The increase of autism in the US is linked to high-fructose corn syrup
By louisehartmann
Americans are screwed by the food we eat. On the heels of a report by the Center for Disease Control showing a drastic 78% increase in cases of autism in America since 2002 – a new study suggests that the food we eat might be responsible. The peer-reviewed journal, Clinical Epigenetics, links increased autism cases to the widespread use of high-fructose corn syrup in the American diet.
As the study’s co-author Dr. David Wallings said, “To better address the explosion of autism, it’s critical we consider how unhealthy diets interfere with the body’s ability to eliminate toxic chemicals, and ultimately our risk for developing long-term health problems like autism.” According to the study – consuming high fructose corn syrup can lead to the loss of zinc in the body – making it more difficult for the body to rid itself of toxic metals like mercury and arsenic that have an adverse effect on brain development in children.
Could studies like this deter major food corporations that are using high fructose corn syrup in their products to feed Americans? Probably not.
Comments
#2
I have noticed major soda companies selling what the call retro versions of their drinks. Pepsi and 7UP have been selling such drinks that use real sugar and not Hi Fructose Corn Syrup. Not sure if that qualifies as making them healthier, but it does seem like they are testing the market to see if there is profit to be made from not using Hi Fructose Corn Syrup in their products.
N
#3
Since those retro drinks came out, I've been wondering if HFCS promotes tooth decay less than sucrose. But the other health problems of HFCS probably outweigh that, especially if the autism thing is true. Teeth can be replaced, brain function can't.
#4
Mathboy, you might want to remember that Thom is a stickler for the truth. If you are implyiing that it has been PROVEN that mercury can NOT cause autism, that is in fact not a true statement. There are studies touted by the CDC that conclude that they (the CDC, who mandate, promote and distribute mercury containing vaccines) could not glean enough evidence out of large epidemiological studies (which can not prove a negative anyway) that would link vaccine mercury with autism, but in NO WAY do they conclude that it could not cause autism.
There are numerous studies that show how mercury could be causal in some cases of autism. Look up research by Dr. Richard Deth of Northeastern University or Dr. Boyd Haley of Kentucky to start with. Check out this link: http://www.iatp.org/documents/study-links-autism-with-industrial-food-environment
For an independant review of the CDC studies regarding mercury and autism go to http://fourteenstudies.org/. Readers of this post should be prepared to see further comments discrediting these good doctors and the 14 studies website - I can only suggest you just do the research and learn for yourself.
#5
Excellent post Tim.
It's hard in this corporate-controlled media world to convince people to do their own research. They fail to realize every step of the study process is corporate controlled, from the CDC to the Lancet .
This does not mean the whole process is all corrupt as much as it means it can directed in a particular direction.
#6
Tim, I would never be so stupid as to claim that a lack of proof against something is proof in favor of it. But thank you for the information.
I know Thom is in favor of the truth, but in my opinion his mindset isn't skeptical and scientific enough. He has been a proponent of homeopathy and the idea that cell phones cause brain cancer (and of course, as an atheist, I disagree with him on religion), so I run any claims that he passes on to us listeners through my BS detector, as I do with anyone else.
#7
Thom,
I hope someday you merge your past with the current autism community. I have often wondered why you never get involved with the current autism debates. I understand how nasty it is but I also know how much clarity and understanding you would bring to the scientific wasteland of the vaccines and food versus autism debates.
The autism battleground has become World War 1 trench warfare. People like me have removed themselves from the front because of shell-shock (my eye started twitching) but I have this drive to spread the truth which never lets go. Someday I will have to get back into the trench for our little ones who are doing the real suffering.
#8
A fun cartoon about cell phones and cancer: http://xkcd.com/925/
#9
Can we just call it malneutrition caused by soil depleting industrial/Monsanto farming, already?
Do that and we can begin to heal the earth and ourselves.
#10
I have seen foods that display on labels that they are fructose free, so some food companies are aware of public opinon. Dr. Oz has come out against this in the past year or so and I watch labels and stay away from it as much as possible, as do others I know. If we can get a discussion going on our media about this, maybe we have a chance to get it out of our foods, along with antibiotics in animals.
