Then, last week, a study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Environmental Health found detectable levels of mercury, a known neurotoxin, in nine of 20 samples of HFCS. A second study by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy found that mercury appeared as a secret ingredient in nearly a third of 55 brand-name foods, most commonly in products that also contained HFCS.

But the CRA hasn’t taken any of this bad news lying down. They were quick to fire back a press release calling the mercury study “outdated,” and for months they have been bankrolling a $20-30 million dollar publicity campaign called “Sweet Surprise,” which cheerily informs us that, “Like table sugar, high fructose corn syrup is fine in moderation.”

We are familiar with “moderation” as the long-time mantra of the self-help set, but it has also become a red flag in the press releases and talking points of corporations hawking toxicity. Tobacco was once okay in moderation, too, as was exposure to DDT, the notorious antagonist of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. To this day, as it turns out, DDT is classified as “moderately toxic” by the US National Toxicological Program and “moderately hazardous” by the World Health Organization.

The mercury found in the HFCS study was measured in parts per trillion––that’s a modest dose, even for a toxin known to be unsafe in any quantity. It’s the unfortunate truth that we’re exposed to environmental mercury from many sources just by walking out our front door. But it’s also true that the mercury found in the HFCS samples didn’t need to be there at all. It likely originated from an outdated process for manufacturing caustic soda (bet you didn’t know you were consuming that in your favorite drink), one of the components used in processing HFCS.

The reminder that America’s food and beverage manufacturers keep caustic soda, acids, and genetically modified enzymes in their cupboards brought back the experience of attempting to make our own home-brewed HFCS when filming the documentary King Corn. The experiment turned out okay––no one got hurt, and we managed to produce a few ounces of a surprisingly sweet liquid.

But we were left with the sad realization that so much of what we eat in the industrialized food economy was designed and produced in something much more like a laboratory than a kitchen. There’s something distinctly unappetizing about food ingredients whose labels advise you to wear goggles and gloves when you handle them.

Unless, of course, you enjoy them in moderation.

Hannah Major-Monfried is a writer in New York City. She most recently served as head speechwriter for Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

It is a matter of record that our fish populations are accumulating mercury; and as the top of their food chain, we too are accumulating the toxin.  The neurological effects of mercury have been widely documented.  On the EPA’s website, for example, it lists the primary health effect of methylmercury on fetuses, infants, and children, as being impaired neurological development.

In 2004, a study [PDF] led by Raymond F. Palmer of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio compared the rate of special education programs in Texas and the amount of mercury found in the environment and the results were alarming: “On average, for each 1000 lb of environmental mercury released, there was a 43% increase in the rate of special education services and a 61% increase in the rate of autism.”

He co-authored a second study [PDF] from February 2008 that took into account the proximity to sources of mercury output — like coal-fired utility plants, which account for 33% of the 158 tons of mercury spewed into the atmosphere annually, municipal/medical incinerators, which account for 29%, commercial/industrial boilers, which account for 18%.  Lower on the list but still noteworthy are hazardous waste sites, cement factories, and the chlorine production plants — which is where the caustic soda tainted with mercury in HFCS is being produced.  This second study found that “for every 10 miles from industrial or power plant sources, there was an associated decreased autism Incident Risk of 2.0% and 1.4%, respectively.”  In other words, the more mercury in the environment of a child or woman of childbearing age, the more likely for the child to develop autism.

The reason that the news on Monday that HFCS contains mercury is so alarming is two fold: First, the FDA had evidence of this in 2005 and did absolutely nothing — no testing, no warning the companies using the tainted HFCS to produce their ketchup, chocolate syrup, cereal bars and soda.  Therefore, more time has passed when mercury could bio-accumulate in our bodies, especially in populations at already at risk for heart disease, diabetes and obesity.  Second, there has been a previous association made between diet and autistic functionality — and specifically HFCS has been singled out as a cause for worsening the disorder. This means that there has been a growing body of evidence relating mercury to autism for some time, in which HFCS is only a new development.

This is dark news, because it means that our FDA is no longer working for us, and that in this time when we might have a receptive ear in Washington, it is more important than ever to challenge the preconceived notions of how government works. This could amount to one of the worst offenses by our government, which has been sitting on the evidence of mercury’s relationship to our health for too long in the name of corporate welfare.

