Mercury in corn syrup and other problems

[Gav]

In the United States it is. It's extremely rare to find it in products in the EU, I can't recall ever seeing it.

You'll probably find it in some products were it is simply labelled fructose.

[Gav]

I find it interesting/ amusing. The US manufacturers use it because it is cheap form of sugar. It's cheap because lobbyists have managed to get it subsidized. Not all parts of the world are affected by this, or buy a lot of American made "food" (and I use this term lightly).

Your corn lobby is also a big player in the Bio-Diesel lobby group....

I also can't help but wonder how that would "go over". If food that has been genetically modified has to be labelled as such in Europe (but not here) would that market accept cheap, sugary additives in their food? Would most not ask why something made from corn is being added to jam/ pop/ sauce?

GM is a completely seperate idea from this...

As I understand it corn syrup is basically sugar. I personally don't see a problem with adding sugar to Jam or fizzy juice. It's kind of par for the course for these things.

I do have a problem with mercury being in my syrup.

[Hauptman]

Your corn lobby is also a big player in the Bio-Diesel lobby group....




GM is a completely seperate idea from this...

As I understand it corn syrup is basically sugar. I personally don't see a problem with adding sugar to Jam or fizzy juice. It's kind of par for the course for these things.

I do have a problem with mercury being in my syrup.

You're correct that corn syrup is basically sugar, but high fructose corn syrup has been modified to increase the fructose content and then mixed with regular corn syrup. The differences in how our bodies process them are not completely understood.

Check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fructose_corn_syrup

[Slim]

Brought to you by the same government that subsidizes tobacco AND smoking cessation programs.

....And forces me to pay for for idiots that believe everyone is entitled to a $500K home and a 60" plasma HDTV in every room.

[Capt. Slo-mo]

...and forces you to pay for an idiot who thinks the solution to far too many problems is a multi-million dollar aircraft delivering a hugely expensive laser-guided bomb?

[Gav]

You're correct that corn syrup is basically sugar, but high fructose corn syrup has been modified to increase the fructose content and then mixed with regular corn syrup. The differences in how our bodies process them are not completely understood.

Check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fructose_corn_syrup

Because they used an enzyme? Oh please. Your statement reads like a typical health scare. That wikipedia page is terrible. My point is that you should be worried about the proven health scare - mercury. You should be worried about that. Mercury is not good in food.

[Inquartata]

We use so much HFCS in the US because it is so much cheaper than using sugar. It is so much cheaper than using sugar because the US sugar industry succeeded in obtaining government protections from imports a long time back. Other countries, lacking these special protections, still use sugar because it's not as expensive in them.

This should be an example of the dangers of government interferences in trade. But alas, one suspects that the political advantages outweigh the economic advantages in the eyes of policymakers.

[Slim]

...and forces you to pay for an idiot who thinks the solution to far too many problems is a multi-million dollar aircraft delivering a hugely expensive laser-guided bomb?

Gladly.

[Hauptman]

Because they used an enzyme? Oh please. Your statement reads like a typical health scare. That wikipedia page is terrible. My point is that you should be worried about the proven health scare - mercury. You should be worried about that. Mercury is not good in food.

I wouldn't be so arrogant in your dismissal. Modern society has a long history of indiscriminantly using technology to our supposed benefit only to find out years later how misguided it was.

Asbestos, trans-fats, drugs too numerous to list, and let's not forget cigarettes being promoted as good for your health. More "health scares" turn out to be accurate than not, and were usually supressed by the very industries promoting them.

No thanks, I'll stick with plain old sugar or honey.

[Lemonaide]

They used to use it directly in teeth as fillings, before they knew what it did, then everyone went to the dentist and had their mercury filings removed and replaced with another alloy, whose properties we won't know for another thirty or forty years hence.

I see the point with regard to cigerettes and so forth, it's true, but, take a look around you, while we police the direction of cigerette smoke, we're sitting in doggie peepee and poopoo. It's a classic case of not seeing the forest for the trees, or in some cases; putting a magnifying glass up to a tree branch and being unaware of the forest it stands in. Or ..... [sorry to go on] as they say in Japan: Some people sit in the stinkhouse for so long, they don't smell their own stink.

Ack!!life!the world!