Our Melamine: There’s Mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup, and the FDA Has Known for Years

January 27th, 2009 by Leslie Hatfield
Originally Posted on The Green Fork

Maybe Jeremy Piven didn’t get mercury poisoning from fish at all — according to the results of this new study released by the Institute for Agriculture and Trace Policy (IATP), the actor may well have been sickened by soda or candy or anything that contains high fructose corn syrup, which, if you eat processed food in this country means, well, just about anything.

Foodies and nutritionists alike have been griping about high fructose corn syrup for years, and the industry has responded with an “astroturf” campaign and a level of secrecy generally reserved for the military officials or secret societies (see Corn Refiners’ Association president Audrae Erickson’s stonewalling performance in King Corn).

Of course, I wouldn’t want to show my hand either, if the making of my product could be described as undertaking a small “Manhattan Project” (see eye-glazing production info here). But as it turns out, the HFCS industry has been hiding some major skeletons in its closet — according to the IATP study (pdf), over 30% of products containing the substance tested positive for mercury.

What makes this news truly shocking is not just that the manufacturers of high fructose corn syrup would put consumers’ health at risk, but that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) knew about the mercury in the syrup and has been sitting on this information since 2005.

Here’s the connection, according to the IATP press release (pdf) announcing the study: The IATP study comes on the heels of another study, conducted in 2005 but only recently published by the scientific journal, Environmental Health, which revealed that nearly 50 percent of commercial HFCS samples tested positive for the heavy metal. Renee Dufault, who was working for the FDA at the time, was among the 2005 study’s authors.

Here’s how the mercury gets in there, according to Janet at the Ethicurean:

How did the heavy metal get in there? In making HFCS — that “natural” sweetener, as the Corn Refiners Associaton likes to call it — caustic soda is one ingredient used to separate corn starch from the corn kernel. Apparently most caustic soda for years has been produced in industrial chlorine (chlor-alkali) plants, where it can be contaminated with mercury that it passes on to the HFCS, and then to consumers.

And here’s more from the press release:

“While the FDA had evidence that commercial HFCS was contaminated with mercury four years ago, the agency did not inform consumers, help change industry practice or conduct additional testing.”

And on why it matters:

“Mercury is toxic in all its forms,” said IATP’s David Wallinga, M.D., and a co-author in both studies. “Given how much high fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the FDA to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply.”

In China, heads might roll over a scandal like this one, at least if the country received global attention for its allowing corrupt health officials’ greasy palms come before, um, public health.

Of course, in this country, Dufault’s neck is safe. But what about the health of American consumers? Let’s see the Corn Refiner’s Association try to spin this one.

Congratulations to Rick Court

The Toledo Rockets football program is hard at work with winter workouts right now and the program has a new Director of Speed, Strength and Conditioning. His name is Rick Court.

Court has spent the last six years on the strength and conditioning staff at Bowling Green. In September of 2008 he was promoted from Assistant Director of Strength and Conditioning at Bowling Green to Head Strength and Conditioning coach for the Falcons.

He is a 2002 graduate of Michigan State, where he received a bachelor's degree in Kinesiology. He also earned a master's degree in Sports Administration from Eastern Kentucky in 2003.

Rick was an intern in the Strength and Conditioning program at Michigan State in 2001 and 2002, working with the hockey and football teams at Michigan State. He also did an internship in strength training with the Detroit Tigers.

Then in 2003 he moved on to Bowling Green, within their Strength and Conditioning program. In 2006 he was named Assistant Strength and Conditioning coach at Bowling Green and then the Head Strength and Conditioning coach at BG in 2006.

Rick is a native of Grosse Point Woods, Michigan and is married to Molly. Prior to Rick Court's appointment as Director of Speed, Strength, and Conditioning the Rockets did not have a director on staff with Head Strength and Conditioning coach Steve Murray and his staff of interns and graduate assistants.

Exercise Suppresses Appetite By Affecting Appetite Hormones

A vigorous 60-minute workout on a treadmill affects the release of two key appetite hormones, ghrelin and peptide YY, while 90 minutes of weight lifting affects the level of only ghrelin, according to a new study. Taken together, the research shows that aerobic exercise is better at suppressing appetite than non-aerobic exercise and provides a possible explanation for how that happens.

This line of research may eventually lead to more effective ways to use exercise to help control weight, according to the senior author, David J. Stensel of Loughborough University in the United Kingdom.

Treadmill Versus Weight Lifting

There are several hormones that help regulate appetite, but the researchers looked at two of the major ones, ghrelin and peptide YY. Ghrelin is the only hormone known to stimulate appetite. Peptide YY suppresses appetite.

Ghrelin was discovered by researchers in Japan only about 10 years ago and was originally identified for its role as a growth hormone. Only later did its role in stimulating appetite become known. Peptide YY was discovered less than 25 years ago. 

