process used to turn corn into HFCS. Four of the big plants that manufacture HFCS in the United States still use mercury cell technology to do it.
Two studies came out in 2009 exposing mercury-tainted products containing HFCS. First, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy published “Not So Sweet: Missing Mercury and High-Fructose Corn Syrup” following an investigation of mercury content in fifty-five foods and beverages from popular brands including Kraft, Hershey’s, Smucker’s, and Quaker. The sampled products included HFCS as the first or second most predominant ingredient. All told, mercury was detected in nearly one-third of the fifty-five products tested.148
That same year, Dufault et al. (2009) published a paper in Environmental Health in which twenty samples of HFCS from three different U.S. plants were tested for the presence of mercury. Of the twenty samples, nine were contaminated with detectable levels of mercury (≥0.005 µg/g), ranging from 0.012 to 0.570 µg/g HFCS.149
As consumption of this relatively new sweetener remained historically high, and with the presence of mercury at concerning levels in a wide array of foods containing HFCS, the regular consumption of these foods by children and adolescents grew in significance.150
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and Center for Science in the Public Interest highlighted the high consumption of sodas and other drinks containing HFCS by these vulnerable and developing members of society.151 It found that some 20 percent of children one to two years old drank sodas, while half of children ages six to eleven consumed an average of 15 ounces of soda per day. Teenagers who drink soda tossed back three or more high-fructose beverages per day on average.152
Hopefully, this is beginning to change.
HFCS consumption climbed steadily from the early 1980s through 2000, but sales slumped a significant 11 percent from 2003 to 2008 as concerns about its contribution to obesity and other issues reverberated in the media, even as sugar consumption surged about 7 percent over the same period. The term “high-fructose corn syrup” gained a definite negative connotation.153
On top of lobbying efforts, the Corn Refiners Association, an industry organization of which Archer Daniels Midland is a key member, launched the website SweetSurprise.com as a media relations ploy to debunk “myths” about HFCS and clarify “the facts about high-fructose corn syrup.”154
It also ran well-funded TV advertising starting in 2008 sticking up for the industry’s favorite sweetener and asserting that “sugar is sugar,” which prompted a lawsuit by sugar producers claiming false advertising in 2011.155 The FDA also demanded the corn industry stop using the term “corn sugar” without approval.156
In 2012, the FDA rejected a petition filed by the Corn Refiners Association in 2010 to change the name of high-fructose corn syrup to “corn sugar” for the purposes of food labeling and advertising. The Corn Refiners Association claims that it wanted the name change to “educate consumers,” the majority of whom are “confused about HFCS.”157
What seems perfectly clear is that most consumers in Western culture, and increasingly many people in the developing world, have adjusted to drinking and eating far too much fructose—both from high-fructose corn syrup and from ordinary table sugar. Americans in particular rode a wave of cheap corn, subsidized by the taxpayer, which was added to foods across the spectrum. While it sweetened the deal on fast and easy calories, tasty snacks, and sugary drinks, that wave has brought with it a severe backlash of obesity, with more people than ever being overweight and unwittingly following at-risk lifestyles.
Strategies for chelation and removal of mercury
Avoiding or limiting fish intake, particularly of those higher up the food chain and more inclined to accumulate harmful mercury, is one way to limit exposure to this toxin, but the extensive presence of it in the environment due to modern industrial practices means that no one can reasonably avoid it altogether.
Pregnant mothers and young children should not eat tuna or other large fish, and adults should eat no more than a few servings per month. Moreover, health-conscious individuals should minimize or eliminate their intake of many common processed ingredients, including high-fructose corn syrup.
For those who choose to consume fish on a regular basis, a defensive strategy against mercury is crucial for self-protection.
Fortunately, several essential nutrients, which can be obtained from foods or by vitamin supplementation, play an important role in defusing the effects of mercury. This means you can, to some extent, eat your way to natural mercury elimination. The original research I have conducted at the Natural News Forensic Food Lab shows that fresh, raw strawberries, when eaten in conjunction with mercury-tainted meals, bind with and capture over 90 percent of dietary mercury during digestion, effectively “locking up” the mercury in fibers that pass through the body undigested.158
The use of detoxifying foods, nutrients, and activities that support the elimination of heavy metals may be necessary for those concerned about the buildup of significantly high levels. Regular ongoing, long-term detox efforts to encourage the elimination of toxins through sweat and excretion may be among the safest and most effective methods. Chelation has proven to be effective as well but should only be pursued under the direction of qualified, licensed chelation practitioners with significant experience in the art.
Outside the body, several well-known compounds demonstrate strong affinity for mercury, including activated carbon charcoal, sulfur, and selenium. Activated charcoal—based around oxygen-treated carbon—is used widely to effectively remove toxins (and other materials) in a vast array of potential bodily infiltrators due to its sizable surface area.159 Air and water filters, as well as oral consumption, are used to administer carbon as a purifier element. Of course, charcoal has long been used to intervene in cases of poisonings and drug overdoses of all kinds.
Many important sulfur compounds have a particularly strong affinity for binding with mercury. These include sulfhydryl-containing thiols, which attract many heavy metal ions—including mercury, cadmium, lead, chromium, zinc, and arsenite—and allow chelation from the body through metabolic pathways.160 Thiol solutions have also been used successfully to remove mercury from scrubber tanks in coal-fired power plants.161 Important sulfhydryl compounds in various bodily processes involving antioxidant protection and DNA transcription include the sulfur-containing amino acids cystine, cysteine, methionine, and taurine.162,163
Mercury also binds to glutathione, perhaps the most important form of cysteine in the body, which some doctors have referred to as “the mother of all antioxidants,” allowing for significant heavy metal removal.164 Glutathione, which regenerates other oxidated antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, is critical to a fully functioning, healthy immune system. Whey protein has been identified as an important dietary source of glutamine, the primary precursor to glutathione.165
Both cysteine and glutathione are effective at detoxifying heavy metals but are also depleted by heavy metals’ presence and may require supplementation. Although normally recycled in the body, glutathione becomes depleted when toxic loads become too great, rendering a person unable to rid their body of toxins and opening them up to free radical damage, illness, infections, and cancer. Selenium, by the way, is a necessary dietary mineral for glutathione production. Thus, maintaining proper levels of selenium through a well-balanced diet remains imperative to maintaining proper health, as well as in reducing heavy metal toxicity.
Selenium and mercury: a highly specific and significant relationship
Mercury’s binding properties with
