Restrictive Diets and Autistic Children

A new study was published in the medical journal Pediatrics on Monday, the New York Times reports. The introduction of the article states: “Many parents of autistic children have put their children on strict gluten-free or dairy-free diets, convinced that gastrointestinal problems are an underlying cause of the disorder. But a new study suggests the complicated food regimens may not be warranted.”

The (Mayo Clinic) study compared, through a review of medical records covering an 18-year period, 100 autistic children and 200 ‘typical’ children, in order to determine the incidence of gastrointestinal problems between the two populations. The study found no differences in overall frequency of gastrointestinal problems. The study found that 77% of autistic children and 72% of non-autistic children suffered, over the 18-year period, from bouts of one or more of the following ‘common’ gastrointestinal complaints: “constipation, diarrhea, abdominal bloating, reflux or vomiting. Feeding issues and picky eating were also common.”

Based on the facts of the study listed in the article, I’m wondering how on earth such a conclusion was drawn? Does the commonality of gastrointestinal incidence between the two groups somehow imply that a gluten-free casein-free (GF/CF) diet would be ineffective for one or both of the groups? If the study was comparing gastrointestinal complaints, how can a conclusion be drawn about the efficacy of a given diet? The information on the study is not specific. Were the autistic children that suffered from intestinal complaints actually already on GF/CF diet? Were the ‘bouts of common intestinal complaints’ a result of viruses or infections or just random complaints?

The doctor who led the study stated: “no trial …has proven so far that a gluten-free and casein-free diet improves autism. The diets are not easy to follow and can sometimes cause nutritional deficiencies.” Nutritional deficiencies are common among those with Celiac Disease or gluten intolerance. No trial has proven that a GF/CF diet improves autism, but there is PLENTY of evidence. Ask any parent of an autistic child who uses this as one of their many pieces of therapy or recovery for their children. The question isn’t JUST does it improve the symptoms of autism, but does it improve the gastrointestinal complaints? Again, ask the parents who use this diet. Ask anyone with Celiac Disease – the diet makes a difference.

If there is evidence in the autism community that the diet is effective, could it be that the diet might also be effective in the non-autistic community? What the study doesn’t ask is, if over 70% of children suffer from these same complaints, should a GF/CF diet be considered for BOTH autistic and ‘typical’ children?

Just to be clear, here are a few relevant stats for Celiac Disease and gluten intolerance:

· 1 out of every 133 people have Celiac Disease (CD) (compare with 1 out of 150 with Autism – both epidemic levels)
· Only 3% of people with CD have been diagnosed
· The number of people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity may be as high as 1 out of 7 people
· Gluten intolerance / Celiac Disease is responsible for a host of symptoms including, but not limited to: any type of gastrointestinal symptom, autoimmune diseases, anemia and nutritional deficiencies.

WHY is gluten all of a sudden the demon in this epidemic? Gluten is NOT easy to digest and since bioengineers are continually working to improve the gluten in grain, we now have 90% more gluten in wheat than we did a century ago. And what do we eat more than any other food in the U.S.? Wheat, of course.

So, does the study, at least as portrayed by the New York Times, REALLY have anything to do with whether or not autistic children would benefit from a gluten free diet? And here’s another question – if the human body is designed to function efficiently when given appropriate nutrition, shouldn’t a 70%+ incidence of REPORTED (i.e. – medical records) gastrointestinal discomfort among CHILDREN set off an alarm bell somewhere? If bloating, constipation and diarrhea are ‘common’, then why report them so they are in medical records? The fact is, the way the body is designed, they should NOT be common if the diet is appropriate. And just to reiterate – 80% of the immune system is attached to the gut. If the gut ain’t happy, the body ain’t happy.

Parental rights - American freedom

Well, I was going to blog on some helpful swine flu tips, even though it seems the 'danger' has passed, but this caught my eye and I couldn't help it. The implications are obvious, but I'm inclined to point out a few anyway.

Family lands in court over son's cancer treatment
by Sea Stachura, Minnesota Public Radio
May 8, 2009

The Brown County attorney is taking one boy's parents to court for refusing additional treatment for his cancer. The south central Minnesota family says it is following their religion by using alternative medicine to treat their son's Hodgkin's lymphoma. The Brown County attorney claims the family is guilty of medical neglect and says the boy could die without chemotherapy.

