Jerry in a rare moment of pensive, self satisfaction
While California Atty General Jerry Brown quibbles over electronic cigarettes, California children remain at risk for mercury exposure, diabetes, and environmental toxins.
Sugary snacks sold through state-wide school campus vending machines have been alleged to contain traces of mercury from the now reviled HFCS (high fructose corn syrup.) According to recent research findings, these “snacks” may be unwitting transmission devices for mercury toxicity due to the process by which the corn sweetener is manufactured. Those profiting from the sale of these products are none other than the California public school system.
In a recent article published in Environmental Health, toxic metal mercury was found in nearly 50 percent of tested samples of commercial-grade high fructose corn syrup. For those of you who don’t know high fructose corn syrup is a nearly ubiquitous sweetener that is cherished by consumer products manufacturers for its extraordinary sweetness and exceptionally low cost. This low cost is artificially supported by American citizens’ tax dollars in the form of the universally loathed Farm Bill. The mercury originates from sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid, two chemicals used in the manufacture of high-fructose corn syrup. Mercury concentrations ranged from 0.012 μg/g to 0.570 μg/g (micrograms per gram). While it is not the researchers or our position that corn syrup is a direct channel for mercury poisoning, it does stand to reason that we all should be concerned when mercury is found in anything, especially substances marketed to children such as sugary cereals and sweetened beverages.
Mercury toxicity produces the following symptoms in adults:
In children, mercury exposure can also be seen to induce the following:
Common additional symptoms of mercury toxicity:
A separate study by David Wallinga, M.D., Janelle Sorensen, Pooja Mottl and Brian Yablon, M.D. of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) detected mercury in nearly one-third of 55 popular brand name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first or second highest labeled ingredient-including products by Coke, Pepsi, Mars, Quaker, Hershey’s, Kraft and Smucker’s.
Unclear, Yet Present Danger?
High fructose corn syrup is found in myriad consumer products such as: sweetened beverages, breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups, condiments—you name it. Walk in to any grocery store today and you will be hard pressed to avoid HFCS during your regular shopping routine. This sugary-syrup even appears in products where we’d never expect to contain added sugar such as: saltine crackers, salad croutons, hamburger buns, canned soups, ketchup and even baby food and infant formula.
Some have argued that HFCS’ powerful sweetness masks the taste of artificial additives such as preservatives, the metallic tastes of shipping containers, artificial colors, and other inorganic compounds commonly used in high-processed machined food products. High fructose corn syrup may trick the tongue thereby allowing manufacturers to introduce certain chemicals into foods where without such a “tongue coating” the consumer might reject the product’s natural taste. More importantly, the researchers argue that HFCS has an effect on the brain that is distinct from traditional processed sugard. HFCS apparently tricks the brain into not feeling satisfied by sugar intake. As a result, the brain tells the stomach to keep accepting HFCS in increasing amounts. In so doing, HFCS serves not only as a sweetness mask the potentially unpleasing taste of chemical additives, but it also serves open the door for over-consumption as the brain doesn’t feel as satisfied as quickly. Nowhere is this more frightening and more pernicious than in sweetend products marketed toward children. What is particularly distressing is the sheer volume of these food products being served daily in American schools, hospitals, nursing care facilities, universities, etc. under the guise of ‘convenience foods.’ Researchers and public health officers have shown the rate of growth in obesity in America correlates directly to the introduction of HFCS in the US market circa 1973 and the steep year over year rate of consumption of HFCS by the average American since that time.
According to a year-long Washington Post investigative report on farm subsidies entitled “Harvesting Cash”, Congress has funneled nearly $200 Billion dollars to the largest US land owners in the form of direct cash payments and indirect price support. These subsidies are used, in part, to artificially support markets for corn and soybeans, for example. By reducing the prices on these staples, the government creates financial incentives for packaged goods manufacturers to rely on corn and corn-derivative products like high fructose corn syrup and unhealthy transfats such as hydrogenated corn and soybean oil. This government subsidy is, in many people’s opinion, a form of corporate welfare, designed specifically to create a market for corn and soybeans and as an indirect effect make fresh, organic produce too expensive by comparison. In so doing, these tax subsidies provide the economic basis upon which the packaged food and fast food industry, for example, rely for their profit margins. By substituting natural, unprocessed organic produce, for a highly machined, pharmacological and biologically engineered food products, many public health professionals argue that Americans have become less healthy and increasingly overweight.
There is a serious obesity and diabetes epidemic sweeping America today. It is no secret that obesity has been related to numerous health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, hyperthyroidism and many others. It is of particular concern when American children display obesity rates as they have over the past decade. Considering our tax dollars support this process and our tax dollars also support the public school and public welfare and health care systems, it is critical that our leaders take every step possible to rid what is perhaps a clear and present danger in obesity, heart disease, diabetes of our children. This is why we are surprised that Jerry Brown, and others, seize on electronic cigarettes, as the key plank in their public health initiatives. Check out Time Magazine’s article on the High Cost of Cheap Food.
