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Want some mercury with that?
I had the flu so badly last week I drank something I haven't drank in over 20 years: ginger ale. And no, it wasn't ginger beer, the stuff in the bottle at the natural grocery that actually has ginger in it. This was the the drink-with-saltines stuff 'cause it makes you feel better somehow.
As I was about to toss the empty bottle in the recycle bin, I decided to brave the label - I'm a devoted label reader, but when I know it'll be awful, I sometimes just pass. So here's what I found: water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, natural flavors, sodium benzoate (preservative), and caramel color. Ugh.
I've seen the movie King Corn, so am well versed in this country's corn syrup problem. Normally, it doesn't cross our threshold. But now that it had, I was grimly reminded about the recent report finding mercury in high fructose corn syrup. So I got all wound up, because as both my husband and now 6-year-old would tell you, that's just what I do.
So the first thing I got mad about was the absurdity of that ingredient list. I mean, that's a drink for humans? The second thing I got mad about was the high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) issue, and how crazy screwed up our agriculture and nutrition policy has gotten. But the reason I'm actually writing about it here, with you, is because of the ingredient that wasn't listed on that label but may well have been in the drink: mercury.
Why would there be mercury in my ginger ale? 'Cause it's been found in high-fructose corn syrup, which was definitely present in my ginger ale. These days it wouldn't be far fetched to wonder if this could be an intentional/accidental contaminant that escaped detection. But it's not - it's actually a result of the corn syrup production process. That's right: to convert corn into corn syrup manufacturers use hydrochloric acid and caustic soda (yum) that often contains mercury. While some plants have switched to mercury-free 're-agents,' plenty still use the ones with mercury.
So every time you or your kids eat or drink something sweetened by corn syrup (and most of us do - studies show that 1 in 10 calories are from HFCS, an average of 12 teaspoons a day per person!!), how are you to know whether it has mercury in it? You can't.
The two studies that brought this to light back in January of this year found mercury in first 9 of 20 samples then 1 in 3 of 55 brand-name food samples. Feeling reassured? You can read the full report and see a list of the contaminated products on The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's (IATP) web site.
Is this fixable? As I'm sure you know, mercury is dangerous business - in any form. So how can we get the mercury out of the HFCS (getting the HFCS out of all that food is a whole other can of worms)? IATP has three reasonable suggestions:
- Congress should enact legislation proposed by then Senator Barack Obama two years ago to phase out the use of mercury cell technology in U.S. chlorine plants.
- Corn refining companies that produce high fructose corn syrup should demand that their suppliers of caustic soda do not use mercury cell technology.
- The Food and Drug Administration should begin testing high fructose corn syrup for mercury and make those findings public.
[photo courtesy of flickr commons]
Thank you for this information on yet another place where we find mercury poinsoning. It's found in the air, in fish, in the water in many people's wells in the east, and now in Corn Syrup! This is getting out of hand.
And where does the mercury come from? COAL
The Mountain Top Removal from which mercury washed into rivers and the water table. And from the burning of coal in power plants, which still put mercury into the air, in spite of regulations which have resulted in some reduction.
We must work to move to ALTERNATIVE ENERGY Sources for Health reasons as well as working to reduce Climate Change.
This is awful. This can be one more item in my old blog post: "Toxins Are Everywhere--I'm Not Kidding."
http://xmlandmore.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-friend-su-asked-me-why-she-got.html
Is there lead in your vitamins? Check with the FDA
In 2007 the FDA became aware of reports of elevated lead levels in women’s and children’s vitamins.
In August of 2008 the FDA published a study of 324 vitamins that contain LEAD.
The FDA knows that women and children are ingesting lead daily.
Why are these products still on the market?
Why is there no study on men’s vitamins?
Well if the FDA is not going to pull these health and wellness products off the shelves at least you can pull them out of your cupboard.
To find out if the vitamins you’re using are on the list go to:
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/pbvitami.html
I've campaigned against high fructose corn syrup for a long time. It's another case of greed in the food industry, where manufacturers have found a way to lower cost at the expense of consumer's health. I just discovered that my favorite (formerly favorite) yogurt, Yoplait, lists high fructose corn syrup as its second ingredient. GRRRRRR!
Mercury or not, it's bad for dental health and the struggle to maintain a healthful weight.
Good blog. Keep reading those labels.
Cheryl