Sleepy Eye, Minn. — Danny Hauser is sitting on the lawn with his parents at their dairy farm near Sleepy Eye. The 13-year old is one of eight children. His cheeks are full and pink now, but his mom, Colleen, says in mid-January he didn't look this good. He coughed non-stop.

"We thought pneumonia," Colleen Hauser said. "We took him up to our local doctor, and he did some X-rays and some lab work, and referred us to Children's Hospital in the Twin Cities at that point. I knew when I saw the blood work that something was wrong."

He was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Multiple hospitals recommended chemotherapy and radiation. The survival rate for Hodgkin's is 80 percent with chemotherapy, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The family refused the treatment.

"I wanted to do alternative medicine. They were aware of that. I just did not like what the chemo did," Hauser said.

Eventually, Danny received one round of chemotherapy. He didn't return for the second treatment. The hospital contacted authorities and that led Brown County attorney Jim Olson to go to court to file a child in need protection or service petition.

The petition alleges that Colleen and Tony Hauser are medically neglecting Danny. It's in the state's interest to prevent a child from dying from a treatable cancer, according to Olson.

"You have on the one hand the parental rights to decide what's right for their child, keeping with their religious beliefs, their medical and nutritional beliefs. On the other hand you've got the state's interest saying, here's a child we've got a report from the treating doctor saying that this child is in danger because of the decisions the parents are making."

Olson wants the court to require that Danny resume chemotherapy immediately. He said the case is unusual.

"I've been the county attorney for 24 years and I've been an assistant since 1972 and frankly this is the first case I've come across," Olson said.

In 2007, the Minnesota Department of Human Services found that 94 children had been medically neglected. One child died as a result of the alleged neglect. Nationally, courts have based decisions on religious practices and a child's medical treatment on the specifics of the case.

In this instance, the family has a religious and parental right to care for their son in a way that is consistent with their beliefs. The family practices a Native American faith called Nemenhah, Colleen Hauser said.

"It's our religious belief. God has put everything on this earth to heal any kind of whatever-you-want-to-call-it. He has put every plant, herb ... we men just have to find it. And they are finding it. And it's working," she said.

She says regular X-rays and blood work show the tumor has shrunk.

"His health today is unsurpassed to what it was. And I don't know what's wrong with that," Hauser said.

His mother says if Danny weren't getting better, the family would consider chemotherapy. Danny Hauser says he would not.

"I see it as a poison, it poisons your body," Danny Hauser said.

At the age of 13, Danny is not capable of making these life-and-death decisions, according to Brown County attorney Jim Olson.

"If the parents wanted to treat Type II diabetes with diet and nutrition, and they didn't want him on insulin and it wasn't life threatening, well, okay, that's their choice," Olson said.

Colleen Hauser says this is a family decision, and not one for the state. And the family is respecting Danny's wishes.

"He told me this time and time again, 'Mom, I would rather die and be with God rather than go through the hell of chemo.' And that is how he feels. And I as a parent am not going to deprive him of his beliefs," Hauser said.

Asked if his mother was right, that he would rather die that go through chemotherapy, Danny Hauser said, "Yes."

The judge expects to rule today on whether Danny can continue his alternative medicine or has to begin chemotherapy.>

SO, SOME THOUGHTS:

1) 80% survival rate with chemo, according to Mayo Clinic - where are the statistics from alternative and nutritional treatments?

2) The 'child' in question is 13. In many cultures 13 year-olds get married, because if you think about it, this is when a person's body 'matures' into adulthood. Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah - a right of passage at 13. And in America, we allow them to choose which divorced parent they wish to live with. Yes, they are young,and still need some protection and guidance, but they are cognizant beings capable of making some pretty important decisions when allowed to. If they are protected by our law as an individual, do they not get an opinion about what happens to them?

3) And lastly, helloooo! This is America. If we are protecting 'children' (as defined in America) until they are 18 - they are under the 'protection' of their parents! Parents can choose, because of our supposed freedom, CHOOSE how to educate, raise and make medical decisions for our children until they are 18, unless they forfeit that freedom by threatening the child's life, right? But there is NO PROOF that conventional (i.e pharmaceutical) medicine is the ONLY method to save the life of someone with cancer. Therefore, NO PROOF that this 13 year old's life is at stake. So if that is true, WHY would the State trample a parent's rights without having all the facts? Are alternative medicine and religious freedom actually illegal in our supposedly 'democratic' and free state?