Jerry Brown, Windmill Jouster in-Chief.
Meanwhile, leaders such as Jerry Brown present themselves as champions of the common man while spending state resources squeezing pennies out of trivialities. As stated above, tens of millions of men, women and children are at risk for diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune disorders, obesity, Autism and ultimately death. What is Jerry doing to address these large scale public health crises?
The research shows that high fructose corn syrup is directly tied to fatty liver disease, insulin-resistance and other pancreatic and liver enzyme problems which have been directly tied to the childhood obesity and diabetes epidemic that has swept our nation. School age children all over California are consuming these unreasonably sweet substances via snack foods and lunch foods sold directly to children on school campuses. It is also worth mentioning that the schools, like the states who earn tax revenue on tobacco sales, profit from the sale of these products. These substances are directly responsible for billions and billions of dollars in unnecessary health care costs and premature deaths. Therefore, we implore Attorney General Brown and the CA Governor to revisit true public health threats and devote their attention where it can have the greatest, most immediate impact. Let us avoid jousting at windmills for political gain.
As the former Oakland mayor, Jerry Brown should know better
Attorney General Jerry Brown knows first-hand the challenges faced by the inner city children of his former Mayoral city, Oakland, California. Mr. Brown surely understands the importance of healthy choices and how that can impact young minds and the decisions those children make as they grow. But when there are no local fresh produce retailers and instead, a flourishing regimen of liquor stores and fast food chains, can we reasonably expect Oakland children, for example, to grow up healthy and to be achieving high test scores?
In previous posts we describe the subject called “Liqour Lining” whereby certain neighborhoods are targeted to distribute more alcohol per capita than other locations in the city. The proliferation of “legal” liquor stores has been linked to alcoholism and violence as well as increased criminal activity as these stores tend to stay open 24×7. Moreover, recent outrage over this practice has led city officials to marginally curtail the spread of these public health cancers by restricting liquor stores from opening near schools and churches. But this is the rule that proves the point. If the city acknowledges that liquor store density is a public health concern, and specifically, liquor stores which are adjacent to elementary and secondary schools is also a public health concern, then it begs the question: why not simply OUTLAW THEM ENTIRELY? Let us remind the reader that liquor stores sell more than booze. They also sell cigarettes, often to minors. And they sell often sell pornography — often to minors as well. When taken in the totality, these distribution centers for alcohol, tobacco and porn make for a terrible combination when one considers the already low income, joblessness, drug addiction rates and violent crime rates in these targeted neighborhoods. One would hope that the Attorney General and one-time mayor of Oakland, Jerry Brown would consider this as a clear and present danger to Oakland kids. One would hope that he would’ve cleaned up this practice and shut these breeders of addiction and violence down. But Jerry Brown did no such thing. We are left wondering why that might be?
Foods replete with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) have been linked to disease and obesit
Charges of Environmental Racism still linger in Oakland
The Port of Oakland is a major trade hub for the Bay Area of California as well as for the United States generally. In fact, the Port of Oakland is the 5th busiest port in the United States. Success, however, comes with a steep environmental price. Diesel fumes from the ports drayage are said to kill nearly 20 people per year and cause over $150 million dollars in health care expenses due to diesel inhalation from children and adults. It just so happens that most of those exposed to the highest concentrations of that exhaust are minorities. The question becomes: what did Jerry Brown do for these communities when he was mayor of Oakland? Very little as it turns out. During his tenure as mayor between the years 1998 to 2006, over 120 Oakland citizens died of direct exposure to these toxins and countless others were afflicted with asthma and other pollution related diseases.The cost to Oakland health care and insurance just for this issue alone was nearly $1.25 Billion dollars. During his tenure as mayor of Oakland here was no meaningful change to the Port of Oakland’s pollution output.
Van Jones, Director of the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
The good news is that citizens of Oakland have taken matters into their own hands. Organizations such as the Oakland-based, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights see the issue as one of social justice and equality as well as environmental activism. Leader Van Jones has done an exemplary job tying the need to keep kids off the streets, reduce the number of juvenille-prisons built by the embattled California Youth Authority and the need for Green Jobs and investment. Through his Green Collar Jobs Campaign, the Ella Baker Center has unified the superficially separate issues of work-not-welfare and environmental action and climate change. We applaud Van Jones and his staff for taking action when city councils and mayoral offices do not. We also implore civic leaders, particularly those who joust at windmills for political gain, to reconsider the net positive impact of their efforts and the places where their attack-dollars might be better spent. We suggest an investment in people like Van Jones would do more to help the children and adults of Oakland to clean up their environment, reduce crime rates and help the greater Bay Area climate change initiatives than creating more photo-ops and political (Jerry) Brownie-points.
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