Even More Reasons to Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup

The reasons to avoid high fructose corn syrup continue to mount. There is little doubt in my mind that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is one of the most toxic chemicals to find its way into our restaurants, supermarkets and even health food stores. It has replaced sugar in many processed foods and has become ubiquitous in the diets of many Americans. It has found its way into beverages, breads, cereals, snack bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments. It is being consumed in massive quantities by children, and is contributing to the increasing rates of childhood and adult diabetes and the obesity epidemic. On average, Americans consume about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS. Consumption by teenagers can be up to 80% above these average levels.

We now have another reason to be conce
ed about the safety of HFCS. The journal of Environmental Health published an article in late January 2009 that identified mercury in nearly 50% of tested samples of commercial HFCS. A separate study by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy detected mercury in nearly one-third of 55 popular brand name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first or second highest labeled ingredient – including common products by Quaker, Hershey’s, Pepsi, Kraft and Smucker’s.

In the processing of HFCS, many companies use mercury grade caustic soda that is produced in chlorine plants. This leads to a contamination of the caustic soda, and ultimately the HFCS, with mercury. Mercury is toxic in any amount and the body bio-accumulates mercury over time. The challenge for the consumer is that it is impossible to know which companies and products are produced using this mercury containing caustic soda. For this reason, it is important to make a concerted effort to avoid HFCS as much as possible. No quantity should be considered safe.

If you would like to see a list of brand name foods found to have mercury containing HFCS, view the article at the link below “Not So Sweet: Missing Mercury and High Fructose Corn Syrup,” by David Wallinga, M.D., Janelle Sorensen, Pooja Motti and Brian Yablon, M.D.

http://www.healthobservatory.org/library.cfm?refid=105026

-Allan Sosin, MD

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