Genetically Engineered Foods Archives

Shocking Truth: Genetically Modified Foods

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EXCERPTS FROM LINK BELOW (from the Mercola newsletter):

"...People around the world pro-actively reject Genetically Modified (GM) products and crops. But in the United States, few people are even aware of what GM foods are -- and labeling is not required.

Yet some 70% of the foods in your grocery store contain GM foods.

I'm so concerned about the grave risks in GM foods that I decided to present you with a series of articles originating from the Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT). Jeffrey Smith, leading spokesperson on the dangers of GM foods, founded the IRT in 2003 to warn the American public about this menace. Discover the hidden hazards of GM foods for yourself, at Jeffrey's website: ResponsibleTechnology.org....

......... Genetically Engineered Foods -- A Source of Rising Food Allergies?

The huge jump in childhood food allergies in the US is in the news often1. But most reports fail to consider a link to a recent radical change in America's diet.

Beginning in 1996, bacteria, virus and other genes have been artificially inserted to the DNA of soy, corn, cottonseed and canola plants.

These unlabeled genetically modified (GM) foods carry a risk of triggering life-threatening allergic reactions.

Evidence collected over the past decade now suggests that they are contributing to higher allergy rates. Scientists have long known that GM crops might cause allergies, but there are no tests to prove in advance that a GM crop is safe.2 That's because people aren't usually allergic to a food until they have eaten it several times.

"The only definitive test for allergies," according to former FDA microbiologist Louis Pribyl, "is human consumption by affected peoples, which can have ethical considerations."3 And it is the ethical considerations of feeding unlabeled, high-risk GM crops to unknowing consumers that have many people up in arms.

UK Experiences Alarming Rise in Soy-Related Food Allergies

The UK is one of the few countries conducting a yearly evaluation of food allergies. In March 1999, researchers at the York Laboratory were alarmed to discover that reactions to soy have skyrocketed by 50% over the previous year.

Genetically modified soy had recently entered the UK from U.S. imports. So the soy used in the study was largely GM. John Graham, spokesman for the York laboratory, said, "We believe this raises serious new questions about the safety of GM foods."4
Critics of GM foods often say that the U.S. population is being used as guinea pigs in an experiment. But experiments have the benefit of controls and measurement. In this case, there is neither.

GM food safety experts point out that even if someone tried to collect data about allergic reactions to GM foods, they would likely be unsuccessful. "The potential allergen is rarely identified. The number of allergy-related medical visits is not tabulated. Even repeated visits due to well-known allergens are not counted as part of any established surveillance system."5

Indeed, the Canadian government announced in 2002 that they would "keep a careful eye on the health of Canadians"6 to see if GM foods had any adverse reactions. They abandoned their plans within a year, saying that such a study was too difficult.

Creating New Proteins in a Lab -- Good For Your Health?

The classical understanding of why a GM crop might create new allergies is that the imported genes produce a brand new protein. The novel protein may trigger reactions.

This was demonstrated in the mid 1990s when soybeans were outfitted with a gene from the Brazil nut. Scientists attempted to produce a healthier soybean, but ended up with a potentially deadly one. Blood tests from people who were allergic to Brazil nuts showed reactions to the beans.7 Fortunately, this soy never went to market.

The GM variety that is planted in 89% of U.S. soy acres gets its foreign gene from bacteria (with parts of virus and petunia DNA as well). We can't know in advance if the protein produced by bacteria, never before part of the human food supply, will provoke a reaction.

As a precaution, scientists compare the new protein with a database of proteins known to cause allergies. The database lists the proteins' amino acid sequences that have been shown to trigger immune responses.

According to criteria recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and others, if the new GM protein contains sequences found in the allergen database, the GM crop is not to be commercialized and additional testing should be done.

Sections of the protein produced in GM soy are identical to known allergens, but the soybean was introduced before the WHO criteria were established, and the recommended additional tests were not conducted.

What If Bizarre Genes Start Transferring To Humans .....

...............Organic foods are not allowed to contain GM ingredients.

Buying products that are certified organic or that say non-GMO are two ways to limit your family's risk from GM foods.

Another is to avoid products containing any ingredients from the seven food crops that have been genetically engineered: soy, corn, cottonseed, canola, Hawaiian papaya and a little bit of zucchini and crook neck squash. This means avoiding soy lecithin in chocolate, corn syrup in candies, and cottonseed or canola oil in snack foods....

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