"It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly."
They explore how much cheaper high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a critical ingredient in the American diet, was from 1997-2005 due to corn prices below corn’s cost of production and the possible connection to USDA subsidies.
"While this (corn subsidies) may not have reduced soda prices to an extent that would account for rising consumption, there is little doubt U.S. agricultural policies have indirectly subsidized a sector that may be contributing to health problems."
What she found was that possible mercury contamination of these food chemicals was not common knowledge within the food industry despite the availability of product specification sheets for mercury-grade caustic soda that clearly indicate the presence of mercury (as well as lead, arsenic and other metals). Upon further investigation, she found mercury contamination in some commercial HFCS, which can be made from mercury-grade caustic soda.
Through this public scientist’s initiative, the FDA learned that commercial HFCS was contaminated with mercury. The agency has apparently done nothing to inform consumers of this fact, however, or to help change industry practice.Consumers likely aren’t the only ones in the dark. While HFCS manufacturers certainly should have been wary of buying “mercury- grade” caustic soda in the first place, the food companies that buy finished HFCS and incorporate it into their processed food products may be equally unaware of how their HFCS is made, i.e., whether or not it is made from chemicals produced by a chlorine plant still using mercury cells.
The HFCS isn’t labeled “Made with mercury,” just like contaminated pet foods, chocolates and other products have not been labeled “Made with melamine.” Under current regulations, that information is not made available to either consumers or to companies further down the food supply chain.
When we learned of this gap in information, we set out to do the FDA’s work for it. We went to supermarkets and identified brand-name products—mainly soft drinks, snack foods and other items mostly marketed to children—where HFCS was the first or second ingredient on the label.
We sent several dozen products to a commercial laboratory, using the latest in mercury detection technology. And guess what? We found mercury. In fact, we detected mercury in nearly one in three of the 55 HFCS-containing food products we tested. They include some of the most recognizable brands on supermarket shelves: Quaker, Hunt’s, Manwich, Hershey’s, Smucker’s, Kraft, Nutri-Grain and Yoplait.
No mercury was detected in the majority of beverages tested. That may be important since sweetened beverages are one of the biggest sources of HFCS in our diets. On the other hand, mercury was found at levels several times higher than the lowest detectable limits in some snack bars, barbecue sauce, sloppy joe mix, yogurt and chocolate syrup. Although closer to the detection limit, elevated mercury levels were also found in some soda pop, strawberry jelly, catsup and chocolate milk. The top mercury detections are summarized in Table 3, on page 14 of the report.
Environmental mercury from chlorine plants, coal-fired power plants, dental offices and other sources have helped contaminate albacore tuna, swordfish and many of our favorite fish with mercury. Eating these fish has long been thought to be the most important mercury exposure for most people.
However, HFCS now appears to be a significant additional source of mercury, one never before considered. When regulators set safe fish consumption recommendations based on an understanding of existing mercury exposure, for example, they never built mercury contaminated HFCS into their calculations. HFCS as a mercury source is a completely avoidable problem. HFCS manufacturers don’t need to buy mercury-grade caustic soda. And the chlorine industry doesn’t need to use mercury cell technology. In fact, most chlorine plants in the U.S. don’t use it anymore, as it is antiquated and inefficient.
While we wait for the FDA to do its job and eliminate this unnecessary and completely preventable mercury contamination, we have a few suggestions for what you as consumers and voters can do.
Currently, food manufacturers don’t list on their products the source of HFCS and whether or not it is made from mercury-grade caustic soda. So call them. Make use of the toll-free numbers or Web sites on many packages, and let companies know you’re not comfortable eating their product until you know exactly what is in it. As voters, call your elected officials and ask them for hearings to find out why the FDA is not protecting us from mercury in HFCS.
Also, ask these officials to reintroduce legislation originally proposed by then-Senator Barack Obama a few years ago that will force the remaining chlorine plants to transition to cleaner technologies. Because even if they stop providing the caustic soda used for HFCS, their mercury pollution is still contaminating our food system as it falls on farm fields and waterways.
