Mercury In High Fructose Corn Syrup

If high fructose corn syrup was not bad enough all ready, now it has mercury. But as we all know mercury is all natural. Jill at La Vida Locavore is on the case.

So how does this play out in a food like Coca-Cola? I checked Coca-Cola's nutrition info and found that 8 fl oz of Coke contains 27g of carbs - which I assume means 27g of HFCS. At its worst - with .570 micrograms per gram - those 8 oz of Coca-Cola could contain 15.39 micrograms of mercury.

However, the tests showed that the sample of Coca-Cola Classic tested "only" contained 62 ppt mercury - which I believe (if my math is right) means that an 8 oz serving contains 0.015 micrograms of mercury. But who drinks 8 oz. of Coca-Cola? McDonalds sells 42 oz of it at a time! With 62 ppt mercury, 42 oz of Coca Cola contain 0.08 micrograms of total mercury.

Of course, as the report points out, heavy users of fast food and processed food probably wouldn't stop with a Coke. The problem with HFCS is its ubiquity - salad dressings, ketchup, bread, soda, candy, yogurts, almost ANYTHING can have HFCS.