Dr. Mercola November 06 2007 107,073 views
In this lecture, Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception, summarizes the contents of his book, which explains how genetically modified foods cause health problems, and their potential for creating a vast array of unforeseen and surprising illnesses. He also sheds light on how the corruption within the U.S. government, the FDA, and the GMO industry has allowed, and perpetuated, the cover-up.
Genetically modified foods are, from my perception, one of the largest threats that we have against the very sustainability of the human race. Let’s face it, how long can your descendants survive if there isn’t any food to eat?
Although Monsanto doesn’t believe this is a possibility, their shortsighted focus on profits is blinding them to the very real threats that this technology is posing to the viability of the human race.
Jeffrey Smith does a great job of summarizing his main findings in this fascinating video series, recounting how GMO health problems have indeed been recorded as far back as 1989. At that time, several people started seeking medical attention for severe and puzzling health problems such as:
Through a series of events, these symptoms were traced back to genetically modified strains of L-tryptophan. Up to 10,000 people were affected and some 100 of them died. Uncovered documents revealed that the FDA knew about these health problems for about five years prior to the “epidemic,” which only became known as an epidemic after the story was published in the New York Times, and people began coming out of the woodwork displaying these symptoms that no one had been able to diagnose before.
To illustrate this point – that GMO’s may very well be wreaking havoc with your health and you don’t even know it’s the source of your problems – is the fact that the toxic L-tryptophan was only discovered because its symptoms were acute, rare, and had a very fast onset. These things are what get doctors curious about unearthing the cause. But as Jeffrey Smith points out – what if the damage doesn’t occur overnight? What if the symptoms are milder?
Thousands of genetically modified products are now on the market, creating potentially life-threatening problems, but no one knows what to look out for.
Why?
Because no one knows the full extent of what happens to the end product when you splice in new genes. The only thing that is guaranteed is that it will create surprise side effects… However, according to Smith’s research, what we do know is that between 1994 and 2001 – at the same time as GMO’s flooded the market – food related illnesses DOUBLED.
GMO foods can be:
It may also create brand new diseases that we’ve never seen before, in addition to spurring on the disease rate of some we already have, such as cancer.
Although the major food giants are carrying on with their claim that GM foods are no different from conventionally grown varieties, the research begs to differ. Here is just a sampling of the unsavory findings associated with GM foods:
Smith mentions the superior work of Arpad Pusztai, PhD, a (formerly pro-biotech) scientist who was hired to evaluate the safety of GMO food, and then fired for his negative findings and his outspoken criticism of the industry’s shoddy science.
Fortunately, he finally managed to get his animal feeding study published in the journal Lancet in 1999 (see the Lancet October 16, 1999;354(9187):1353-4 for the full PDF article).
Despite the efforts of concerned scientists like Pusztai, you may be surprised to learn that you have a 75 percent chance of picking a food with genetically modified ingredients in the United States. This is because at least seven out of every 10 items have been genetically modified!
Many of you probably try to avoid genetically modified foods, but very few know what they really are, since there are no labeling requirements identifying GMO ingredients. To get an idea of how widespread these ingredients are, I recommend taking a look at The GMO Food Guide I published a couple of months ago.
Jeffrey Smith’s website www.seedsofdeception.com also gives you a more in-depth overview of GMO laced products, but the four main culprits are:
The offspring of these products include items such as maltodextrin, soy lecitin, and high fructose corn syrup. Other GMO products include:
What Can You Do?
Along with using the GMO Food Guide and avoiding the products mentioned above, there’s other tricks you that can use to figure out if something is genetically modified in your fresh produce aisles:
Stay away from all processed foods, as most of these contain corn and soy ingredients.
Fortunately, as a consumer you do have power. You can choose not to be a victim of deception, and you can choose what you feed your family. Large portions of Europe have already succeeded in squashing GMO’s out of their food supply, forcing food manufacturers to use real ingredients in their European product lines. But here in the U.S. we’re still stuck with it to a very large degree.
You can be the change you want to see in America, by educating yourself, spreading the word, and refusing to buy GMO products.
Share this article with your friends and family, and if you haven’t yet taken the time to watch The Future of Food, please do so now. It is perhaps one of the most important videos on this subject, and one that everyone in American should watch and pass on to others.
It's pretty hard to refuse something when you don't know it's the thing you are trying to avoid! If they don't tell you what is or is not GMO how do you know which product to walk away from? I do not purchase any packaged frakenfoods yet I am sure I have still unwittingly ingested GMO foods, wrongly labeled organic foods and MSG on food labeled "no MSG" because most of the labeling is either a misrepresentation or an outright lie. In addidtion, with all the cross pollination of the fields in the Dakota's and elswhere can we really even avoid all GMO's at this point?
To BeyondOrganic, On the contraire, "nonperishable" foods such as nuts, seeds and grains can be stored for long periods in there dormant state and brought to life when you want to use them, by soaking and germinating/sprouting them. If they are Organic or BioDynamic and not irradiated, they are far from dead foods, once sprouted they are bursting with life force. They can be some of the most potent living foods you can consume!
Dear Beyond Organic, I sympathize with your situation! Dr. Mercola and the participants on this site present us with the ideal and I try to live up to it and fall short. Take heart if you can use this information to improve your situation at all. I would exhort you, however, to do whatever possible to move away from your current living circumstances. Your community sounds unsustainable, not to mention unhealthy. It may take imagination and sacrifices, but if you can find a way to move into a community where organic food and cooperative effort are encouraged, that will be a gift for the long term to your entire family even if they don't choose to join you in the short term.
...It's being so cheerful that keeps you going eh Russ?!:)
Thank you EQ...VEEERY WELL put!!!
Blessings
Dr. Trudy
The problem is more the lack of labeling of these GM products, so how can the consumer reject these foods if they are not labeled clearly? I think if they were labeled they would mostly be rejected by everyone that cares about their health, and the government and Monsanto both know this, thus.... no labels.
However, fresh fruits have labels that few people know how to read. They are numbers.
Conventional Fruit Labels
Four digits and does not start with a 9
Most start with a 4, such as 4040
Organic Fruit Labels
Five digits and starts witha 9
Genetically altered/modified Fruits
Start with a digit 8
Stores are not obligated to tell you if the fruit has been genetically modified. If you come across an apple in the store, and it's labeled 4922, it is a conventional apple grown with herbicides and fertilizers. If it has a sticker 99222, it is organic and safe to eat. If it says 89222, it has been genetically modified (GMO).
I agree 100%!