#11
Could studies like this deter major food corporations that are using high fructose corn syrup in their products to feed Americans?" I believe that our media exists to entertain, not give facts that will cause corporations to change their profit based actions. People do not understand that a lot of what they eat is unhealthy. We cannot get GMO's to be labeled. Monsanto, with its weed killer Roundup is currently developing weeds that are Roundup resistant and is changing insects. Mercury, according to Dr. Mercola, is dangerous to our health, regardless of whether or not it causes autism.
#12
The introduction of GMO's (genetically modified organisms) into the food chain--such as genetically modified corn, soybeans, veggies, etc. needs to be studied, too. The increase in autism could be linked to the increasing use of GMO's and to my knowledge it has not been studied. High fructose corn syrup should be BANNED. The body cannot digest it. For those of you who have ROKU--the U of C lecture series devotes an hour on the chemisty of HFCS and effect on our bodies. I labels now to avoid it.
#13
From the professional field: All REAL data and studies agree that ASD is a genetic disorder; not related to vaccines, foods, polution, etc, etc, etc. I understand it's hard for the average health-concerned citizen to let go of their blame game. However, foods, additives, environmental poisons do NOT cause ASD - genes do, and the race is on to discover what ones or what conbination is the etiological culprit. Having said all that, there is a real concern/knowledge/litigation (google) that ASD sperm donors may have passed genes over the passed 30 years - hence the drastic increase in diagnosis. Recent knowledge that a sperm donor doctor fathered 600+ children gives cause to reflect on the grim possibilities.
#14
We can boycott products that contain it. I already do not consume products that contain high fructose corn syrup. As beekeepers, we are discouraged from using it for spring and late fall feed for our bees, by the most respected bee journal in the world.
Please see the following in Bee Culture: "High Fructose Corn Syrup & HMF" by Ross Conrad
http://www.beeculture.com/storycms/index.cfm?cat=Story&recordID=686
#15
As a "professional" - whatever that means - you should know that mercury is a mutagen........ it is capable of mutating genes, and affecting the "expression" of genes as well. Many people are born with (or suffer from, as a result of toxic exposure?) a genetic deletion of an allele that affects the enzyme methylenetetrahyafolate reductase or MTHFR. typically people with this genetic trait are susceptable to heart disease. It is an enzyme responsible for helping the body attach a carbon atom to vitamin B-12, thus making it the methyl-b12 that the body can absorb. Methyl B-12 is part of the very important process of methylation, or the ability of the body to detoxify itself of heavy metals such as mercury, lead and aluminum. A great resource on this can be found here: http://www.vce.org/mercury/Deth.pdf
What really startles me is your comment "ASD sperm donors may have passed genes over the passed 30 years - hence the drastic increase in diagnosis". I realize that having the "Dr." in front of you name may impress some people, but without specifics, this is "anecdotal" evidence - the very term given when thousands of parents worldwide describe what happened to their children as they become autistic, As for the "REAL" studies you speak of, please give links, and lets have a real back and forth debate rather than firing off personal suppositions.
Lets start off with the CDC funded study from Denmark http://fourteenstudies.org/pdf/HG_2.pdf "Thimerosal and the Occurrence of Autism: Negative Ecological Evidence from Danish Population-Based Data"
One of the authors of this study is has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of wire fraud and money laundering based on a scheme to steal grant money the CDC had awarded to governmental agencies in Denmark for autism research. http://www.ageofautism.com/2011/04/autism-researcher-poul-thorsen-indicted.htm Choice Excerpt from the Study:
"Also, outpatient activities were included in the Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register in 1995 and because many patients with autism in former years have been treated as outpatients this may exaggerate the incidence rates, simply because a number of patients attending the child psychiatric treatment system before 1995 were recorded for the first time, and thereby counted as new cases in the incidence rates."
Meaning: we didn’t count 93% of the kids diagnosed with autism in Denmark during the time mercury was in vaccines, then we did once it was removed.
