NontoxicLifestyle: Top Reasons Why you should avoid GMO Foods--Toxic Issue Found in GMO Food

Genetically modified (GM) foods have become a controversial issue in the agric-food industry. GMO food is organic health eater’s and earth friendly farmer’s nightmare.

GM or genetically modified organism (GMO)s means to change code or organization of the genetic material of an organism. Genetic engineers move one gene or group of genes from one organism to another.

Why GMO? Genetic engineering enables research botanist to add hereditary traits to almost any plant, to alter plants to make them more productive or more able to withstand adverse growing conditions like drought. Also, there’s a claim that Genetic engineering can be used to increase food production for arid desert settlers—reduce famine and make food more nutritious however, there has not been any real evidence pointing to this claim. In fact, the much vaunted GM ‘golden rice’ – hailed as a cure to vitamin A deficiency – has never made it out of the laboratory, partly because in order to meet recommended levels of vitamin A intake, consumers would need to eat 12 bowls of the rice every day. In 2004, the Kenyan government admitted that Monsanto’s GM sweet potatoes were no more resistant to feathery mottle virus than ordinary strains, and in fact produced lower yields.

And in January 2008, scientists had modified a carrot to cure osteoporosis by providing calcium but the fact still remains that you would need to eat 1.6 kilograms of these vegetables each day to meet your recommended calcium intake.

Also, genetic engineering is used to make plants more resistant to disease, herbicides, and pests; plant made resistant to new kinds of herbicides that do not harm the crops and beneficial insects. These modifications are also used to alter the taste of plants so to make them less attractive to insects hence allowing farmers to reduce the use of chemical pesticides. However, there is a consistent finding from independent research and on-farm surveys since 1999 that GM crops have failed to deliver the promised benefits of significantly increasing yields or reducing herbicide and pesticide use.

The production of GMO food is regulated in the United States and Canada, today each of these country has approved at least 40 plant varieties derived by genetic modification. Soybeans, corn, and canola are the most widely produced GM crops and they are contributing ingredients, that are used in highly processed foods. In fact, 70 percent of processed foods contain at least some GM ingredients.

For example, normally cheese is made from the rennet extracted from calf stomach to curdle milk. But chymosin, the major enzyme in rennet of calf can be produced by genetic engineering. The bit of DNA, the gene, that gives the instructions for the formation of chymosin has been isolated from calf cells and copied or “cloned”. This gene is then inserted into the genetic machinery of certain bacteria (Escherichia coli), yeasts (Kluyveromyceslactis), or fungi (Aspergillus niger) to dutifully churn out pure chymosin. Approved in 1990 by the food and Drug Administration in the United States, Chymosin became the first product of genetic engineering in our food supply.

It is 100 percent identical to that found in calf stomach, but because it does not come from animals, it is acceptable to consumers who do not want meat products in their cheese. It is said that extraordinary precautions were taken before chymosin, made by recombinant DNA technology, was marketed. Regulators ensured that no toxins of any kind had been introduced and that no live recombinant organisms were present. This cheese is completely indistinguishable from that produced with animal rennet. In any case, chymosin itself is degradable during cheese making and none is left in the finished products. Today, in North America, more than 80 percent of cheese is made using chymosin.

Do you know that the grocery store is filled with genetically altered foods?

Approximately 60 to 70 percent of foods available in North American food store contain at least a small measure of a crop that has been genetically engineered. Corn, soybeans, and oil from canola or cotton are the most common genetically modified crops.

Why you should avoid buying canola oil:

Canadian plant breeders, in search of highly nutritious oil, developed canola oil in the 1970s. The name is a combination of “Canada” and “oil”. CANOLA oil is genetically engineered. The United State imports almost all of its canola oil from Canada, where more than 60 percent of the rapeseed from the plant canola was developed, are genetically modified variety.

Are we eating GM food?

GM soya is in about 60 percent of all processed food such as vegetable oil, soya flour, lecithin and soya protein. GM maize is in about 50 percent of processed foods such as corn, corn starch, corn flour and corn syrup. GM tomato puree is sold in some supermarkets and GM enzymes are used throughout the food processing industry.

Despite the benefits of genetic engineering the adverse effects it has on soil, plants nutrients, taste, flavor, and health of consumers and the livelihood of farmer outweigh its benefits.

