Maybe we just shouldn’t eat high fructose corn syrup

By Jacqueline Diaz

In January 2009 Environmental Health published findings concluding that a process often used in the production of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) creates a mercury presence in foods http://www.ehjournal.net/content/8/1/2. The study also found that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had found similar levels of mercury in HFCS samples in 2004 but apparently didn’t think it was important to share with the public.

Since January, the HFCS industry has been countering the study with their own facts and “studies”–because those should be unbiased right? Their own “expert” assessments have found “flaws” in the study conducted by eight reputable researchers including a neuroscientist and chemist. They’d prefer to stick to the “facts” produced by studies funded by big Ag groups and “independent” panels that profess HFCS as safe and equal to table sugar.

Mother Jones isn’t buying it. They ran a story by Melinda Wenner recapping the HFCS saga from the FDA’s 2004 findings to the present in their July/August 2009 issue. http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2009/07/corn-syrups-mercury-surprise

In the article Wenner points out that “the FDA and Corn Refiners Association, an industry trade group, claim there’s nothing to worry about. The group hired ChemRisk, the consulting firm whose scientists testified on behalf of a polluting utility in the lawsuit portrayed in Erin Brockovich, to analyze the report [findings].”

So while scientists, consumer advocate groups, and industry giants continue to feud over test results and the safety of HFCS, maybe the best bet is to do what the European Union has done and just not let people eat it—HFCS isn’t allowed in most cases because it is considered a genetically modified food and those aren’t allowed. Of course, industry giants have been pushing the US government to get involved on grounds of things like “free trade” since big corn Ag is well, big business.

But since what is good for big Ag isn’t good for little, growing brains we don’t want overexposed to mercury, we’d do better to stay clear of HFCS when we can, but on our own, without governmental support by those at the FDA, it is hard to do!

HFCS is in pretty much everything from juices to breads, to yogurt and cold medicines—you know—those things that most parents and others would think were healthy for them or their kids. It’s easy for people to remember that HFCS will be in things like soda or chips, but how about whole grain breakfast cereals, the average peanut butter and jelly sandwich or lunch meat? It takes some super shopping skills to read through the labels and find things that aren’t laden with HFCS. But until something changes in the US, reading labels is about the only option we’ve got. 

Jacqueline Diaz is a member of the Editorial Committee of Because People Matter.

Comments

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To avoid it - You can start by shopping at Sac Food Co op.