Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Mercury: the new cause for corn-cern

Straight from AOL:
"Mercury Found in Commerical [sic] Corn Syrup. Almost half of the corn syrup
tested in a new study contained mercury, according to HealthDay
News.
And a third of commercial food products with corn syrup had mercury as
well. The studies focused on high-fructose corn syrup, known as HFCS, which is
often produced using caustic soda that contains mercury, the news service
reported."

One study, published in the Environmental Health journal, found detectable levels of mercury in nine out of 20 commercial HFCS samples. The other study found that one of every three brand-name foods, out of 55 tested, included mercury, HeathDay [sic] News reported. The most common foods with mercury were dairy products, dressing and condiments...

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, high levels of mercury can cause brain and liver damage. Short-term exposure to high levels of mercury can increase blood pressure and trigger rashes, eye irritation, nausea, vomiting and other health problems.

"Note to the FDA: Pull those annoying and misleading commercials about HFCS being "natural" and "healthy" so that people are not misled any further by the agribusiness lobby. I, for one consumer, have had enough. It's nasty, it's unhealthy and it's overused.

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