PR debacle for HFCS: Care for some mercury with your oatmeal?

That much-debated sweetener, high-fructose corn syrup, is going to need more than a pricey PR campaign to fix this one.

After one set of scientists found mercury — yes, everyone’s favorite brain-impairing element — in almost half of commercial HFCS, another bunch of scientists decided to get specific and tested 55 common consumer products that use HFCS. And guess what? Almost a third of them contain mercury.

How did the heavy metal get in there? In making HFCS — that “natural” sweetener, as the Corn Refiners Associaton likes to call it — caustic soda is one ingredient used to separate corn starch from the corn kernel. Apparently most caustic soda for years has been produced in industrial chlorine (chlor-alkali) plants, where it can be contaminated with mercury that it passes on to the HFCS, and then to consumers.

David Wallinga, M.D., and his co-authors of “Not So Sweet: Missing Mercury and High Fructose Corn Syrup,” are naming brand names in their report from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. At the top of the list: Quaker Oatmeal to Go, Jack Daniel’s Barbecue Sauce from Heinz, Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce, and Nutri-Grain Strawberry Cereal Bars. Oy!

Abstract

Mercury cell chlor-alkali products are used to produce thousands of other products including food ingredients such as citric acid, sodium benzoate, and high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is used in food products to enhance shelf life. A pilot study was conducted to determine if high fructose corn syrup contains mercury, a toxic metal historically used as an anti-microbial. High fructose corn syrup samples were collected from three different manufacturers and analyzed for total mercury. The samples were found to contain levels of mercury ranging from below a detection limit of 0.005 to 0.570 micrograms mercury per gram of high fructose corn syrup. Average daily consumption of high fructose corn syrup is about 50 grams per person in the United States. With respect to total mercury exposure, it may be necessary to account for this source of mercury in the diet of children and sensitive populations.

The Indian spice curcumin may slow down the progress of liver disease, a study has shown.

The substance – which gives the curry spice turmeric its bright yellow colour – has been used for centuries in Ayurvedic medicine – practised on the Indian subcontinent – to treat a wide range of gastrointestinal disorders.

CHICAGO – The lives of nearly 900 babies would be saved each year, along with billions of dollars, if 90 percent of U.S. women breast-fed their babies for the first six months of life, a cost analysis says.
The findings suggest that there are hundreds of deaths and many more costly illnesses each year from health problems that breast-feeding may help prevent. These include stomach viruses, ear infections, asthma, juvenile diabetes, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and even childhood leukemia.
The magnitude of health benefits linked to breast-feeding is vastly underappreciated, said lead author Dr. Melissa Bartick, an internist and instructor at Harvard Medical School. Breast-feeding is sometimes considered a lifestyle choice, but Bartick calls it a public health issue.
The $13 billion in estimated losses due to the low breast-feeding rate includes an economists’ calculation partly based on lost potential lifetime wages — $10.56 million per death.

The methods were similar to a widely cited 2001 government report that said $3.6 billion could be saved each year if 50 percent of mothers breast-fed their babies for six months. Medical costs have climbed since then and breast-feeding rates have increased only slightly.

About 43 percent of U.S. mothers do at least some breast-feeding for six months, but only 12 percent follow government guidelines recommending that babies receive only breast milk for six months.

Dr. Larry Gray, a University of Chicago pediatrician, called the analysis compelling and said it’s reasonable to strive for 90 percent compliance.
The pediatrics academy says babies should be given a chance to start breast-feeding immediately after birth. Bartick said that often doesn’t happen, and at many hospitals newborns are offered formula even when their mothers intend to breast-feed.

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If you have to breast feed some supplements may help to keep your child healthy.

You’re not alone so do about 100 million other Americans. High cholesterol comes from a variety of sources, including your family history and what you eat. Here is a visual journey through the most common causes.
http://cholesterol.emedtv.com/high-cholesterol-video/high-cholesterol-presentation-summary-video.html

Some natural supplements along with the right diet really help. Think twice before taking Lipitor.

Isotonix OPC-3® is an isotonic-capable food supplement that is made from a combination of bilberry, grape seed, red wine and pine bark extracts, and citrus extract bioflavonoids, all found to be powerful antioxidants. Oligomeric proanthocyanidins (OPCs) are bioflavonoids (complex organic plant compounds) found in fruits, vegetables and certain tree barks that provide exceptional nutritional benefits to the human body. Studies have shown OPCs to be up to 20 times more powerful than vitamin C and 50 times more powerful than vitamin E in neutralizing free radicals. nutraMetrix Isotonix OPC-3 contains the only isotonic form of Pycnogenol® in the world. Pycnogenol is a natural plant extract from the bark of the French maritime pine tree and the most clinically researched and potent bioflavonoid.*

The debate is raging on how to help sick people. I do not hear a lot about how to help people not to get sick. In a long run this is the way to cut costs.  

About health care. Again.And about personal responsibility.

Here is the plan. Get educated in what you eat, when to eat and how often you eat. Watch what you drink. Information is available: Watch the movies: Sicko, Food. Inc, Sweet Misery, World According to Monsanto, Eating. 