The parents of autistic children should be given more of a voice in this discussion. In an article published on Salon.com in 2005, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. laid out the details on the correlation between autism and childhood vaccines.  It became clear to him that the parents of autistic children who blamed the vaccines for their child’s disorder were onto something when he stumbled onto a report from a conference in 2000 called Simpsonwood, where high-level officials from the FDA and Center for Disease Control (CDC), the top vaccine specialist from the World Health Organization in Geneva, and representatives of every major vaccine manufacturer, including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Wyeth and Aventis Pasteur gathered to discuss a new study that linked a mercury-based preservative in vaccines to increasing rates of autism.  This group, instead of changing course, and giving value to the science before them, proceeded to cover up the data to save the vaccine companies’ bottom line.

Now, we are faced with some hard truth about the consequences of our environmental choices beginning at the Industrial Revolution.  While thimerosal, the mercury-laden preservative used in some vaccinations, is being phased out, we should still be asking for a better assessment of our body burden of mercury.  With all that we know now, about what toxic pollution in the air and water do to our food and by proxy our bodies, will we face facts and begin the process of real, lasting change that the Obama adminstration has so far seemed a beacon for?  The first step will be taking a hard look at environmental mercury, one of the most prevalent pollutants in our environment.  We have a mess on our hands, and we need to begin to repair the damage done before we can move forward healthfully.

The HFCS industry has been shrouded in mystery since it began in the 1970s, essentially the result of “get big or get out” record corn harvests and subsequent plummeting commodity prices for farmers.  What to do with all that excess corn? The answer was not to decrease yields, but to find a way to get that corn into our stomachs.  This has led to the proliferation of HFCS in nearly all processed foods you find in the grocery store.  The industry has lacked transparency, and our government has refused to mediate our current health crisis — an upswing in diabetes and obesity resulting from cheap calories like HFCS — with regulation.  So its not surprising that it took so long for the news to reach the public eye.

The initial study [PDF] led by Renee Dufault, a now-retired Environmental Health Officer-cum-whistleblower, was published yesterday in Environmental Health, and found that nearly half the samples of HFCS tested contained mercury residue. The impetus for the study was to find approximately 58 tons of mercury that was reported missing in 2000 (and it is assumed yearly) from the chlor-alkali plants (makers of chlorine and caustic soda) in operation in the U.S.

Where has it gone? apparently some of it has gone into our veins and tissues.

Before now, our greatest threat for mercury exposure was through fish, followed by mercury amalgam in dentistry and through vaccines, as it is sometimes used as a preservative. But Dufault’s study estimates that exposure via HFCS could be up to 50 times that of mercury amalgam exposure in children age 3-19, as this age group is the largest consumers of HFCS.

Of course we know that mercury is a cumulative toxin, especially dangerous to pregnant women and children, and that those with high exposure (Jeremy Piven among them, from eating too much sushi) show signs of sensory impairment, sensation loss and lack of coordination.  This disorder was formerly referred to as Mad Hatter’s Syndrome, because haberdashers who produced felt hats in the 18th and 19th centuries used a mercury compound in their process.

We too have had a potential day to day exposure to the heavy metal, just by choosing our food from the boxes and bottles in the center aisles of the grocery store.  Aside from the case against us for improper nutrition, we could be slowly poisoning ourselves.

A second study, by David Wallinga, M.D. and his co-authors entitled “Not So Sweet: Missing Mercury and High Fructose Corn Syrup,” [PDF] tested products directly from the supermarket.  One in three tested positive for mercury residue.  These included products like Smucker’s Strawberry Jelly, Hunt’s Tomato Ketchup, Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, Nutra Grain Strawberry Cereal Bars, Pop-Tarts Frosted Blueberry and Coca-Cola Classic.

The reason Wallinga cited for his extension of the original study was that:

Many of these products are specifically marketed to groups vulnerable to mercury. Soft drinks, fruit juices, and other junk food are successfully marketed to children not only through Internet and television advertising, but also in school vending machine and cafeteria options. People who rely on food stamps or who live in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods are also a special target for junk food manufacturers, because they offer the most accessible and often least expensive calories in the grocery store.

He went on to criticize the FDA for not doing its job, and urged for mercury, which is not required to produce HFCS, to be taken out of the process.  I agree, but I would like to see our government push the corn refining industry further:  They should be shouldering responsibility for our declining health in this country, and as such, should be more adequately regulated.  If it were up to food justice advocates, the substance would be banned outright.  But corn refiners should at least be held accountable for misleading advertising, and consumers should be aware of what they are buying, through better transparency on labels.