This study is the bottom brick in a house of cards. - Good Doctor Geborah - your opinion please?
#16
...if we saw children born with missing eyes or limbs, we have to believe that the medical, pharmaceutical and goverment community would be absolutley diligent in tracking down the cause of such a nightmare... imagine 1 in 88 with such afflictions. there is something dreadfully wrong here and I think it will be up to the parents, especially the mothers-to-be, to figure out the cause. They alone will bring the munbers down. If there is some environmental or medical fault here, do we really believe we will ever be told? This is a real disaster for some parents and their children. Many will require care way beyond the parents' lives......
#17
Education and sane Economics work. If you actually know that you and your children are being poisoned, you will choose not to have that happen. If you don't buy the crap, the people that produce it will stop, if they can't sell it. ( The invisible Hand:o) That takes an education. Why do you think that Ditto heads have a 6th grade education(and fewer teeth) and college educated people tend towards being progressives. John Steward said that " Reality has a liberal bias" I would say that so does education and truth!
#18
In just a few moments of your time, those who care to have a "look" that will have more than your eyes twitching, Bhopal. A perfect example of how toxins to body such as Mercry and more have long-term effects on ALL people. Various forms of GENETIC alterations due to a source that is NOT natural but consumed in the form of food and most importantly, WATER, which affects EVERYTHING.
DOW doesn't care. Government doesn't care and UNION CARBIDE most certainly doesn't care about the disaster, loss of life, long term devastation, etc. Why not? It would mean spending money to clean up thier enormous ??? disaster doesn't begin, so - I've no word for such. Now if there's profit to be gained somehow, clean up may eventually be considered. Meantime, the water, the land and all that thrive? no - struggle to survive lay wasting. Bhopal is only one example, but a good one to draw from.
#19
We all know that any industry publicly owned is ONLY in the best interest of the investors that support it . . . forget about the worker bees, 'the people that should govern'.
Has the aluminum industry attempted to reverse the negative affects that aluminum as a trace element has on our brains in blocking neuron synapsis; a required process that can only be accomplished by the more necessary trace element, copper? NO ! ! ! Do we use aluminum as a conductor for everything electric that we develop? NO ! ! ! Aluminum has long been suspect in blocking copper from charging the activity required for synapse of our nuerons as a major culprit in the cause of Alzheimers by depleting our neurons from being charged and ultimately causing their deaths . . .use or lose. MY SOLUTION: shop flea mkts and antique shops for copperware. And, boycot aluminum products as best as I can . . . waxpaper and brown bags are my wrapper of choice..
But, like the boycotts against ALEC and the positive changes that we can make to force industry to change their unscrupulous money addiction in favor of their investors and politicians with their amoral practices, we can also boycott the use of aluminum, corn syrup based products, and hormone-injected fish that are putting our boys into training bras, plus countless other less than moral practices being shoved down our gullets.
Feed us shit and hope we think we are eating steak. That is industry's profit rule . . . right?
BUT, WE DO GOVERN AND WE DO CAUSE CHANGE BECAUSE THE LAST THING WE WANT FROM THOSE CLAIMING THEMSELVES TO BE CONSERVATIVES IS TO SEE THEM TURN OUT COUNTRY INTO A COMMUNIST, FASCIST, AND TOTALITARIAN BEAST.
#20
To “the other 98” who wrote:
“Education and sane Economics work. If you actually know that you and your children are being poisoned, you will choose not to have that happen. If you don't buy the crap, the people that produce it will stop, if they can't sell it.”
