The Sensitive Gourmet

A few days ago in a moment of bad judgment  I fed Annika some sorbet sweetened with corn syrup.  I use mango sorbet to hide her Cal-Mag Citrate plus vitamin C supplement, which comes in powder form and is very sour because of the 250 mg of vitamin C in each dose.  Annika’s Pediatrician recommended we give her 1000 mg of vitamin C  every day because vitamin C lessens the severity of an allergic reaction by reducing histamine release from mast cells and it breaks down existing histamine faster.  The supplement fizzes when added to water or apple sauce and Annika doesn’t do fizzy, period.  So I have found that the mango sorbet works best.  It is sweet enough to overpower the sourness.  And while I’m at it, I also add to it her Probiotic and  the Singulair she takes for her asthma.  Those also come in powder form with a suggestion that it be given in apple sauce, but mango sorbet is way more fun.  Plus, it’s Annika’s favorite treat since the first time she tasted it on our Hawaii Thanksgiving vacation two years ago.  And when you have a kid who takes as many drugs and supplements as she does, it feels good to do it in a way that turns it into a treat. 

It was past time for Annika’s evening dose of vitamin C, and I realized that I was nearly out of our favorite Ciao Bella mango sorbet that uses cane sugar (the ingredients are mango, water, sugar and lemon juice, got to love it). 

I should have skipped the dose, but instead I grabbed the mango sorbet I bought by accident which was sweetened with corn syrup, thinking that a couple of teaspoonfuls wouldn’t be a big deal.  Annika did test allergic to corn, so I really should have known better.  And as it turned out, it was a big deal.  A few hours later Annika threw a temper tantrum of epic proportions.  She was so worked up, she expelled all air out of her lungs with a cry so powerful that she nearly passed out.  Now, she’d done this before, but both those times it was as a result of a bad bonk (stitches followed one of those times).  So I was checking her over for signs of a dislocated shoulder or elbow or a gaping wound, or something to explain why she was crying so hard.  As it turned out, she reacted in this extreme way to my request that she stop washing the glass shower partition with my mother’s pricey facial cleanser.  Oy!  She was tired because it was past her bedtime and already more hyper than usual due to the corticosteroid still in her system (she was on Flovent during a recent cold) and by adding the corn I had created conditions for a perfect storm. 

I currently don’t have data on hand (I do plan to find some), but I have come across a lot of anecdotal evidence from parents that corn syrup seems to make kids hyper, more so than cane sugar or other forms of sugar.   And that’s just “normal” kids.  Many parents of children with food allergies know for sure that their children have behavioral reactions to allergens.  And with corn the allergy and sugar aspects seem to reinforce each other in terms of behavior.  I’ve previously linked hyperactivity and behavior issues in Annika with the consumption of corn, and lately it has been getting worse.  A smaller amount now seems to cause her to react.  I also recently picked up at our local library Dr. Doris Rapp’s Is This Your Child? Discovering and Treating Unrecognized Allergies.  While Dr. Rapp’s treatment techniques are considered controversial by some (I don’t know enough to have an opinion at this time), her exhaustive 627 page book overviews possible allergens, allergy symptoms with photos and includes example cases and comprehensive references.   Dr. Rapp believes that allergies and chemicals in our environment can cause behavioral problems and is convinced that most children medicated with Ritalin (methylphenidate) and other stimulants for ADD/ADHD are actually suffering from allergies.  From her website:

Dr. Rapp believes it is imperative that both the public and physicians recognize that multiple body areas and a wide range of symptoms can be produced in allergic patients who have unrecognized and atypical forms of allergies. Symptoms can be much more than hay fever, asthma, coughing and itchy skin. The appropriate allergy treatment for dust, pollen, molds, foods and certain chemicals (chlorine, fluoride, etc.) appears to be surprisingly helpful in relieving many acute and chronic physical, emotional and learning problems in both children and adults.

