Researching High Fructose Corn Syrup: Part 1

Many of us have seen the commercials in the last couple years in which the Corn Refiner's Association attempts to make all of the people who are wary of high fructose corn syrup basically look ignorant, uneducated, and darn right stupid. Quite frankly, I think that if a product has a hundred saftey concerns associated with it, they are in no position to make fun of the people who are concerned!

Perhaps the biggest concern I have is that a small amount of Mercury could be passed into the HFCS through the process it goes through before it becomes HFCS. Another concern I have is that it is in nearly everything we eat and drink! If there are concerns regarding something I am giving my family to eat, I want to know what it is and what the concerns are.

I took some time to read what the CRA (Corn Refiners Association) had to say about all of this and surprisingly the website does not cover a lot of the safety concerns. It does cover about 10-15 of the most popular concerns. The website seems to be pretty thorough and truthful in its explainations except for a few in which they are clearly making excuses. There are many areas of the site I do not approve of as they are extremely prideful, stating that they "have the facts." Whether or not they are being truthful about those facts is another question.

Audrae Erickson, President of the Corn Refiners Association has said, “Americans should know that no mercury or mercury-based technology is used in the production of high fructose corn syrup in North America.” He also says, "High fructose corn syrup contains no artificial or synthetic ingredients or color additives and meets FDA’s requirements for the use of the term ‘natural.’"

Those are some pretty big claims. They say a lot more that you can read on their website. The thing to do now is to look at the other side of the argument and then ultimately I'll make a decision, which I will do in Researching HFCS: Part 2.