Eating Healthier, Part 1: Understanding Genetically Modified Foods and Their Dangers

Activist Post
Kevin Hayden, Truth is Treason

The adulteration and modification of some of the planet’s most widely used crops has changed our food landscape. Chemicals, preservatives, genetic modification and low-cost substitutions and fillers have wrecked meals that were once healthy for us. Stepping inside of a grocery store nowadays, we find ourselves in a dangerous and toxic new wohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifrld. The introduction of genetically modified organisms into the food supply in the 1990s, coupled with rampant use of carcinogens such as aspartame and substitutes like high fructose corn syrup, set up the perfect ingredients to form a deadly concoction known as processed food. Sadly, this is what encompasses the average American diet.

Genetically modified foods, or GMOs, are now found in approximately 80% of all food in a typical grocery store. Corn is the most widely grown genetically modified crop next to soy and canola. And because corn is now the most common ingredient in American food products, it represents a major threat, especially as it relates to the wide-spread use of high fructose corn syrup.

Over the last few years, organic diets and fads have gained popularity. Mediterranean cuisines and vegan lifestyles have become mainstream. Being picky about the source of our food and its ingredients is not as fringe as it once was. Friends tell me, “I just don’t have the time or energy to sift through all of this jargon.” or “…eating healthy costs a lot!” Turns out that eating wisely doesn’t cost a lot more and in many cases, will save you money!

The Wake Up Call
I encounter people everyday that claim eating right just isn’t worth the effort. And I sympathize with them. When I was a police officer, fast-food ruled my diet. A few cheeseburgers in the drive-thru or convenience store food is what I lived on. But when I started to investigate just what I was eating, it startled me. Documentaries such as, Supersize Me and The World According to Monsanto made me stop and think. Articles about genetically modified soybeans and high-doses of antibiotics alarmed me. And so I dug into the mountains of research and evidence about the dangers of these ingredients with a fevered rush. Do you know what surprised me the most?

I discovered that all of these facts, all of this research and all of the warning signs were not front-page news. I certainly didn’t find this information on CNN or Fox News. I didn’t even find it in health magazines. Instead, I sifted through years and years of research papers, journals, science databases and from real sources; experienced, concerned farmers, nutritionists, scientists and other investigators in the field.

In the United States, reports on genetically modified organisms are rare. The mainstream media remains quiet on the dangers associated with consuming GMOs. They fail to cover stories such as a study from the Russian National Academy of Sciences that showed that more than half the offspring of mother rats fed GMO soy died within three weeks (compared to 9% from mothers fed natural soy). They neglect to report that one of the only human GMO feeding studies ever published showed that the foreign genes inserted into GMO food crops can transfer into the DNA of our gut bacteria. Why aren’t there more human studies? Because real science has ethics and rules against unnecessary risks and side effects to test subjects.

This means that long after we stop eating GMO corn chips, our intestinal flora might continue to manufacture the ‘Bt’ pesticide that the GMO corn plants are engineered to produce. And Americans were not told about the estimated 10,000 sheep that died within 5-7 days of grazing on GMO cotton plants — also designed to produce this Bt-toxin. Or the neurological effects it has on humans. Or the sterility issues it causes in men. Or the behavioral problems associated with it in children. Or the spontaneous abortions. Or even a base-level understanding of what a “GMO” even is!
What Exactly is a GMO?

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Read also...Genetically Modified Foods and the Monsanto Initiative