Jan 27 2009
Mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup
image from Wikimedia Commons
I will preface this post by making it very clear that I do not in any way think that my son’s Asperger’s has anything to do with mercury. So let’s be clear that I do not generally jump up and down about mercury exposure. But today I read a blog post by High Quality Mothering about an article from yesterday’s Washington Post online about two studies that found mercury in high fructose corn syrup, which is the sweetener of choice in (disturbingly) many foods.
I had heard something about traces of mercury in HFCS a while back but could never find significant information to back it up. Here’s what creeps me out: it’s not that there has been mercury found in a rather high number of foods containing HFCS; it’s when you take what could be a tiny amount and consider just how much HFCS gets consumed on a daily basis…that’s an awful lot of badness in food! Isn’t the corn syrup bad enough? I know that trace amounts of mercury have been said to be innocuous - it occurs in nature after all. Still, if I’ve been told I have to clear a room for 15 minutes if a tiny bit of this stuff gets into the air in my house, I certainly don’t want to eat it!
I knew there was a good reason we started removing high fructose corn syrup from our diet. This just makes me feel better about it.
What do you think: is the food industry poisoning us, or is this an over-reaction?