How sad for us.

Healthy Weight

So, what is a healthy weight and why is it important? A healthy weight is just that - a weight that allows you to be healthy. "Healthy implies full strength and vigor as well as freedom from signs of disease." The working definition of healthy is somewhat blurred in the U.S. however, because we often consider ourselves to be healthy even when we struggle with daily or frequent burdens such as allergies, asthma, colds, bloating, heartburn, fatigue, headaches or constipation. For some reason these seem like minor inconveniences that can be easily treated with over the counter or prescription remedies. And in a way, they are. Yes, asthma and allergies can become life-threatening and a bad headache or cold can put us in bed, but often we just treat the symptoms and function the best we can with our added burden without much loss of daily function.

So what does weight have to do with all this? If we are not at a healthy weight for our frame, we often suffer with some of the aforementioned issues and, depending on the severity of our weight imbalance, we are at increased risk for far more serious health problems - obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, autoimmune disorder......the list goes on. We hear about it day after day. If we are not at a healthy weight it is one of our body's primary signals that something has gone awry. What's interesting is that sometimes a little detective work can sniff out a potential remedy of this situation and reduce our suffering.

80% of our immune system is attached to the small intestine. That tells us that nutrition is VERY important for health. Our bodies are designed in such a way that food is what allows us to thrive. Therefore WHAT we eat matters as much, if not more, than how much we eat. What's difficult is that we have such diversity of needs and constitution, that one size does NOT fit all. There is no simple formula for finding a healthy weight. If overeating is a problem, it may have started with an imbalance somewhere in the body - hormones, food sensitivities, or even more likely the quality of foods consumed. Once someone gets on the cycle of overeating it often spirals into ill health and from there it's just a circular problem - can't exercise because of ill health, can't eat right because of lack of energy due to ill health (and money), can't get healthy because they can't manage to eat better.

One of the things that goes awry and contributes to an unhealthy weight is the function of the appestat. The appestat is "the area in the brain believed to regulate appetite and food intake." So here's the deal - the appestat tells us we are hungry if it is not satisfied by what we eat. This sounds silly since most of us really enjoy yummy things like chips, pizza or a good burger. But the appestat is actually satisfied by the nutrients in what we eat. The problem is - we're not eating nutrients! We are constantly eating chemicals and empty calories. More often than not we are drinking our calories in the form of sodas, juices and sports drinks - all very sugar laden and generally unnecessary for our health. (That excludes the juicing of whole vegetables and fruits of course) The drinks that are not sugar laden are often laced with artificial sugars which are linked to weight GAIN. Many of the foods we eat are laced with hidden forms of MSG - a neurotoxin linked to weight GAIN. Many of the foods we eat are so void of actual nutrients that our appestat is literally starving and signaling us that we are too. 

The good news is that with education and support we CAN change our weight, not by eating less but by making better choices about what we eat. The better our choices, the easier and healthier our journey. Some starting points are finding hidden food sensitivities, knowing where our foods come from, knowing what's in our foods and most importantly eating naturally, nutrient-dense, whole foods. A naturally nutrient-dense food is one that is not 'value added' like an energy bar, but one that has great nutrients all by itself such as a free-range egg, an avocado or a sweet potato. As we choose more of these nutrient-dense foods our bodies will begin to respond with signals of satisfaction and put us on the road to a more natural weight and better health.

Do Vaccines Cause Autism?

Do vaccines cause Autism? Apparently not, according to the most recent judgments handed down by the “Special Masters” of the Vaccine Court. (http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/12/court-rules-vaccines-not-to-blame-for-autism/) Many parents of autistic children still believe otherwise, claiming that the normal development of their child was altered shortly after receiving a specific vaccine or a series of vaccines. So, even though studies have ‘proven’ that there is no connection and these special masters have judged that there is no connection, the parents remain unconvinced. The question remains “Could vaccines be a contributing factor to the onset of autistic symptoms?”