In this experiment, 11 male university students did three eight-hour sessions. During one session they ran for 60 minutes on a treadmill, and then rested for seven hours. During another session they did 90 minutes of weight lifting, and then rested for six hours and 30 minutes. During another session, the participants did not exercise at all.

During each of the sessions, the participants filled out surveys in which they rated how hungry they felt at various points. They also received two meals during each session. The researchers measured ghrelin and peptide YY levels at multiple points along the way.

They found that the treadmill (aerobic) session caused ghrelin levels to drop and peptide YY levels to increase, indicating the hormones were suppressing appetite. However, a weight-lifting (non-aerobic) session produced a mixed result. Ghrelin levels dropped, indicating appetite suppression, but peptide YY levels did not change significantly.

Based on the hunger ratings the participants filled out, both aerobic and resistance exercise suppressed hunger, but aerobic exercise produced a greater suppression of hunger. The changes the researchers observed were short term for both types of exercise, lasting about two hours, including the time spent exercising, Stensel reported.

“The finding that hunger is suppressed during and immediately after vigorous treadmill running is consistent with previous studies indicating that strenuous aerobic exercise transiently suppresses appetite,” Stensel said. “The findings suggest a similar, although slightly attenuated response, for weight lifting exercise.”

Focus on Active Ghrelin

Previous studies have been inconclusive about whether exercise decreases ghrelin levels, but this study may help explain those mixed results, according to the researchers.

Ghrelin comes in two forms, acylated and non-acylated. The researchers measured acylated ghrelin, also called active ghrelin, because it can cross the blood-brain barrier and reach the appetite center in the brain. Stensel suggests that future research concentrate on active ghrelin.

While the study showed that exercise suppresses appetite hormones, the next step is to establish whether this change actually causes the suppression of eating.

Journal reference:
Broom et al. The influence of resistance and aerobic exercise on hunger, circulating levels of acylated ghrelin and peptide YY in healthy males. AJP Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 2008; DOI: 10.1152/ajpregu.90706.2008

History of Powerlifting, Weightlifting and Strength Training - Part Two

by Dr. Ken Leistner

One’s choice of lifting activity could have been very much determined by their geographic location in the 1940’s through the 1960’s. Referring to the first installment of this series, while most “training guys” did the same basic exercises, different parts of the country, different parts of some specific states, gravitated to one of the three major types of lifting expression. The most obvious example of this was the York Barbell Club located in York, Pennsylvania. The headquarters of Bob Hoffman’s York Barbell Company, he had funded America’s Olympic weightlifting activities, as the supplier of equipment, as the provider of funds necessary for travel, and as the sport’s chief administrator for decades. He was referred to and rightfully so, as “The Father Of American Weightlifting” and he took the title and the responsibility seriously. In fairness, while his reign was dictatorial he viewed himself as a benevolent dictator and the retrospect of a few decades indicates that he was indeed, just that. Hoffman may have called the shots for the entire sport, exerted his will to shape specific Olympic or national teams, and certainly played favorites, but no one disagrees that without him and his support, the sport would have withered and perhaps been little more than a footnote before anyone heard of John Grimek, Steve Stanko, Tommy Kono, the George Brothers, and Bob Bednarski. Many of the York Barbell Club lifters were imported from other parts of the country, provided with employment at “The Barbell” as the company was referred to by those on the inside or earlier in the century, in one of Bob’s related businesses, and perhaps to the surprise of the current generation, actually worked a full time daily job before entering the hallowed halls of the The York Barbell Club gym to train. Some of the jobs were difficult, others less so and I can recall the great Bill March, who handed Hoffman both lifting titles and a Mr. Universe physique victory loading cans of protein powder by day. Others heaved and hauled in the warehouse hefting what at times I’m sure seemed like an endless parade of 100 and 45 pound plates and Olympic bars through entire days and weeks. If one lived in the York area and desired to lift weights, there was the exposure to and the opportunity to train with some of the best Olympic lifters in the world and certainly, the best in the United States.

