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Mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup

By Kristie Turck •  Published 01/28/09 •  2 min read

Last updated on August 20th, 2022 at 12:32 am

sodaIf you needed another reason to avoid high fructose corn syrup in your food, then here it is.  One of my favorite blogs Eco Child’s Play tipped me off to a new study that revealed that “Mercury was found in nearly 50% of tested samples of commercial high fructose corn syrup” according to an article published by  Environmental Health.

Another study done by The Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy found that one in three products with HFCS listed as a main ingredient was found to contain mercury.

In our own limited testing, we could detect mercury in about one of every three common foods or beverages where HFCS was the first or second labeled ingredient. Many of these foods are heavily marketed to children, who in turn are among those most vulnerable to mercury’s toxic effects.

Just published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal, Environmental Health, is the bombshell that commercial HFCS appears to be routinely contaminated with mercury. It turns out the contamination isn’t so much accidental as newly recognized, given the fact that much HFCS has been made and continues to be made using “mercury-grade” caustic soda.

Where is it found? It can be found in just abot everything… the obvious place is candy, soda and sweets but HFCS is also found in bread, breakfast cereals, tomato sauces, breadcrumbs, granola bars, ketchup, crackers, cough syrups, dill pickles, frozen pizzas, meats, marinades, barbecue sauces, salad dressing …. etc.  It’s everywhere and some experts blame HFCS for the increasingly scary epidemic of obesity and diabetes in the U.S.  All the more reason to eat real food, whole food and unprocessed food if you ask me.

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