This week, our friends over at Does This Blog Make Us Look Fat? have been busy reading about science. Good thing, too, because, now we may know how to help save the honeybees – lay off the high fructose corn syrup. Seriously. Stop. Now.

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As if we haven’t had enough problems with our food lately with the salmonella/peanut butter outbreak. Now, two new studies find mercury – a metal that is toxic to humans – in nearly half of the samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) they tested. It was also in about a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverages where HFCS is the first or second highest ingredient listed on the label.

The findings

One study – published in the journal, Environmental Health – shows mercury in nine out of 20 samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup.

The second study – by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) – finds nearly one in three of 55 brand-name foods contained mercury, especially dairy products, dressings and condiments. The brands included big names like Quaker, Hershey’s, Kraft and Smucker’s.

How much HFCS do we use?

HFCS is commonly used to sweeten so many things like breads, cereals, breakfast bars, drinks, yogurts, soups, and condiments. The IATP says the average American probably eats about 12 teaspoons of HFCS a day. Teenagers and others on the higher end of the spectrum might have 80 percent more.

How does mercury get into HFCS?

For decades, HFCS has been made using mercury-grade caustic soda produced in industrial chlorine – or chlor-alkali – plants. Caustic soda helps separate the corn starch from the corn kernel. If it’s tainted, the soda can contaminate whatever food or other products are made from it, like HFCS, which can then contaminate the final food products that use it.

Who knew?

Consumers may not be the only ones who did not know about this. The IATP says the food companies that buy finished HFCS and use it in their processed foods may not know if it is made from chemicals produced by a chlorine plant still using mercury cells. The HFCS isn’t labeled “Made with mercury.”

The 17 samples that contained mercury, according to IATP:

• Quaker Oatmeal to Go
• Jack Daniel’s Barbecue Sauce (Heinz)
• Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup
• Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce
• Nutri‐Grain Strawberry Cereal Bars
• Manwich Bold Sloppy Joe
• Market Pantry Grape Jelly
• Smucker’s Strawberry Jelly
• Pop‐Tarts Frosted Blueberry
• Hunt’s Tomato Ketchup
• Wish‐Bone Western Sweet & Smooth
• Coca‐Cola Classic
• Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt
• Minute Maid Berry Punch
• Yoo‐hoo Chocolate Drink
• Nesquik Chocolate Milk
• Kemps Fat Free Chocolate Milk

The levels of mercury found in these products are listed here.

Are the levels harmful?

To give this some context, here’s an example of what the study found. There were 300 parts per trillion of mercury in Jack Daniel’s Barbecue Sauce. The Center for Science in the Public Interest says that’s still 30 to 3,000 times less than the amount of mercury found in fish and seafood.

The companies named in the IATP report defended their products, noting the very low levels of mercury detected. “You would have to eat more than 100 pounds of ketchup each day to even come close to reaching the EPA’s safe exposure level,” ConAgra spokeswoman Stephanie Childs tells the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

But some experts argue there is no safe level of exposure to mercury.

Go here for more information about mercury and your health.

The Corn Refiners Association’s response

The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) challenged the findings. CRA’s president says, “This study appears to be based on outdated information of dubious significance. Our industry has used mercury-free versions of the two re-agents mentioned in the study, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda, for several years. In 1983, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration formally listed high fructose corn syrup as safe for use in food and reaffirmed that decision in 1996.”

What to do

Because researchers tested just one sample of each product, they say their results should not be taken as advice on avoiding specific foods and drinks. But they are calling for the food industry and the FDA to make immediate changes to help stop this problem.

They write, “Our efforts were never intended to take the place of full-scale safety testing by the
FDA. But to us they do suggest a strong need for it, since Americans (and American children in particular)
consume an awful lot of HFCS-containing products. It’s a big chunk of their diet. That, plus the simple fact that adding mercury-containing HFCS to the food chain appears completely avoidable, makes this an issue worthy of much more attention.”

My take

I don’t care if it’s only a small amount, I don’t want mercury in my food! It’s bad enough that it’s in our fish! This whole thing is shocking and scary to me.

Maybe HFCS is worse than sugar, after all.

Will the results of these studies make you avoid HFCS altogether, like over at A Life Less Sweet? Or are the mercury levels low enough that it won’t bother you to eat these foods?

[Photo Credit: stock.xchng]

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Could it be true? Has high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) – which is in a crazy amount of foods and beverages like soda pop – been getting a bad rap it doesn’t deserve? Is it actually no worse than sugar, which also lurks in many products?

