High fructose corn syrup takes a hit Hold on to your hats, folks, the FDA did something right for a change. Believe me, I'm just as shocked as you are. Recently, the government agency ruled that products containing high fructose corn syrup can't be labeled as "natural." This may not sound like a big deal to you, but in the food and beverage industry, this is a huge ruling. I've warned you about the dangers of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in the past, but it still seems to be everywhere. You can't swing a dead cat in a grocery store (not that you're likely to do such a thing) without hitting dozens of products chock-full of HFCS. How bad is it? American children are eating and drinking 62 pounds of this one sweetener ever year. There's loads of HFCS in everything kids (and many adults) eat and drink -- soda, "fruit" drinks, cookies, gum, jelly, and baked goods. And that's only a partial list. In fact, the national consumption of this hidden junk food grew from zero in 1966 to 62.6 pounds per person by 2001! But the controversy isn't whether or not HFCS is healthy; it's whether or not it's natural. The Corn Refiners Association insists that it's a natural sweetener because it's derived from a natural product, but the FDA doesn't buy it. Good for them. This new ruling that put the whammy on HFCS was in response to an inquiry by FoodNavigator-USA.com, an online consumer watchdog site. When the FDA checked the composition of HFCS, they discovered that synthetic fixing agents are used in the manufacturing process - and this violates the FDA's standard policy on the term "natural," which states that a natural product "is one that has not had any artificial or synthetic substances added to the product that would not normally be expected to be in the food." Don't get me wrong - it's not as though people will stop chugging HFCS-laden sodas because of this ruling. And many of the HFCS products out there are not labeled as natural to begin with-no one has ever considered a bottle of soda a health drink. But at least going forward, this ruling will put the brakes on any future "misinterpretations" (read: marketing B.S.) by food manufacturers who have lots of HFCS in their products. Take my advice - if you're checking labels the next time at the grocery store, when you see high-fructose corn syrup OR sugar near the top of the ingredient list, just put whatever it is back on the shelf. You'll be healthier for it. Autism has been in the news a lot lately. I've already told you about a federal court's admission that autism had actually been "triggered" by a childhood vaccination. Now researchers at Johns Hopkins are saying they've discovered yet another autism trigger: maternal antibodies that a developing fetus is exposed to in the womb. The researchers claim that these antibodies can cross over through the placenta and affect fetal brain tissues, impacting the brain's proper development. Hopkins researcher Dr. Harvey Singer pointed out that the blood of autistic children contains antibodies that react against the brain tissue of the child. This new theory represents a sea change in the thinking about autism. The bulk of the research conducted on the origins of autism concentrates on the possible affects of autoantibodies - part of the body's way of fighting off allergic reactions and autoimmune diseases. In autistic people, these autoantibodies attack the body's own tissues instead of foreign invaders. The research revealed that mothers of children with autism had stronger or more areas of reactivity between antibodies and brain proteins than the mothers of non-autistic children. Although the source of the baffling condition of autism remains hard to pin down, research like this - and the continuing research on vaccines - takes us closer and closer to finding a cure. And you can't really argue with that. | 