March 1, 2008: American Dietetic Association Welcomes The Coca-Cola Company as an ADA Partner. The press release says:
The program provides Partners a national platform via ADA events and programs with prominent access to key influencers, thought leaders and decision makers in the food and nutrition marketplace.
About the time the dietitians were becoming critical of their own association, criticism was coming from the very influential and proficient author and renowned food policy advocate Marion Nestle. She quotes on her blog:
Respected ADA colleagues: as long as your organization partners with makers of food and beverage products, its opinions about diet and health will never be believed independent (translation: based on science not politics) and neither will yours.
Furthermore, an interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History or Four Meals and more recently In Defense of Food, An Eaters Manifesto, Micheal Pollan had this to say:
Well, nutrition science is very compromised by industry. Organizations like the American Dietetic Association take sponsorship from companies who are eager to find -- you know, be able to make health claims.
Soon the Corn Refiners Association launched a PR campaign that took Dietitians along with them with a full page ad in the Washington Post: "Registered Dietitians agree that HFCS is the same as table sugar and can be enjoyed in moderation."
This year at the American Dietetic Association Food and Nutrition Conference in Chicago, The Corn Refiners Association had an exhibit that included information about "the many ways corn based ingredients are contributing to great-tasting food and beverage choices and to innovations that enhance nutrition and help reduce calories and fat."
I guess the question is, who is suppose to be teaching who about nutrition?
I can attest, not all Registered Dietitians believe that everything can be enjoyed in moderation. There is more impact from consuming HFCS than the human nutrition implications.
I must admit that I am pretty discouraged by the recent advertising ploy brought about by the Corn Refiners Association. Where does real scientifically proven research turn into duping the ignorant public into believing industry agenda? It is stirring up some dialog on my dietetic practice group: HEN. Registered Dietitians highlight that their practices are based on scientific principles and current information. In the wake of industry trying to ignore the obvious: -HFCS is not, and will never be metabolized like sucrose!- I would like to provide research, made available to me by my good friend Melinda Hemmelgarn, of the Food Sleuth column, in our defense against big corn.
work of Dr. Robert Lustig: which highlights the metabolic pathway of fructose and dangers of overconsumption of HFCS
Let's hope that my Association, has enough sense to side with science and not with our corporate sponsors: Coca Cola and Pepsi....we all know what side they are batting for!
Note: assuming that most of the corn used to make HFCS comes from biotech corn, then we have to consider the larger environmental concerns of our consumption as well.
High Fructose Corn Syrup(HFCS) is back in the news. I was flipping through the Wall Street Journal today and ran across an article detailing the Corn Refiners Association's fight to preserve its reputation from being entangled with the obesity epidemic, as current research has suggested.
The expensive ad campaign is being targeted at mothers/woman. I continued my reading, only to flip to the actual full-page ad in the Journal. They claim that HFCS is metabolized the same as sugar and honey. While that is partially true, fructose actually enters the Kreb Cycle to steps ahead of glucose, thus entering the system more rapidly. Not to mention the research about the effects of fructose, insulin resistance, and metabolic dyslipidemia found in the journal of Nutrition and Metabolism
You can learn all about this garbage at the new website, SweetSuprise. The page, picturing a ear of corn say: Time for a little food for thought, don't you think....yeah, I think:
Seems that the powers that be, or at least the lobbying of multibillion dollar beverage companies, have decided that HFCS(street name) is in fact NATURAL. What ever that means.
A District Court in New Jersey has rejected a claim that Snapple drinks marked "natural" really are not.
..."Stacy Holk, who had filed the suit on behalf of herself and other consumers, had maintained that the use of the term 'natural' was deceitful because the drinks contained HFCS, a "highly processed sugar substitute", which is created through "enzymatically catalyzed chemical reactions in factories"....
Last time I checked, chemically altering something, makes it unnatural. Correct me if I'm wrong.
FDA continues to be a stick in the mud on this issue, and will allow industry to make the rules. That's our tax money at work. And the corn producers are dancing a ditty! Drink up!