In 2004, research linked the increase of people getting more high-fructose corn syrup in their diets to the rise in obesity. This led to more research and a lot of concern over the cheap sweetener which seems to be everywhere.

But now – is science proving otherwise? This week, five new papers find no special link between HFCS and obesity. And one of those reports was written by Barry Popkin, a co-author on the first paper speaking out against the sweetener in 2004.

“It doesn’t appear that when you consume high-fructose corn syrup, you have any different total effect on appetite than if you consume any other sugar,” he tells USA Today.

The research seems to show sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup are not that different. And that if you have a lot of fructose – whether from HFCS or from table sugar – both will increase triglycerides, which could make you more at risk for heart disease.

I know we haven’t heard the end of this. And I want to know what you think. Has HFCS gotten an unfair shake? Have you cut back or cut out HFCS from your diet or do you not really think it’s that big of a deal?

And Cathy (A Life Less Sweet) – I definitely want to hear your take on this new research.

***UPDATED – See what A Life Less Sweet has to say about this over here.

[Photo Credit: stock.xchng]

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She’s so dedicated to changing food in our schools that she got the leading role in a movie about the actions she’s taking.

Meet Dr. Susan Rubin. As a parent, she got involved with traditional programs in public schools to try to bring in healthier food options. Years later, she says all she got was frustrated by all the bureaucracy. So she started the nonprofit group, Better School Food (BSF). Here’s how the program is Making a Healthy Difference.

It started with candy wrappers
Yes, candy wrappers were making their way home from school with one of Susan Rubin’s daughters. Rubin was a dentist at the time, and was immediately concerned.

“I was really shocked to find out the stuff was coming out of the cafeteria,” Rubin recalls.

But it wasn’t just about cavities. Rubin was worried about the overall health of her children because of the food schools offered. She wanted to do something about it, so she left dentistry to become a holistic nutritionist. Now she and BSF are reaching out to schools across the country to try to stem childhood obesity.

“Every school has a bureaucratic system and you have to play by those rules,” says Rubin. “So I decided to form this organization outside of the schools because then there were no rules.”

Better School Food’s mission
Like the name says, it’s about better school food – specifically, BSF wants every school-age child to have access to whole foods and fresh fruits and vegetables. Its goal is to also get rid of unhealthy ingredients, like trans fats, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and potentially harmful preservatives, from schools and from kids’ daily diets.

BSF is made up of health professionals, educators, and concerned parents. The group supports pretty much anyone across the country who wants better food in schools – from the cafeterias to the food sold for fundraisers.

“We’re just kind of creating an army of advocates,” Rubin explains. “It’s not just K-12. I really believe we’ve got to hit it earlier in child care centers, pre-schools, and after school programs.”

Back in time
To move forward, Rubin says we have to go back to how things used to be. We went from growing our own foods long ago to buying processed foods, and now there’s a push to eat organic, whole foods again.

Rubin believes a way out of the obesity epidemic is for students to go back to eating foods they’ve grown themselves in school gardens. This lets kids learn about fruits and vegetables by doing, instead of just reading about them in textbooks. She says because they would actually see where their food comes from, they’d be more likely to connect with and want to eat fruits and vegetables they have planted and nurtured themselves.

No More Sweets?
Don’t worry – she’s not saying sweets should be banned. But when you have them, why not have the good stuff made with all natural ingredients?

“My kids eat cookies,” says Rubin. “They make chocolate chip cookies from scratch with the best ingredients. So I’m not saying, never do this. I’m saying, bump up the quality and have less.”

Movement turns into movie
Rubin’s passion caught the attention of filmmaker and mom, Amy Kalafa, who featured BSF in the documentary, Two Angry Moms. Rubin and Kalafa became two angry moms when they saw the poor diets their kids were eating in schools and how it affected their health, behavior, and learning.

“It’s a real story about school food and the challenges and the successes that are out there. So we always joke that Two Angry Moms is the movie and Better School Food is the movement.”

More on Two Angry Moms right here.

How you can get involved
Want to make a difference in your community’s schools? Find out more about what you can do and how BSF can help you along the way.

Making a Healthy Difference
With grim news about the obesity epidemic constantly making headlines, it’s refreshing to know there are people out there working hard to try to reverse the trend. Thanks, Better School Food for Making a Healthy Difference!

Check out all of FFTV’s Making a Healthy Difference honorees here.

If you know of someone you think we should profile, we want to hear from you. Just send us an email at sahar [at] fatfightertv [dot]com

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