The scientific method is about isolating factors that can show cause and effect. Epidemiological studies may give a more accurate picture of trends, but they cannot conclusively prove a cause/effect relationship. That is why research is needed using the scientific method. Unfortunately, trying to prove a causal relationship between two things, such as vaccines and autism that clearly have so many variables creates quite a problem. It is an almost impossible scenario. Cause and effect can neither be proved nor disproved. Several studies have been done attempting to determine a cause/effect relationship between autism and vaccines, but let’s take a look at why this is so difficult.

First, a look at the complex medical conditions that face these little ones. There’s a reason why puzzle pieces represent autism – there are many pieces, but they are all connected. There is a wide range of symptoms and conditions that plague children on the autism spectrum including, but not limited to: Sensory Integration Dysfunction, inappropriate social skills, tantrums, speech delay, gastro-intestinal and digestive disorders (http://www.umm.edu/news/releases/autism.htm), seizure disorders, self ‘stimming’ behaviors, Vitamin B12 deficiency, Vitamin D deficiency, PANDAS (a specific type of strep infection), heavy metal toxicity (especially, lead, mercury and aluminum), food allergies and sensitivities, attention problems, asthma, allergies, eczema, yeast infections and repeated seasonal illnesses. While these symptoms and conditions may sound disconnected, autistic children have a mix of these conditions. What defines autism and autism spectrum is NOT narrow. Certainly, the cause of these conditions alone may have many different origins, but since these medical conditions are common among autistic children, it begs the question – why?

To make matters more complicated, vaccines have numerous components and there are numerous possible effects of each of the components. Vaccines have a microbe (the virus or bacteria intended to stimulate the immune system by mimicking the disease itself), and a medium, which the microbes are grown in (such as monkey kidney cells, chicken embryos, bovine fetal serum and human fetal diploid cells). Vaccines also contain other ingredients to preserve, stabilize it and make the microbe more effective. These other ingredients include formaldehyde, aluminum sulfate, thimerisol (ethyl mercury), aspartame, MSG, and a host of other, often unpronounceable, ingredients.

Commenting on the decision of the Vaccine Court, Dr. Max Wiznitzer, an autism expert at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio declares, "What the decision tells us is that these vaccinations are safe. The medical evidence tells us there is no association between vaccines and autism. This is one more piece that helps confirm that conclusion." It should be rather obvious that attempting to ‘prove’ a connection between vaccines and autism is an exercise in futility. But perhaps Dr. Wiznitzer’s conclusion is an oversimplification of an issue that clearly has too many variables to make such a pronouncement.

There is a group of doctors*, who do believe that vaccines may have contributed to the many conditions facing these autistic kiddos. These pioneering doctors have approached the puzzle of autism by addressing the pervasive medical issues one at a time. The focus of these doctors is not on blaming vaccines, but rather using the information that vaccines may have contributed to the condition, to help solve the medical pieces of the puzzle. If sources of potential triggers can be identified, treatment can be more effective. By addressing food allergies, metabolic and endocrine dysfunctions and heavy metal toxicity, they have seen reversals in autistic symptoms as the children’s bodies have begun to heal. Is it reversible across the board and can all the conditions be reversed? No. But in a significant number of children the quality of life has improved and their behaviors and conditions have become indistinguishable from their ‘typical’ peers.

So, there are many medical issues, many vaccine ingredients, polarized opinions on the subject and LOTS of variables. Is it possible to make connections between some of these? It would be next to impossible to isolate exactly which components or ingredients caused which symptoms and conditions wouldn’t it? And what role do genetics play? Can the DNA and RNA used to grow vaccine cultures have any effect on the DNA or the immune system of the recipient of the vaccine? Should we stop looking for answers because a court has decided that there is NO connection between vaccines and autism? Too many questions, not enough answers.

In 1983, 10 vaccines were recommended for children up to the age of 5. In 2007, 36 were recommended (360% increase). If SOME of the vaccine components could cause SOME of the conditions of autism, perhaps the increase in recommended vaccines could be correlated to the increased incidence of autism. And nobody has investigated the synergistic effect of all the vaccines, all their components, in conjunction with the frequency of vaccine administration. Epidemiological studies point to such a correlation. Doesn’t common sense tell us that even scientists cannot account for the synergistic effect of so many vaccines delivered in such a short period of time? Just because something can’t be proved, or hasn’t been proven yet, doesn’t mean there is no evidence of harm.

