Tuesday, January 27, 2009

HFCS Contains Mercury

About six months ago, give or take, I started seeing these commercials on television advertising how high fructose corn syrup is just fine for you. My first thought, on seeing them, was that obviously Michael Pollan has had a huge impact on the food industry, or at least HFCS consumption! The advertisements, for those who have managed to miss them, are sponsored by the Corn Refiners Association, basically shows someone offering another person something made with HFCS, the second person freaking out, and the first person talking them into it by saying that it's perfectly fine for you. (Implying, of course, that people who opt not to consume HFCS haven't done their research and are just parroting everyone else.)

Here's the first commercial produced, so those of you who haven't seen it can get an idea for what the commercials are like:


I wonder if they're going to keep airing those advertisements, now that a new study has shown that many products containing HFCS contain mercury, and another study suggests that it's the corn itself that's contaminated.
-Kelly Hills

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Probably. Because "You know what they say about High Fructose Corn Syrup!"
"No, what do they say...?"

Sigh.

Kelly Hills said...

I'm really, really tempted to film a couple of spoofs of the commercials.

Nancy I. said...

These commercials are already having an impact. I told my middle-schooler and her friend they could not have a snack because They had already eaten too much corn syrup. "But corn syrup is good for you," replied her friend and referenced the commercials.

Kelly Hills said...

*twitch*
That's absolutely awful to hear, Nancy.