Exercise regularly. Why do some people take pills every day but neglect to exercise?  It is much cheaper than paying for medications and doctors.I would ban escalators in US for the first three floors. Use your legs, they are designed for it.I have noticed that when I go to the gym, people go up the escalator, work out and go down the escalator.Only in America.People drive their kids a half a block to the school bus stop, kids sit on the bus, sit at school, go back home, sit on a bus or in a car, to sit on the TV or computer. Bus exhaust spoils the air we breathe.

We can stop buying Arab oil if we just used common sense and use our body’s abilities to move by itself. And we would save a bunch on health care, because if we would not be so lazy, we would have health not sickness. And because we would get healthier, we will not be stressed out so much about the health insurance cost.

Our doctors. The doctors are leally between the rock and the hard place. The system forces doctors to do many things that good for insurance companies and pharmaceuticals, not what is good for the patients.Trust yourself more than your doctor. I meet my doctor in the gym. Every time he seems to be surprised that I am in a better shape then he is. Why is he surprised? Have you seen doctors that look worse than their patients? Next appointment, pay attention to the shape your doctor is in. Does your doctor look healthy? If not – change your doctor. How can doctors help others if they cannot help themselves?

Eat in moderation.Do not pig out. You’re supposed to enjoy your meal, not destroy it. Do not worry; you will have food to eat, if you will get hungry. Vote with your wallet; do not buy junk, especially for kids. Sugar drives them crazy. It is not ADD or ADHD, it is sugar and lifestyle. Kids need to exercise. They need to use their energy. It is OK if they get a few bumps and bruises. Our kids get sick all the time by being around other kids – cold, ear infection, pink eye, etc. We understand the dangers and are used to it.But it is OK for them to get sick, why are we afraid of bumps and bruises? Bumps and bruises do not create chronic diseases, constant cold and infection do.

Take control of your life and your health. Do not count on doctors, government and insurance companies to do it for you. Because if we do, we are not any better than a chicken in one of the industrialized farms.  The difference is, we have a choice. 

I showed this letter to my daughter who is a teacher. That is her opinion: Hi pop,  Here is this letter.  It sounds a little like you are preaching to your audience.  People do not like to be lectured to.  Just a thought.  Also, I can’t say I agree with the section attacking doctors.  It’s an awful lot like the attacks on teachers.  You know?  The “I know better than the professionals” kind of thing that drives me crazy.  I agree with the overall theme of what you are trying to say, but try reading it with a critical eye.

Very helpful products if you are already in this category.http://www.marketamerica.com/annanathankagan/categories-450/digestive-health.htmFORT WORTH, Texas — High-fructose corn syrup isn’t completely responsible for the nation’s 6 million overweight children — but Dr. George Bray says it’s a big part of the problem.
Nurture trumps nature in the current childhood-obesity epidemic, says Bray. It’s the environment we’re creating for our kids that’s the problem, and that environment includes increasing numbers of products high in high-fructose corn syrup, or HFCS.
Bray, who served as founding president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity and organized the first international congress on obesity in 1973, points out that between 1970 (when HFCS was introduced) and 2000 (when average yearly consumption of the ultra-sweet liquid sugar hit 73.5 pounds per person in this country), the prevalence of obesity more than doubled, from 15 percent to almost one-third of the adult population.

And worse, much worse, obesity among children 12 to 19 — who consume a disproportionate amount of the soft drinks, fruit juice, sports drinks and packaged cookies and other baked goods that are sweetened with HFCS — increased from 4.2 percent in 1970 to 15.3 percent in 2000.

By Steve Mills, Tribune reporter

February 9, 2010

Thousands of times each year, government inspectors test the meat and trimmings that become ground beef for E. coli, a potentially deadly pathogen that has led to outbreaks of food-borne illnesses and massive product recalls.

But when those inspectors get a test result indicating the dangerous pathogen is present, as records show they do dozens of times a year, officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture do not conduct a full investigation like those done in response to disease outbreaks.

After a routine test comes up positive, officials and the processor try to prevent tainted meat from reaching consumers, either by making sure it does not leave a plant or by bringing back products that have been shipped. But inspectors do not try to pinpoint the source of contamination or track down additional meat that might be contaminated.
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 The Journal of the American Dietetic Association, researchers found that calories stated on fast food menu items tended to be inaccurate, averaging 18% MORE CALORIES per item than listed in the menu. Example: Wendy’s grilled chicken wrap listed 260 calories, but was found to have 344 (a 32% overage).

” Some individual restaurant items contained up to 200% of stated values and, in addition, free side dishes increased provided energy to an average of 245% of stated values for the entrees they accompanied. These findings suggest that stated energy contents of reduced-energy meals obtained from restaurants and supermarkets are not consistently accurate, and in this study averaged more than measured values, especially when free side dishes were taken into account. If widespread, this phenomenon could hamper efforts to self-monitor energy intake to control weight, and could also reduce the potential benefit of recent policy initiatives to disseminate information on food energy content at the point of purchase.”

If a supposedly 2000 calories-a-day diet is actually 18% higher in calories, that means 2360 calories or an extra 360 calories a day consumed. Since every 3500 calories are equivalent a pound to our body weight, approximately every ten days we’d gain one pound of body weight. In one month, we’d be up 3 lbs. In one year, a whopping 36 pounds!

So enjoy your meals but don’t overdo it! But here is help if you do.