This would be a great ideology if the vaccine industry and the CDC did not have a “public Private Partnership” http://www.cdc.gov/globalaids/leverage-partnerships/public-private-partnerships.html
This would be a great ideology if the public were not told that vaccine mercury is “safe mercuryhttp://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/Thimerosal/thimerosal_faqs.html
and that aluminum adjuvants are safe as well http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/adjuvants.html
so they do not realize that they ARE being poisoned. In fact many people have been mislead to believe that vaccines no longer contain mercury but the do http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/UCM096228
The fact is that there is no informed consent – we tried passing legislation in MN that would have required doctors (and now Walmarts) request mercury free vaccines first, then if none were available the doctor would have to inform the patient that the vaccine contained mercury, giving them the choice to choose a mercury free vaccine if they wish. The Minnesota Department of Health fought the legislation for 4 years – they say it would be too complicated for doctors to have to explain that mercury at 50,000 parts per billion is perfectly safe to inject into infants, grandma’s and teenagers. That is actually because it would be impossible to do so. By the way, there is only enough mercury free flu vaccine for about 1/3 to ½ of the infants and children that get it.
Did you know that the vaccine industry has had no liability for damages and the US Gov is 100% liable for adverse effects of their products? http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/index.html
Did you know that the Supreme Court actually determined that you can not even sue the manufacturer, even in the event they KNOW that vaccine ingredients are “unavoidably unsafe”? http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/blog/bruesewitz-vs-wyeth-case-resolved
This would be a great ideology if there was no incredible pressure from doctors and schools, and the incredible recent efforts to eliminate any exemptions and enforce unnecessary mandates. http://www.examiner.com/disease-prevention-in-baltimore/dr-paul-offit-delivers-speech-with-arguments-against-exemptions-from-compulsory-vaccination
In all reality, most of the public is FORCED to “buy the crap” so the manufacturers do not have to stop producing it (with mercury - see FDA link above) and they have governments willingly buy it, even if it goes unused http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/swineflu/news/jul2110newsscan.html
Thom likes to talk about Fascism, where corporations and government work together with the interests of the corporations over that of the people. Our own country seems to be heading down that road. Just look at the FDA and the Food Industry, the BLM and the mining industry and the EPA and the Chemical industry. For some reason however the CDC and the Medical industrial complex get a hall pass????
#21
Our own country is definitely headed down that road and I don't know if it can be stopped now, it has taken over so much of our country.
I think the only way to defeat the government agencies and linked corporations is with information spread all over the country. But how do we do that when their voices are much louder than ours.
I read labels on everything, but that doesn't tell me about anti-biotics and mercury. I also buy at my Co-op, and try to buy mostly organic. The latter is not a possibility for a lot of people, and it is more expensive, but there is a sizeable minority of people who do not want to eat mercury, anti-biotics, GMO food and the like. Some of the publicity is reaching people. The FDA recently "encouraged" farmers to quit using anti-biotics as a result of public awareness, but that is probably useless until we can persuade the FDA and our elected leaders to not allow this to be voluntary. Same with farmer waste into our rivers and lakes.
Maybe OCCUPY would be able to OCCUPY our food stores. Everybody buys groceries. Pink slime got people's attention.
#22
The new field of epigenetics shows that it is the factors that turn genes on and off that is responsible for the autism epidemic. NIH now funds the Epigenome Project. Folks need to educate themselves and come out of the cave. Someone spouting off a statement like "everyone knows autism is caused by genes" is misinformed. While children with the most severe form of autism known as Rett's Syndrome, is caused by a single gene, most other cases of autism are associated with specific factors that turn genes on and off. The new study that ties consumption of high fructose corn syrup with the autism epidemic in the U.S. is on target. You may access the results of this study at no charge at the following link. It is easy to read http://www.clinicalepigeneticsjournal.com/content/4/1/6/abstract
#23
Lets not forget that "sugar"--as listed on nutritional labels--may now actually contain GMO sugar beet derrived pseudo-"sugar". Yumm. Obama and Michelle sure do care about healthcare...for themselves.
The Mrs. claims to espouse organic ideals in her PERSONAL garden. However, this admin hasn't taken any steps to change the tides for the public's awareness of GMOs/rGBH/cloned food/sludge fertilization etc. Just ask yourselves: who is michael taylor?
#24
I asked myself who Michael Taylor is, and he didn't know. I guess I'll never find out.
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That's confusing. That statement implies that autism is caused by mercury and arsenic poisoning, and yet those have not been proven.