The REAL Reasons You Want to Avoid Genetically Modified Foods

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: 

• Severe pain
• Hair loss
• Memory loss
• Muscle weakness, and uncontrollable muscle spasms
• Hardening of the skin 

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: 

• Allergenic
• Toxic
• Carcinogenic
• Anti-nutritional 

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:

• GM peas caused lung damage in mice
• GM potatoes may cause cancer in rats
• Bacteria in your gut can take up DNA from GM food
• They may be spurring the creation of weed-killer-resistant superweeds

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 this Non-GMO Shopping Guide. 

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: 

• Soy
• Corn
• Cottonseed
• Canola  

The offspring of these products include items such as maltodextrin, soy lecitin, and high fructose corn syrup. Other GMO products include: 

• Some varieties of zucchini, crookneck squash, and papayas from Hawaii
• Milk containing rbGH
• Rennet (containing genetically modified enzymes) used to make hard cheeses
• Aspartame (NutraSweet) 

What Can You Do? 

Along with using the Non-GMO Shopping 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:

• Examine produce stickers on the fruits and vegetables you buy. The PLU code for conventionally grown fruit consists of four numbers; organically grown fruit has five numbers prefaced by the number nine; and GM fruit has five numbers prefaced by the number eight.
• Buy organic produce as often as you can. By definition, food that is certified organic must be free from all GM organisms.

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.