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HEALTH AND WELLNESS NEWSLETTER VOLUME 5
To G.M.O or not to G.M.O?
What is a G.M.O? The letters stand for genetically modified organism, they are living
things who’s D.N.A. has been altered, often with the addition of a gene from a distant
species, to produce a desired trait. Originally, scientists and the food industry
collaborated on this, to address the deepening threat of world hunger. The process
involved growing foods that could not or would not grow in various climates or because
of erosion of good growing soil. If enough food could be grown in populated areas where
food was becoming scarce, a world- wide crisis could be averted. Unfortunately, this
benign desire to serve humanity somehow got entangled with corporate profits, food
industry lobbyists, and old time “greed”. Food industries soon realized the potential to be
able to grow whatever they wanted, wherever they wanted, and to create enormous
profits without the interference of government agencies. All of this being done without
independent scientific research and all of this being done without the knowledge of the
consumer and back-room deals made by lobbyists to prevent foods being labeled as a
G.M.O., so we never knew this was being done to our food supply.
Some of the reported effects include cancer in rats, rise in childhood food allergies, out
of control super weeds, genetic contamination, overuse of pesticides and the
disappearance of butterflies and bees. Here is how it works in an unscientific overview.
The human genetic code has been unchanged in thousands of years (with of-course the
naturally occurring genetic adaptations to a changing world). However, these naturally
occurring genetic adaptations take thousands of years and result from a natural
adaptation to the ever slowly changing environmental stimuli. A species must change in
accordance with the naturally changing world or die off. During these thousands of years
the human diet has changed very little. From the earliest days, man has eaten fruits,
berries, greens, meats, eggs and the myriad number of foods available to him.
Coincidentally at the same time, the genetic make-up of these foods also has remained
the same, with again the exception of a species’ natural need to change to be able to
accommodate the changes in the world environment. This process has basically been
unchanged for thousands of years. The wheat we consume, the animals we kill and eat,
the vegetation we grow for vegetable produce is fairly consistent with the same foods
early man ate thousands of years ago, and the genetic code of these foods have
remained the same with changes occurring slowly and naturally. The human genetic
code was able to identify these ever slow changes and to identify those codes with our
own genetic codes that were simultaneously changing along with the plant and animal
world. In other words, the food species and the human species genetic codes can
easily read each other. Our genes chemically talk to the genes in the foods we consume,
sending messages to all parts of our bodies to be able to select exactly the chemicals in
foods need for survival.
The problem exists when we consume foods that have had their genetic information
drastically altered in a super short period of time, resulting in our genetic code not being
able to identify the new genes. This can potentially lead to our genes not responding at
all to the new genes being ingested or responding incorrectly and causing disease and
illness, or the genetic code being completely rejected by our immune system being
deployed to destroy the unknown chemical invaders.
Another problem exists within this problem. That is the vast amount of information being
put out by both, advocates of G.M.O.’s and scientific and populists groups, outlining the
dangers of such foods. While it is true that the ability to safely, under strict scientific
oversight (not by the food industry) to regulate and research claims purported by the
food scientists, can be a very positive thing, greedy, profit hungry super food producers
with virtually no oversight have a free hand to do many things that are potentially
dangers to our health and can cause permanent health problems and chronic illness.
There are genes in the foods we eat and these genes naturally enter our digestive
system which must then determine is it “friend” or “foe”. Friendly, easily interpreted
genes keep us healthy and protect us against disease. They also have the ability to turn
on” or “turn off” certain human genes based upon their mutual collaboration. When a
foreign, unrecognizable gene interacts with our genes and its messages cannot be
interpreted many bad things can happen as outlined previously.
If you believe that a claim you are making is true, you should have no qualms about
research done regarding your claims and should be quite comfortable with anyone
making challenges to your claims. So the question of whether or not to consume these
foods is ultimately up to the consumer, but I have to ask the question, “Why is the food
industry spending billions of dollars, led by the leading food manufactures in the world to
have lobbyists fighting 365 days a year to keep the simple phrase “Genetically Modified
Organism” off of any G.M.O produced food? The very same super food groups that
spent billions to keep trans- fat in the foods they produced, or to continue to use pounds
of sugar in all their products.
How can you tell what foods contain G.M.O.s? First don’t rely on the food producers or
the governmental agencies designed to protect us (by providing essential information
about our food). Foods are not identified whether the food is a G.M.O or not. Two ways
to circumvent these agencies are to buy either conventionally grown or organic foods.
Another way to avoid G.M.O’s if you desire is to get to know the PLU codes. Any
produce (fruits and vegetables) contain a PLU number. This stands for Price Lookup
Number. It is a code that if you understand can steer you in the right direction. Look for
the small label with numbers. This is what the code is telling:
Conventional produce: 4 digit number starting with a 3 or a 4
Organic produce:
5 digit number starting with a 9
G.M.O produce:
5 digit number starting with an 8
Decisions on what to feed your family are a very personal choice affected by many
variables. I have my own convictions about the topic, but I write this to you and your
families as a resource to provide the best possible products that facilitate normal grown
and development for maximum health and lifestyle.