Toxic effects of GMO food

GMO food can trigger Allergic reaction: concern has been raised that allergens has the potential of transferring through genetic modification. "In one case, soya bean engineered with a gene from a brazil nut gave rise to allergic reactions in people sensitive to the nuts. Most genes being introduced into GM plants have never been part of the food supply so we can't know if they are likely to be allergenic.

More seriously, in 1989 there was an outbreak of a new disease in the US, contracted by over 5,000 people and traced back to a batch of L-tryptophan food supplement produced with GM bacteria. Even though it contained less than 0.1 per cent of a highly toxic compound, 37 people died and 1,500 were left with permanent disabilities. More may have died, but the American Centre for Disease Control stopped counting in 1991".

Dangerous gene products incorporated can be Toxic:

Bt proteins, incorporated into 25% of all transgenic crops worldwide, have been found harmful to a range of non-target insects. Some of them are also potent immunogens and allergens. A team of scientists have cautioned against releasing Bt crops for human use.

Pharmaceuticals and drugs are used to produce food crops, including cytokines known to suppress the immune system, induce sickness and central nervous system toxicity; interferon alpha, reported to cause dementia, neurotoxicity and mood and cognitive side effects; vaccines; and viral sequences such as the 'spike' protein gene of the pig coronavirus, in the same family as the SARS virus linked to the current epidemic. The glycoprotein gene gp120 of the AIDS virus HIV-1, incorporated into GM maize as a 'cheap, edible oral vaccine', serves as yet another biological time-bomb, as it can interfere with the immune system and recombine with viruses and bacteria to generate new and unpredictable pathogens.

Transgenic DNA Linked to Cancer:

Transgenic DNA is known to survive digestion in the gut and transfer into the genome of mammalian cells, raising the possibility for triggering cancer.

The possibility cannot be excluded that feeding GM products such as maize to animals also carries risks, not just for the animals but also for human beings consuming the animal products.

Broad-spectrum herbicides highly toxic to humans and other species:

Glufosinate ammonium and glyphosate are used with the herbicide-tolerant transgenic crops that currently account for 75% of all transgenic crops worldwide. Both are systemic metabolic poisons expected to have a wide range of harmful effects, and these have been confirmed.

Glufosinate ammonium is linked to neurological, respiratory, gastrointestinal and haematological toxicities, and birth defects in humans and mammals. It is toxic to butterflies and a number of beneficial insects, also to the larvae of clams and oysters, Daphnia and some freshwater fish, especially the rainbow trout.

Glyphosate is the most frequent cause of complaints and poisoning in the UK. Disturbances of many body functions have been reported after exposures at normal use levels.

Glyphosate exposure nearly doubled the risk of late spontaneous abortion, and children born to users of glyphosate had elevated neurobehavioral defects. Glyphosate caused retarded development of the foetal skeleton in laboratory rats. Glyphosate inhibits the synthesis of steroids, and is genotoxic in mammals, fish and frogs. Field dose exposure of earthworms caused at least 50 percent mortality and significant intestinal damage among surviving worms. Roundup caused cell division dysfunction that may be linked to human cancers.

The known effects of both glufosinate and glyphosate are sufficiently seriously for all further uses of the herbicides to be stopped.

Note: Evidence suggests that transgenic constructs with the CaMV 35S promoter might be especially unstable and prone to horizontal gene transfer and recombination, with all the attendant hazards: gene mutations due to random insertion, cancer, reactivation of dormant viruses and generation of new viruses could increase. Ca MV 35S promoter is present in most GM crops being grown commercially today.

Makes infections hard to treat:

There is already experimental evidence that transgenic DNA from plants has been taken up by bacteria in the soil and in the gut of human volunteers. Antibiotic resistance marker genes can spread from transgenic food to pathogenic bacteria, making infections very difficult to treat.

Animals subjected to Genetic engineering modification are harmed:
It’s found that animals subjected to genetic engineering do not fare as well as plants. Sheep injected with genetically engineered hormones to increase wool growth become more vulnerable to the heat. Pigs and chickens treated with special growth hormones develop painful bone and joint problems. There are ethical concerns with tampering with an animal natural genetic makeup and the cruel problems it can cause them.