GMO Foods cause allergies & more....

Today's post: Thursday, 6-19-2008

My daughter has peanut allergy. It came very close once to killing her. She got this because she became allergic to soy protein & the foods containing it. Some people do die from their peanut allergies.

Allergic asthma has also killed people.

And, allergies often lower the quality of life of the people who have them even when they aren’t life threatening. Wheezing, sneezing, & itching are NOT fun. Nor are funny looking skin blotches & rashes fun to have.

So, anything that causes you (or people you care about) to have allergies they could easily have never gotten is a real health threat. And, no one would want to eat kinds of foods that contained that kind of thing if they knew it was in those foods.

Oops !! It seems you very probably ARE eating such foods now. Ouch !!

Genetically modified foods are in a huge percentage of the foods most Americans eat it seems.

Here’s a sentence from an article I’ll quote below & then comment on.:

(GM foods & GMO food components are Genetically Modified.)

“The United Kingdom tracks food allergies, and the year after GM soy was introduced into their food supply, soy allergies jumped 50 percent.”

Here’s the whole article from today’s Early to Rise.
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

“What's in Your Tomatoes?

By James B. LaValle, RPh, MS, ND, CCN

You may be certain that your plate is full of healthy food... but the truth might surprise you. Your tomatoes, corn, soybeans, Hawaiian papaya, zucchini, crooked neck squash, and even ice cream could have genes from cloned fish, bacteria, or viruses. That's because you're not always dealing with the "real thing." Your grocer's shelves are likely stacked with genetically modified (GM) foods.

GM foods are increasingly prevalent, but the FDA does not require food labels to specify when ingredients are genetically modified. So it's not surprising that most people aren't even aware they're eating them.

According to the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, 54 percent of people polled hadn't even heard of genetically modified foods. And though, according to a CBS/NY Times poll, 53 percent said they would not purchase these foods, many common ingredients (including soy lecithin, corn syrup, and cottonseed or canola oil) originate from GM crops. In the United States, three-quarters of the corn used to produce cereals, tortilla chips, and other such products is Roundup Ready corn, which has been genetically altered to resist the weed killer Roundup, according to U.S. News and World Report.

So why avoid GM foods? For one thing, they may be more allergenic. The United Kingdom tracks food allergies, and the year after GM soy was introduced into their food supply, soy allergies jumped 50 percent.

High pesticide content is yet another reason to avoid GM foods. The Center for Food Safety noted that from 1994 to 2005, pesticide use on GM corn, soybeans, and cotton increased by a multiple of 15 due to the increased pesticide resistance of Roundup Ready crops.

Last, but certainly not least, cultivation of GM crops may disrupt our ecosystem. According to the 2004 scientific consensus report of the Food and Agriculture Organization, increased pesticide use may result in herbicide-resistant weeds and pesticide-resistant insects. This affects non-pest insects like butterflies as well as animals like frogs and birds.

Whenever possible, avoid GM foods. Do so by purchasing USDA certified organically grown foods which, by definition, cannot be bio-engineered or genetically modified. You can also look for "non-GMO" on the label.”

X* X* X* X* X* X* X*

As author & journalist Michael Pollan has written, a huge percentage of the processed foods & grain fed cattle & poultry that people eat today contain corn & soy.

Many people also eat a lot of wheat foods, unfortunately mostly as refined grain foods. If a majority of the wheat we eat or a large percentage of it has also been taken over by GMO wheat that is pesticide & herbicide resistant, we have even more of a problem. Since the use of these pesticide & herbicide resistant grains need not be disclosed and the practice is so widespread in corn & soy, I think this is quite likely also.

So, in addition to staying away from corn, soy products included in food, & refined grain foods, eating grain fed cattle & poultry is not only likely to expose you to GMO proteins & excessive levels of omega 6 oils, it also exposes you to herbicides & pesticides in their fat.

It seems that GMO foods & high pesticide & herbicide use go together.

Apparently GMO foods are similar to high fructose corn syrup & hydrogenated vegetable oils (trans fats). They make our food cheaper but harm our health if we eat the cheap food.

I have been against GMO foods on the grounds that the traditional varieties are nutritious & the long term safety of the health of people eating these new & experimental & untested foods might be harmed.

It seems that the evidence is already in. They ARE harmful & should be banned from all food.

At the very least, all foods containing them, including meat & poultry fed grains containing them should be labeled as containing them. And, they should be fully taxed for the avoidable medical costs they create.

Of course if that was done, they would disappear from the market. So the makers & users of GMO foods have lobbied against this. They would rather you didn’t know what they were up to.

Meanwhile, it is possible to avoid much of the GMO foods by hardly even eating packaged foods or commercial baked goods, avoiding refined grain foods, buying organic produce, rarely eating foods with soy in them, rarely eating corn or foods made from it, & by eating naturally fed meats & fish only.