*For more information about the approach of these doctors read: Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma and Allergies by Kenneth Bock M.D.

For further reading on the vaccine/autism connection read: Evidence of Harm by David Kirby.

For actress Jenny McCarthy’s perspective regarding her autistic son, view http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5WTaLnDPY4

IN DEFENSE OF ORTHOREXIA

Orthorexia is a new term used to describe people who are obsessed with health food and fixated on righteous eating. SEE ARTICLE: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/health/nutrition/26food.html?ref=health What does righteous eating entail? Choosing organic and avoiding things like pesticides, trans fats, and preservatives. According to the article, parents who micromanage their children’s food in this manner, suffer from this condition and pass it along to their children. “The condition … may begin in homes where there is a preoccupation with 'health foods'” - and where parents “moralize about good foods and bad foods”. Parents are increasingly choosing this lifestyle to avoid or manage conditions such as diabetes, hyperactivity, and heart disease.

Funny, but originally, back when food really was food, it didn’t contain things like trans fats, pesticide residue and preservatives. Funnier still is the fact that once upon a time all food was organic. The article implies that there is something wrong with a child who is afraid to eat an oreo because of the trans fats (also implying that there is something wrong with a parent who would make their child worry about such a thing). Should a parent be forced to make bad food choices for their children just so they can fit in? Is the implication that an oreo is actually food? And of course, real food is now termed ‘health food’.

While there is merit in protecting our children from unnecessary worry surrounding their food choices, our nation remains undernourished and overfed – too many calories, not enough nutrition. When the body does not get the actual nutrients that it needs, it rebels and develops chronic conditions and diseases. The human body is designed so that food is what allows a person to live. And as nature would have it, 80% of the immune system is connected to the small intestine – the first place of sorting after food passes through the stomach. Common sense should tell us that our food choices ARE important to our overall health. But the media and lobbyists have done a super job of convincing us that the delicious chemically laden, non-food choices, so prevalent since the industrialization of our food, is actually food. Yes, calories allow us to function, but to thrive we need actual nutrients, which includes all the micro nutrients that are lost in the processing of food. There's no way to know all the synergistic beneficial properties in a whole food, and maintaining the synergistic integrity of a food when it is submitted to the food processing industry becomes difficult, if not impossible.

According to Michael Pollan, in In Defense of Food, “The chronic diseases that now kill most of us (obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer) can be traced directly to the industrialization of our food”. Criticizing parents who must brave the labyrinth of industrialized food to find real food does not solve the problem. Making a new culture where food IS food would lessen the anxiety of these kiddos, and lessen the need for micromanagement by the parents because they would no longer be seen as weird, obsessive or having a ‘health food’ eating disorder. Perhaps, if more people chose to eat actual food, since we DO vote with our food dollars, parents would not have to be so diligent to make sure that their children eat ‘health food’ - and then perhaps there would no longer be a need for a label such as orthorexia.

MSG

We've all heard about MSG (monosodium glutamate). We've all heard that it's bad, but many of us are simply unaware that despite our attempts to avoid it, we may still be consuming it . When my children were little, I scrupulously read labels looking for 'monosodium glutamate' and avoided anything that contained it - or so I thought. What I didn't know was that there are MANY additives that are basically MSG and act like MSG in the brain and body, but since they are derived differently, they don't have to be labeled as such.

I’m not going to bore you with the details of the sordid history of MSG, but I will tell you what it does and how deceptive it is. It makes things taste better than real. So if it tastes too good to be true and it’s from a package or a restaurant, it probably is too good to be true.