So the question is, what will the FDA do with this new found information?  Dufault urges the creation of a mercury surveillance program, that monitors foods besides fish, along with additional public health evaluation of the exposure to mercury through HFCS.  But can we really keep avoiding the deeper problem, that HFCS, as a product of the human imagination, could possibly be a failed experiment?  For the sake of our health, it might be time for the government to finally intervene.

On my corn-free plan, the hardest things to avoid turned out to be corn sweeteners.  There were funny ones, like Sorbitol (a staple in my Crest, it turns out), but the big problem was that ubiquitous (and, I might add, delicious) goo, high-fructose corn syrup.  The stuff was in everything!  Spaghetti sauce and bread, Robitussen and fruit juice.  Out of the cupboard and into the trash it went.

Cut to this year, when rather than hunting for Karo-free pecan pie recipes or searching the supermarkets for pasture-fed turkey, I spent my Thanksgiving like many good Americans, eating whatever I wanted, and enjoying this friendly video message from the Corn Refiners Association:

Now, I must admit, it’s a real sign that high-fructose corn syrup is falling out of favor when some of its major manufacturers have to launch a $25-$30 million PR onslaught to salvage the product’s good name.  The stuff they make tastes great, and it’s already in just about everything we eat, whether we like it or not.

But the “Sweet Surprise” campaign sorely misses the point.  The Corn Refiners’ main claim seems to be that if something is safe in moderation, then go ahead––help yourself.  Haven’t we heard that before?

Of course, I imagine high-fructose corn syrup is safe in moderation.  If I get up from my desk right now, shotgun a soda, and never drink another one, I don’t expect to keel over from corn poisoning.  But if I do what most Americans seem to be doing, and drink that one soda now, another in an hour, and another an hour after that, pretty soon those empty calories will add up.  Then I’ll have a problem on my hands… or around my middle’s more like it.

While the affable fellow in the Corn Refiners ad can’t get his words out, there is a clear answer to the question that’s harshing on his otherwise-great date: “What’s so bad about high-fructose corn syrup?”  As any nutritionist will tell you, if you flood your body with empty calories and don’t work them off, you’re bound to put on weight.  Put on too much weight, and you’re bound to see health consequences: obesity, diabetes, heart disease, kidney and liver problems.  High-fructose corn syrup is a mighty good way to pack in the empty calories, too: a twenty-ounce soda contains 250 of them, and hardly a lick of food value.

It’s old news that obesity is exploding: rates in this country have more than doubled since the 1970s. (Coincidentally, soft drink consumption has doubled since ‘71).  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three American kids born in the year 2000 is now on a path to develop Type II diabetes.  With half of all obesity-related medical costs being shouldered by publicly funded programs like Medicare and Medicaid, it seems that preventative medicine will be an important tool in fixing our health-care crisis.

What’s the number one cause of preventable death in America?  Tobacco.  Number two?  Obesity.  We figured out the tobacco part back in the ‘60s, got a lot of people to quit smoking, and saved a bundle of money and lives as a result.  But it’s worth remembering that King Tobacco put out some nice commercials in their day, too.  Their argument?  Everything’s fine in moderation.

Earlier last week the Corn Refiners Association launched a multimillion-dollar media campaign to defend high fructose corn syrup as a “quality” sweetener, in the face of mounting public perception that this cheap, ubiquitous compound has played a not-so-sweet role in making Americans chunky and sick. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just announced that the number of Americans with diabetes increased to 24 million in 2007. But that’s just the tip of that deadly sundae: another 57 million Americans have pre-diabetes, a condition that vastly increases the risk of developing diabetes in the future.

Diabetes results when the body cannot use blood sugar as energy, either because it has too little insulin or because it cannot use insulin. Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90% to 95% of cases, typically develops later in life and is associated with obesity and lack of exercise. Type 1 diabetes, which is often diagnosed in children, occurs when the immune system mistakenly destroys cells that make the insulin. An estimated 1 in 3 children born in 2000 will be diabetic in their lifetime; the risk factor increases to 1 in 2 for Hispanics and African Americans.

