, Kraft, Nutri-Grain and Yoplait......just to name a few.

The IATP study can be found here. I realize that we're all busy people, and it's hard sometimes to get a second to pee let alone read some long ass study. But do yourself a favor and at least read the executive summary. It is pretty scary that the FDA knows about this previously unknown source of mercury and has done absolutely nothing so far to change anything. The FDA is "supposed" to keep us, the consumers, safe. But it's pretty obvious that the only thing they care about is making "the man" (and themselves, I'm sure) a pretty penny. Damn the man.

As a side thought, perhaps mercury is part of, or the entire cause for autism? A lot of food marketed at kids is on the list.

3 comments:

Anita

I've been reading quite a bit about the autism/mercury/vaccine link/possible link - and much of the evidence that vaccines cause autism are coming to show that the connection isn't there... or at least the major study that linked vaccines and autism had been pulled by the peole who did it because the main researcher wasn't completely truthful in his findings and the results weren't nearly as scientific as they should have been. Newsweek and the USA today has been publishing quite a bit about it as of lately.

At any rate - Mercury is not a GOOD thing to be exposed to, especially not for kids, so the HFCS/Mercury link is disturbing.. I'll add it to the list of many things that I write our elected leaders letters about. This might sound strange - but a few old coworkers of mine (from my *cough cough embarassed to say Walmart days*) transitioned their children to rice cereal with HFCS added to it (for ease of BMs and such) much MUCH sooner than you were supposed to transition infants to solid foods. I don't agree with their decision, it might have been a financial thing, a culture thing, who knows, but I'd be curious if Autism is higher in certain regions of the country/world, if it's higher in certain race groups, male vs female, etc.

Erica, it makes me want to scream, because I know I will be a paranoid nutjob as a parent if I continue to read things like this... and it's a great reminder to say OUT of the inner aisles at the grocery store... I try to avoid buying too many prepackaged things because they are expensive and not as good for you, but this is just another kicker.

Janice

Oh geez...one more thing to worry about....so scary that it can affect Abby and also baby #2 through what I eat. Damn government. Thanks for sharing...I will def be reading labels more carefully from now on...

Sarah Lilly

I agree, I think Mercury is a HUGE cause of autism in children. I've done alot of research on the subject and there is no way that anyone, doctors, etc can deny that. It just proves you really have to be on the watch!