Corn Syrup’s Mercury Surprise
Not sure how I even came across this article. Probably reading a recipe or something. The headline caught my eye. Mercury? In corn syrup? Seriously? That makes HFCS even worse than it already is. Did you know your body can’t metabolize fructose? (The F in HFCS) Your liver doesn’t know what to do with it, it can’t send it to your muscles for energy, so it just dumps it directly into your fat cells. Scary, huh? Who knew fruit was actually bad for you?
Corn Syrup’s Mercury Surprise
By Melinda Wenner
If the specter of obesity and diabetes wasn’t enough to turn you off high- fructose corn syrup (HFCS), try this: New research suggests that the sweetener could be tainted with mercury, putting millions of children at risk for developmental problems.
Dufault sent HFCS samples from three manufacturers that used lye to labs at the University of California-Davis and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The labs found mercury in most of the samples. In September 2005, Dufault presented her findings to the FDA’s center for food safety. She was surprised by what happened next. “I was instructed not to do any more investigation,” she recalls.
At first, Dufault was reluctant to pursue the matter. But eventually, she became frustrated enough to try to publish the findings herself. She had her 20 original samples retested; mercury was found in nearly half of them.
But the FDA and the Corn Refiners Association, an industry trade group, claim there’s nothing to worry about.
Nessipes! 