Glutamate is a natural amino acid used by the brain as a neurotransmitter. Neurons are nerve cells that communicate to one another by firing electrical impulses. Neurotransmitters are the carriers of communication between the neurons. Glutamate is found naturally in many foods, but it is in a bound form. When it is processed it becomes free glutamic acid (unbound). When neurons are exposed to free-glutamic acid, which is what MSG is, the nerve cells become very excited and they fire their impulses very rapidly until they reach a state of extreme exhaustion. Several hours later these neurons die, as if they were excited to death. The nerve cells die. Neuroscientists have dubbed this class of chemical “excitotoxins”.(Excitotoxins, The Taste That KIlls, Russell L. Blaylock M.D., introduction p.xx)

According to a study published recently in the journal Obesity, people who use monosodium glutamate, or MSG, as a flavor enhancer in their food are more likely than people who don't use it to be overweight or obese even though they have the same amount of physical activity and total calorie intake, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health study published in the journal Obesity.( http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-08/uonc-urf081308.php)

Side effects of MSG consumption include rapid heartbeat, dizziness, behavioral problems, ringing in the ears, tingling in hands and feet, clumsiness, asthma symptoms, shortness of breath and migraine headaches. The doses of MSG found in many restaurant meals equal or exceed experimental doses that REGULARLY produce brain lesions in animals.

MSG is also one of the many chemicals used in vaccines. What effect this may have on the recipient is unknown, but it is presumed to be safe as are all the other ingredients in vaccines.

The tricky thing about MSG is that because of the current labeling laws and the food industry’s influence on those laws, it is not always obvious to the consumer that an item contains MSG. There are many other food additives that contain MSG or some form of it, so if those additives are used, MSG does not have to be listed on the label. Knowing what other items might contain MSG will prove valuable to your scrutiny of labels and the danger of dead neurons can be averted or diminished.

When reading your label, look for the following ingredients: ajinomoto annatto aspartame autolyzed anything autolyzed yeast autolyzed yeast extract barley malt beef base beef flavoring beef stock bouillon broth calcium caseinate carrageenan caseinate chicken base chicken broth chicken flavoring chicken stock cornstarch disodium caseinate disodium guanylate disodium inosinate dough conditioner(s) flavoring(s) gelatin gelatinized anything glutamate guar gum hydrolyzed anything hydrolyzed oat flour hydrolyzed plant protein hydrolyzed protein hydrolyzed vegetable protein kombu extract l-cysteine malt malt syrup malt flavoring(s) malt extract malted anything malted barley malted barley flour maltodextrin milk solids, powder modified food starch monopotassium glutamate monosodium glutamate natural flavor(s) natural flavoring(s) nutrasweet pectin pork base pork flavoring protease protein concentrate protein extract protein: wheat, rice, or oat seasoned salt seasoning(s) smoke flavoring(s) sodium caseinate solids soup base soy extract soy protein soy protein concentrate, isolate soy sauce spice(s) stock textured protein umami vegetable gum whey whey protein whey protein isolate whey protein concentrate yeast extract, nutrients E620s + 630s Enriched (vit., enzyme, protein) ultra-pasteurized anything

Interesting HFCS story

Here’s an interesting story about high fructose corn syrup. I was on a committee with some other parents at a small public school (approximately 250 children) that attempted to improve the school lunch program by proposing a pilot program that would be funded through grants and include a research study as part of the project. The proposed improvements were to remove additives and preservatives (including high fructose corn syrup) from the school food and to replace the current meats, dairy, fruits and vegetables with their organic counterparts as much as possible. The principal of the school and the director of the district nutrition services were fully supportive of this attempt. Researchers were standing by.

Shortly after the idea was presented to the district Board of Education, a small TV spot about the proposed change aired on a local station. Within two days of the TV story, a Fed Ex envelope from Washington D.C. arrived at the school from the Corn Refiner’s Association. The letter stated that they heard about our proposed change and they wanted to educate us about corn syrup/high fructose corn syrup. The packet contained several pamphlets and a two-page letter stating that high fructose corn syrup was no different than table sugar (commonly called sucrose). Yet in the literature they stated “the only difference between HFCS and sucrose metabolism is the action of the enzyme sucrase in the small intestine.” Sucrase is the enzyme required for the breakdown process of sucrose. In other words, their statement admits that there IS a difference in the way the two sugars are broken down in the small intestine, which you will remember, is the place that 80% of your immune system is connected to. The letter also contained 4 photocopied menus from the school with the items crossed out which would “no longer be available” to our children if we were to remove their products from the nutrition program. There was hardly anything left! In fact, there were days that every item was crossed through – including yogurt, meats, fruits and veggies!

Mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup?