I find the Corn Refiners Association’s chutzpah unbelievable. Our already failing health care system is ill-prepared for the absolute crush and cost of the coming wave of diabetics, yet industry is spending millions of dollars to persuade us to partake of even more empty calories. With 30% of the U.S. population considered obese, as recently highlighted by the Washington Post and Time Magazine, the last thing our country needs is more sugar of any kind.

I am not a scientist and I am not going to try to explain the molecular composition of this industrially derived corn byproduct, but I have witnessed firsthand what a lot of high fructose corn syrup will do to a diabetic. Have you ever been on a roller coaster? Taking a swig of a Coke (sweetened with lots of high fructose corn syrup, as almost all sodas are) is like when that roller coaster starts to gain momentum; as you drink the last drop, your hands are up in the air and you’re riding high. But then just moments later, you dip and your stomach is in your throat and suddenly your body is at a standstill — or worse, crashed. That is what HFCS (and many other sugars) do to your blood sugar: an intense pick-me-up, then a dramatic fall as your metabolism tries to pick up the pieces of glycemic overload.

When my husband was diagnosed with Type I diabetes at the age of 25, we ate our meals like our life depended on it. In his case, it did — and still does. It was a dramatic change for a 190 pound 6’ 4” former college athlete.

For months I cataloged every morsel that he ate in excruciating detail, noting the grams of carbohydrates so we could calculate what his failing pancreas could handle, i.e. two slices of whole wheat bread (22g) + garden veggie burger (5) + avocado (2) + 1/2 cup steamed green beans (5g) + side salad (8) + handful of grapes (15g) + milk (6.5) = 63.5grams. According to our Diabetes Educator, the average person needs 136grams of carbs a day for his brain to function. Amazingly enough, the Corn Refiners Association seems to think it is ok that the food supply currently provides an average of 200 calories [read: carbs] per person per day from the high fructose corn syrup in soft drinks alone (What to Eat factoid).

For a young married couple that loves eating, turning the best part of the day into rations and ratios accompanied by nit-picky nagging, “You shouldn’t eat that much bread” or “Don’t you dare pick up that cookie!” was not enjoyable, to say the least. But every time he raised a sugar-laced sweet to his mouth, all I saw was an amputated foot … or a heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, blindness. Food became a necessary evil at that point.

Diabetes is a silent disease; it doesn’t strike quick and fast like some cancers, but its reach is far, its grip tight, and its blow deadly. Thanks to advances in modern medicine — insulin — diabetes has transformed from an acute disease (with a death sentence typically within a year) into a disease that slowly destroys a body with debilitating side affects; my husband would describe the result as bittersweet.

“It is a disease that does have the ability to eat you alive. It can be just awful — it’s almost unimaginable how bad it can be,” said Dr. John B. Buse, a professor at the University of North Carolina’s School of Medicine and is the Diabetes Association’s president for medicine and science, in a recent New York Times article titled “Diabetes: Underrated, Insidious and Deadly.”

Our bodies and society need us to stop eating sweeteners like HFCS, which are empty of any nutrition except calories. Efforts like those by the Corn Refiners Association do nothing but harm at risk populations, the millions of existing diabetics and pre-diabetics in our country, and the rest who must help shoulder the burden through rising health care costs.

But the good news is that we can help eradicate Type II Diabetes and help keep blood sugar levels on an even keel for Type I Diabetics, possibly eliminating the awful long term affects of both types. All we need to do is encourage people to eat real food. And that means no highly processed food and no HFCS, just good, fresh, wholesome fruits and vegetables, whole grains, grass-fed beef, pasture poultry…all the foods that our great grandparents would list in their cookbooks. Ones that actually have flavor!

So even if the Corn Refiners Association has $30 million to throw at us to confuse and contort what we should be eating, the good food movement is strong and growing ever stronger through community gardens, farm to school programs, farmers’ markets, healthy corner stores, the beginning farmers movement. I hope millions of eaters will prove to them that we are smarter than their almighty marketing dollars.

For our taste buds and pancreases, my husband and I continue to love good, real food grown on our beginning organic farm and we will celebrate at Slow Food’s Terra Madre in Italy as Food Justice Delegates.

Further reading
Some excellent books that mention the role of high fructose corn syrup in our diet debacle:
Fat Land by Greg Critser
What to Eat by Marion Nestle
Appetite for Profit by Michelle Simon
Real Food by Nina Planck

Photos 1 and 2 by Debra Eschermeyer
Photo 3 by boeke