She also talks about allergy-related temper tantrums, describing the glazed-eye look and an inability to register what the parent says.  I’ve seen Annika in a “regular” tantrum and one that would fit this description, and they are different beasts.  During a regular tantrum I can still get across.  In an allergy tantrum, it’s like I’m dealing with a possessed child.  She’s just not herself at all.

So now I know we have to try harder to avoid corn and it derivatives, and corn is an allergen that is even more ubiquitous than dairy and soy.  One corn allergic individual created a website on which he lists many of the corn derivatives in what-passes-for-food out there.  Some of the products we consume that contain corn include breads, cookies, sauces, spices, vitamins, aspirin (as binding agent), toothpaste, baby powder, cereals, peanut butter, snack foods, glue on stamps and envelops, ethylene used to ripen fruits and vegetables, hairspray, deodorants, make up, play dough, wax on the fruit at the grocery store,  food additives such as xanthan gum, citric acid, maltodextrin, dextrose, ascorbic acid, crystalline fructose, lecithin, grain alcohols and vinegars, and the list goes on and on and on.

Why is corn in everything?  Well, it is cheap, mainly because the corn industry is a domestic powerhouse (revenues approached $19 billion last year), protected by subsidies.  That’s also why high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is cheaper than cane sugar which is subject to import tariffs.  But with the growing demand for ethanol (which is neither better for the environment, nor more economical, and in fact, quite the opposite, but I digress…) corn has become an even hotter commodity.   There’s money in corn, and the corn lobby is pretty powerful.  It is comprised of associations of corn growers and refiners and food additive producers such as  Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM ), one of the “wholesome” companies involved in the lysine price-fixing conspiracy in the 1990s.  The corn lobby is so powerful that even the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), instrumental in getting the allergen labeling on foods, officially denies that corn is an allergen.  One concerned corn allergic blogger who dug deeper into the matter suggests in his post that it’s because Kraft Foods Inc., a major donor to FAAN, uses corn in their products.  Almost everything is sweetened with HFCS, which is a major ingredient in carbonated soft drinks, juices, sorbets, cookies, breads… you name it.  It has been linked to our nation’s rising problem with obesity, type II diabetes (my soda loving husband is a sufferer) and other health problems. Studies show that unlike table sugar, HFCS goes straight to the liver, releasing enzymes that tell the body to store fat.  This in turn may elevate blood triglyceride levels and overall cholesterol levels, slow fat burning and accelerate weight gain.  Other research indicates that HFCS fails to stimulate insulin production, essentially turning off the body’s “I’m full” signal, leading to overating and contributing to obesity and type 2 diabetes.  Not surprisingly, the gradual replacement of sugar with HFCS in the American diet in the 1970s correlates with the rise of obesity.

The recent dishonest and downright insulting $20-$30 million “Sweet Surprise” marketing and advertising campaign by the Corn Refiners Association is an attempt to push back against the negative rap of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and suggests there is no difference between HFCS and sucrose (plain sugar) and in fact that HFCS is “natural” and “nutritious”.

Say what!?  One problem is that even referring to HFCS as “corn syrup” is a misnomer.  It has nothing to do with the corn syrup you can buy at the grocery store.  Instead, HFCS is an artificial additive whose production is a multi-step chemical process (thus corn refiners)   that turns corn starch into a liquid, how is that “natural”?  Interestingly,  under pressure from ADM the FDA has reversed its earlier stance and issued a letter stating that HFCS is natural.   And it’s no wonder the HFCS refiners  are trying to misinform the public.  Just follow the money and you’ll know why.  The average person in the United States consumes 63 pounds of HFCS in a year. 

The revenues for HFCS alone amount to nearly $6 billion.  If more people think it is bad for them and avoid it, then it is bad for the industry’s pocketbook. 

And don’t even get me started on how bad corn growing is for the environment…  I’ll save that for another post-tantrum rant. 

For now, it’s time to read labels even closer and again, vote with my wallet.

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