You read right. A recent investigation revealed that "significant levels of mercury were found in 45% of (High Fructose Corn Syrup - HFCS) samples analyzed." From this study it is estimated that the potential average daily mercury exposure from HFCS could range from 0 to 28 micrograms.

An Environmental Health Officer from the FDA conducted an investigation to find missing mercury from the chlor-alkali industry. Mercury, a potent neurotoxin, is a regulated toxic substance and tons of it were unaccounted for at the chlor-alkali plants in the U.S. These plants produce mercury grade caustic soda which is "primarily used by the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) industry". It is one of the main ingredients used in the process to produce HFCS. The officer realized that some of the mercury residue may have ended up in the end product, thus the investigation was launched. To read more go to: http://www.ehjournal.net/content/8/1/2

28 micrograms may not seem like a whole lot for a body to have to process, but let's look at some HFCS facts:

*HFCS is found in almost almost all processed foods - soda, candy, granola bars,crackers, bread, yogurt, peanut butter, jelly, salad dressing,lunch meat, juice drinks, canned fruits and vegetables and MOST foods marketed to children.
*Most fats are formed in your liver. When sugar enters your liver it decides whether to store it, burn it or turn it into fat. Most sugars have a breakdown process in your body. While the HFCS industry claims that it is similar to table sugar, HFCS does not use sucrase (the enzyme used to break down sucrose - table sugar) to break it down. It bypasses the breakdown process and goes straight to the liver intact where it is then converted to fat.
* HFCS is implicated in multiple chronic conditions: obesity, diabetes, hyperactivity, tantrums, lethargy, irritability and cravings.
* It is estimated that the average daily consumption of HFCS is approximately 50g (200 calories) per person, according to a USDA website.( i.e.. 10% of a daily diet - sound healthy?)

So should you be worried? If you are a high end consumer of HFCS (i.e. - consume more than the average 50 g.), YES! High end consumers are people who consume a lot of soda, children who eat a lot of processed food (including school lunches), and those who eat out a lot - and not just at fast food restaurants. So 50g of HFCS may be a conservative estimate for some. If a child is a high end consumer, the potential adverse effects of the mercury - and the HFCS itself - are magnified simply because a child's body is so much smaller than an adult's. Also, consider all the other sources of exposure to mercury - water, fish, amalgam fillings - and you have a potential problem on your hands.

Signs of mercury toxicity include ,but are not limited to, attention problems, sensory problems, clumsiness, loss of hair, teeth or nails, itchy skin, memory problems, hypertension and it can be misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's.

What can you do? READ YOUR LABELS! Don't eat out a lot. Avoid high fructose corn syrup. There are alternates for virtually everything that contains HFCS. Also, keep in mind that the mercury residue was found in U.S. products. There is no regulation for overseas HFCS production/consumption - and China has super high mercury emissions.

P.S. For interesting story on HFCS and school lunches, see tomorrow's post.

Welcome to Rebecca's Healthy Bytes!

Every day we make choices that impact our health. Many of the choices we make are so much a part of our lives and our habits that we don’t even realize that we’ve made a choice. The vast majority of Americans suffer from one chronic illness or another – obesity, heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, learning disorders, ear infections, asthma, allergies and the list goes on. These conditions are so common that sometimes they are viewed as just a minor inconvenience, once we learn how to manage them so that they make the least impact on our lifestyle that is.

Unfortunately, when we look no further than the management of these conditions we are not doing ourselves any favors. “Management” often entails the use of pharmaceuticals that carry their own long-term effects, so often one chronic condition will lead to another and it becomes a vicious cycle that is very hard, if not impossible, to break. Hippocrates said: “Disease does not occur unexpectedly. It is the result of constant violation of Nature’s laws. Spreading and accumulation of such violations transpire suddenly in the form of a disease – but it only seems that sudden.” In other words, the accumulation of toxic insults results in disease. Perhaps if we made choices that are in accordance with “Nature’s law”, we might begin to see a decrease in the incidence of chronic diseases. Perhaps it is possible to reverse or partially reverse some of these conditions through our daily lifestyle choices. This blog will explore some of those daily lifestyle choices and serve as a guide to those who would like to make changes to improve their quality of life. Let's make our lives and our planet healthier - one choice at at time!