Top Genetically Modified Foods To Avoid
Looking to limit the amount of genetically modified food in your diet? Here is a list of the top food items to keep your eye on when doing your grocery shopping.
Corn: Corn has been extensively modified to create it’s on insecticide. Monsanto is quoted as saying that over half of the United States’ sweet corn farms have been planted with seeds that are GMO. In tests on lab animals, ones that were fed GMO corn had numerous fertility problems and produced smaller offspring.
Soy: Soy has been modified to resist herbicides. If you pay attention to labels soy is prevalent in many products you would not even think of. Many commercial baked goods and breads, canned items, and flours. Also soy beverages, tofu, and cooking oils. Lab tests resulted in hamsters that had much higher death rates and were unable to produce offspring.
Rice: Rice is a staple food in many Asian cultures and has now been genetically modified to contain a high amount of vitamin A. It has been reported that there are some rice varieties containing human genes to be grown in the US.
This is not science fiction this is science fact. Apparently the rice will create human proteins that are useful for dealing with infant diarrhea in 3rd world countries. China Daily, an online journal, reported about potential health and environmental issues resulting form the genetically modified rice, which may cause allergic reactions, and due to the human genetics, gene transfer.
Tomatoes: Tomatoes, a food that most families eat especially during the summer months, have been altered to last longer on store shelves and to prevent them from rotting. Testing on animals to determine if the GMO tomatoes were safe resulted in some animals dying within weeks of consuming the GMO tomatoes.
Peas: Peas have also been genetically modified to resist pesticides. They have been found to cause allergic reactions in mice and possibly even in humans. A gene from the kidney bean was inserted into the peas creating a protein that functions as a pesticide in order to prevent the pea weevil from destroying crops. even though the protein is from another bean when created in the pea it is slightly altered.
Potatoes: Mice fed with potatoes engineered with Bacillus thuringiensis var. Kurstaki Cry 1, is a naturally occurring bacteria used as a pesticide. However some strains are now showing the proper structures, but with no toxicity to insects.
This raises the question of there toxicity to humans and mammals. Some have been shown to cause an immune response similar to allergens, and certain strains are even being tested in chemotherapy due to their tendency to destroy human cells.
Dairy: It has recently been discovered that over 22 percent of cows in the U.S. were injected with recombinant (genetically modified) bovine growth hormone (rbGH). Monsanto created this hormone to artificially force cows to increase their milk production by 15 percent.
Milk from cows treated with this milk inducing hormone contains increased levels of IGF-1 (insulin growth factors-1), which humans also have in their systems. Scientists have expressed concerns that increased levels of IGF-1 in humans have been associated with colon and breast cancer, others have speculated that the onset of early puberty is also due to the consumption of GMO dairy.
The Most Common GMO Foods
Now while this is not a definitive list, these are some of the most common GMO foods, I encourage you to do your research to see what you are feeding your family.
Shop at farmer’s markets as much as you can, and if possible start your own garden no matter how small. Also do not fall into the trap that you need to eat expensive organic food to be safe.
Many of the local farmers have organic crops, they just cannot pay the high fees to be certified as organic, just ask them they will be happy to help I am sure.
