My mom, who is notably eccentric on food issues, has been telling our family for years to avoid high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Recently HFCS has started to be the product of choice for food activists to go after. After seeing much of the research out there, I can understand why - the stuff is chemically odd. Nonetheless, more evidence for why we should limit our exposure was revealed recently - from 33-50% of all HFCS (in the studies at least) contained detectable levels of mercury. As one doctor put it:
In an effort to be fair, I'm including a commercial by the corn industry in favor of HFSC.
The best mercury exposure is no exposure at allMore study might be necissary, but these results are not promising. Worse yet, I might have to admit that my mom has been right all along.
In an effort to be fair, I'm including a commercial by the corn industry in favor of HFSC.
7 comments:
My wife is the same way:) I tend toward the "if it isn't natural, it probably is a good idea to limit intake" side of things.
HFSC is a no-no for us too. We're hardly health nuts but that stuff just isn't natural, plus it tends to come in a lot of stuff that's really bad for you already.
I would say that mercury is another reason to not eat it, but Muse and I love sushi so we really can't talk about the dangers of mercury...
My mom has pointed out to us a lot of the strange places HFCS shows up like ketchup, bread, cereal. Wife and I have been trying to avoid it and have been really surprised by how many products have it in them.
It shows up so many places because of the preservative qualities. If you buy the really grainy whole-grain type breads, you can usually find some without it.
While we haven't been trying to avoid HFCS, you could always get a bread maker. We love ours.
There are several brands of bread that don't have it in them that we buy. We have a bread maker, but hardly use it.
You know every time someone starts talking about how we should avoid some item because it's not "natural" I think to myself, cobra venom is natural.
The dose makes the poison so what are those "detectable" levels? The article doesn't say. Chances are those levels are less that what already occurs normally in your body to no effect. If it was anything significant they would have given the numbers in the article.
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