Did you out some Smucker’s Strawberry Jelly on your toast this morning? How about a Nutra Grain Strawberry Cereal Bar or a Pop-Tarts Frosted Blueberry treat for those of you on the run? If so, then you may have gotten your daily dose of the element mercury.

People have been saying for years that products with high fructose corn syrup were bad, however most didn’t know why. Now there have been some studies released showing that some products with high fructose corn syrup contain mercury.

It turns out that many foods sweetened with HFCS contain mercury, left as a residue in the production of caustic soda, a key ingredient in HFCS. And worst of all, the FDA and the industry have known about this potential toxin and has continued serving it up since at least 2005.

Mercury is a cumulative toxin, with symptoms of exposure being sensory impairment, sensation loss and lack of coordination. The real problem is that high fructose corn syrup is in almost everything these days, especially if you’re not shopping in a Whole Foods or other health/organic type market. And guess who is not shopping in those places? Poor communities simply because there isn’t access to healthy, non-processed foods. Access included not just being close to these types of outlets but also being able to afford the prices for healthy options. When’s the last time you saw a bodega with an organic, non genetically modified aisle?

Via / Suburban Guerilla, Huffington Post