WA Post: Study Finds High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury

[ML8000]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...

Here's a clip:

Monday, January 26, 2009; 12:00 AM

MONDAY, Jan. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies.

[Icantread]

I can see the commercials now

"What a dweeb, you're using that corn syrup stuff?"
"So?"
"Haven't you heard all the bad stuff about it, dweeb?"
"Like what?"
"It's made from corn grown in your thermometer"
"I need the ad execs the tobacco companies use"

[goodhealthgourmet]

LOL :)

i'm waiting for a press release from Jeremy Piven's PR people claiming that in addition to all that sushi & sashimi, he's also been eating Quaker Oatmeal To Go every day for breakfast.

[Caroline1]

I wonder if lab testing has been done on comparable foods made with sugar? Personally, I find there is a whole lot wrong with corn syrup, high fructose or other, and for the years I was allergic to all things corn, it was a real thorn in my side. But I would be curious whether there is a lead content in sugar or even honey? Is it the result of atmospheric pollution at the global level dumping mercury, lead, arsenic and other "dietary delights" into our food chain? Curious minds and all that jazz...

[clamscasino]

Caroline 1, from one "curious mind" to another, there are two books you might find interesting. Both are very new.

Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis. By Rowan Jacobsen. Very fascinating book and I will never buy commercial honey again. Thankfully I live in fairly a pristine and isolated environment that is also home to honeybee farmers.

Poisonous Profits by Phillip and Alice Shabecoff. This deals with environmental toxins of all types. Lots of stuff on mercury there. Also lots of info on pthalates (as in those "bad" plastic bottles and baby-bottles) and teflon.

[paulj]

Keep in mind that this mercury finding was based on a well defined line of reasoning. The authors of the EH article were not just fishing around, looking for toxins in a common food ingredient. They knew that mercury can be used in the production of caustic soda, and that caustic soda is used in the production of HFCS.

Caustic soda is used in the production of some other food items. I believe citric acid is mentioned in the article. But HFCS is apparently the most widely used product, and this why they looked at it.

This is an entirely different matter from trying to detect atmospheric pollutants in sugarcane, honey, corn, or wheat.

[alkapal]

here are the 55 products: http://www.healthobservatory.org/library.cfm?refID=105040

institute for ag & trade policy: http://www.iatp.org/

[clamscasino]

That list is very interesting...but I don't quite understand what the second column, labeled "laboratory detection limit" means. Can anyone shed some light on that?

[alkapal]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detectio...

[clamscasino]

Thankyou Alkapal. Knowing that makes the lower third of the list, where the Lab detection limit is 100 ppt even scarier though....

[paulj]

I don't see why that detection limit makes the ND part of the list scary.

What was the ppt concentration of mercury in the last piece of tuna that you ate?

[clamscasino]

It makes the ND part of list "scary" because much of that section has Lab Detection limits of 100 ppt. So, if I am understanding it correctly, that Jello-Strawberry, for example could actually contain 99 ppt.

That being said, in further googling, I found that the "action level" whereupon the FDA can take food off the market for mercury is 1 ppm. And I also found a conversion calculator (because, let's face it, high school chemistry was a looong time ago) that says that it takes a whopping 1,000,000 parts per trillion to make one part per million. So, perhaps this news is not as spectacular and enraging as the media is making it out to be.

[paulj]

iatp has a link to the Environmental Health article, which can be downloaded and read as pdf. There is also a link to this in the new paragraph on the HFCS Wiki article. This article is a good example of scientific study and writing

In case it isn't clear from other summaries, caustic soda is used in the process of making HFCS (possibly as a purifying agent). One method of making caustic soda uses mercury cells. Another method uses a membrane. The fact some samples of HFCS have trace quantities of mercury, and others do not (at the level than can be detected, some where in the 1 part per trillion), suggests that some manufacturers get their caustic soda from one process, and some from the other. Addressing this particular concern may be as simple as switching suppliers of caustic soda.

The EH article also states that there is limited data on the toxicity of mercury. They cite two notable cases of mercury poisoning, one in Iraq, and one in Japan. Since careful blind tests on humans is clearly unethical in this case, it is best to take as much of a zero-tolerance policy as is practical. They compare their findings with standards regarding mercury in tooth fillings, and in fish.

[blackoak]

Interesting. I couldn't understand why we were recently being inundated with ads extolling the virtues of high-fructose corn syrup by equating it with sugar. Now I'm wondering if the companies that produce and sell the syrup knew this report was set to be released.