In California, especially Southern California, while there was Olympic lifting activity, it was perhaps the sun and surf and the exposure one’s physique would have all through the year due to the wonderful weather that made bodybuilding a major attraction. As the great Bill Pearl said to me in the late-1960’s as I talked about returning to the East Coast to continue college and collegiate football, “Go to school and play football out here. Why would you want to go back home? You can ride a bike, run on the beach, and wear a tee shirt and shorts all year and its ideal (weather) for training.” He was correct of course, explaining at least in part, the fact that the heart and soul of bodybuilding rested at Santa Monica’s famed Muscle Beach. By the time I arrived on the West Coast in the late-1960’s, “Muscle Beach” had moved from its original environs down the beach a bit to Venice, to New Yorkers like my buddy Jack and me, the epitome of “the land of fruits and nuts.” Among the strange sightings along the beach and boardwalk of Venice, there was the well-known weight pen where “power lifters”, even before the sport of powerlifting was officially christened, threw up huge chunks of iron in both the Olympic lifts but more formally, in the “odd lifts” such as the incline press, bench press, and deadlift. Steve Merjanian, Bill “Peanuts” West, Mike Barnett, Lee Phillips, and others known only to the California crowd had worked hard to earn a reputation as tremendously strong men among the bodybuilding crowd. Pat Casey, who by 1966 had become the first man to bench press 600 pounds under something akin to official conditions, later became a very dear friend, right up to the time of his death. This coterie of strongmen gave many the impression that California was indeed the birthplace of powerlifting. However, by the time 1964 rolled around and the first Tournament Of Champions was contested and billed as the inaugural United States championship in the squat, bench press, and deadlift, performed in that order, there were pockets of lifters throughout the nation that could have made the same claim.

Often its one individual who influences many others to do what he is doing and before anyone realizes it has occurred, that village, city, state, or region is “the place” for whatever activity has been the focus of the group’s attention. Parts of Texas had early advocates of what became the sport of powerlifting, men like Paul Barbee, Jim Witt, and to the credit of his everlasting self-promotion, Terry Todd. The entire state of Pennsylvania, perhaps as an outgrowth of having the York lifters as the fabric of “lifting” in the U.S. and of course, because of financial support and magazine exposure via Bob Hoffman and his publications, boasted some of the very best in the early years of the sport. Illinois and New England too, were hotbeds of this new activity, one that supported the popular notion that the less gifted athletically could compete at a barbell related activity that wasn’t Olympic lifting. The New York Metropolitan area with its overflowing population sample, had plenty of everything. Olympic lifters, powerlifters, and bodybuilders could be found wherever weights were lifted. All forms of the iron sports were still brandishing “cult status” but each permutation had its advocates and participants.

Volleyball Reasearch Project

Vizual Edge Performance Trainer (VEPT)
Volleyball Research Report
Dr. Frank Spaniol
Professor, Department of Kinesiology
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

Fourteen (14) NCAA DI volleyball players participated in a study to investigate the relationship between visual skills and volleyball performance. Visual skills were determined by the VizualEdge Performance Trainer® (VEPT), a commercial software program designed to test and train visual skills. Individual test scores were determined for eye alignment, eye flexibility, visual recognition, visual memory, and visual tracking. A composite VEPT score was also calculated for each subject. Volleyball performance was determined by official NCAA statistics. Research results are as follows:

• Houston Baptist University (HBU) is a NCAA DI program that is transitioning to NCAA DI. The team finished the 2008 season with a record of 24-7 while winning the National Transitions Challenge Championship.

• The mean VEPT score for the fourteen subjects was 79.46 with a standard deviation of 12.56. The high and low scores were 91.14 and 41.02, respectively.

Top VEPT Scores

• The top VEPT score (91.14) was achieved by the team setter who ranked first in assists, second in serve aces, and fourth in digs.

• The second best VEPT score (89.93) was achieved by the team’s top attacker (outside hitter) who ranked first in attacks and kills, third in serve aces, and second in digs.

• The third best VEPT score (87.13) was achieved by the team’s top middle blocker who ranked third in attacks, first in blocks, and third in kills.

Top Volleyball Statistical Leaders

• The team’s best setter (9.51 assists per set) had the best VEPT score (91.14) on the team, while the best set percentage (.545) was achieved by fourth highest VEPT score (86.27) on the team.

• The team’s best attacker (828) had the second highest VEPT score on the team, while the best attack percentage (.348) was achieved by third highest VEPT score (87.13) on the team.

• The team’s best blocker (.75 blocks per set) had the third highest VEPT score (87.13) on the team.

• The player with the team’s best kill per set (3.30) had the second highest VEPT score on the team, while the best attack percentage (.348) was achieved by the player with the third highest VEPT score (87.13) on the team.

• The team’s best server (.45 serve aces per set) had the fourth highest VEPT score on the team, while the team’s top three servers had VEPT scores that ranked 4, 1, and 2, respectively.
• Three of the team’s four best diggers ranked in the top five VEPT scores.

Summary

• The results of this investigation indicate that the performance leaders in every major statistical category were dominated by players with the best visual skills (VEPT).

• The results of this investigation indicate statistical evidence that suggests a positive relationship between visual skills and volleyball performance of NCAA DI volleyball players.

Normative VEPT data for NCAA DI volleyball players (N=27) is as follows:

VEPT Scores – NCAA DI Volleyball

VEPT Score Category

86.86 and above Excellent

79.73-86.85 Good

73.19-79.72 Average

66.77-73.18 Fair

66.76 and below Poor