What are GMO's & how are they affecting our health?
Where it all began....
Biochemists Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen developed genetic engineering in 1973 by transplanting genes from one living organism to another.
*Genetically Modified Organisms are living organisms whose genetic material has been altered in a lab through genetic engineering.
How have GMO's impacted our health?
GMOs have impacted the nutrition of our food today in a negative way. In the beginning, it may have had good intentions by modifying plants to be more resistant to pests and diseases or even to enhance nutritional value in some cases. However, the risks outweigh the benefits. Studies show that GMO foods fed to animals show toxicity in their organs and systems. Those toxic effects shown were renal, pancreatic, hepatic, and reproductive effects. And these may alter the biochemical, hematological, and immunologic parameters. Some more of the health risks associated with eating GMO foods are a trigger of allergic reactions, toxicity, infertility, cancer, immunosuppression, accelerated aging, problems with insulin regulation, digestive issues, reduction in digestive enzymes, and liver toxicity. Gene transfer is another huge risk to consider.
Eating GMO food can cause diseases that are immune to antibiotics. Which in turn creates risks to humans when antibiotics are needed. Unfortunately, not only are there health risks to us and our pets when eating GMO foods, but GMOs also put our non-GMO plants at risk through cross-pollination and cross-contamination. Our bees and butterflies are also being affected and have reduced in population.
Where are GMO's used?
Sadly, the use of GMOs has increased in popularity and has also branched to vaccines, medicine, and more. In December 2018, The National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard marked the beginning of mandatory GMO labeling in the US. In 2022 manufacturers were required to label products that contain a percentage of GMOs and use the term "bioengineered"!
You can also avoid GMO foods by looking for the "NON-GMO Project" label or shopping organic.
How else are GMO's affecting us & our environment?
We usually only think of GMO's as harmful by consuming them, but they can also indirectly affect us by environmental exposure and the pollution of water and soil. They are also responsible for the decline in the insect population. Since the use of GMOs in farming in the 1990’s the soil has been depleted and has affected the nutrients in our food today. This is why so many of us need to supplement in addition to eating a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables.
When we consume GMOs in our food they have a negative effect on the microbiome and can lead to an imbalance in the gut, this can then lead to the overgrowth of harmful bacteria. If the gut is out of balance this can also lead to many negative health outcomes. GMOs have been linked to kidney, liver, pancreas, reproductive organ damage, obesity, birth defects, and more.
According to foodandwaterwatch.org "More GMOs means more chemical use many GMO crops are specifically engineered to resist certain weed killers, such as the potentially carcinogenic Roundup, so planting GMOs means that farmers end up using the associated chemicals, and using them in more ways when they use GMO crops. Those chemicals end up in the environment and threaten the health of farmers and farm workers, as well as the communities they live in. The system for making sure these chemicals don’t end up in our food is extremely weak."
What are GMO's?
According to the Non-GMO project a GMO, or "genetically modified organism," is a plant, animal, microorganism, or other organism where genetic makeup has been modified in a laboratory using genetic engineering or transgenic technology. This creates a combination of plant, animal, bacterial, and virus genes that do not occur in nature or throughout traditional crossbreeding methods.
Most common GMO Crops
GMO crops are banned or restricted in over 60 countries, unfortunately here in the U.S. GMO ingredients are used in 80% of all processed foods. Crops approved in the U.S. include corn, soy canola, sugar beet, sugar cane, cotton, alfalfa, Hawaiian Rainbow papaya, yellow crookneck squash, zucchini, potatoes, apples, pink pineapples, golden rice, salmon, and Impossible Burger products.
GMO's & Weed killers
Many of the GMO crops are made to withstand heavy amounts of toxic weed killers. Most of these can not be washed off as they are absorbed into the crop that they are sprayed on. These weedkillers kill more than weeds and have been proven to be harmful to human health and have been shown to cause DNA and cell damage. Glyphosate is one of the more well-known herbicides and has been linked to leukemia.
GMO's and labeling
The new laws for labeling GMOs in the U.S. will use the term “bioengineered” instead of GMO. There is also a 5% ingredient threshold for GMO contamination. If you purchase organic they are by definition without GMOs. If possible always choose organic.
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