For those living in US, about 70 percent of the processed foods one consumes daily actually contain genetically modified (GM) ingredients. Should this be of concern? Yes! Studies, few as there are, show a strong link between GM-foods and cancer. And it is time to learn about them. Proponents of GM-foods have been claiming that these “new foods” are safe, but they are actually backed by little or no evidence, except the argument that GM-foods are “substantially equivalent” to non-modified foods so they can be regarded as safe as the latter. At the same time, studies indicating the ill-effects of GM-foods on human health are often hijacked before their completion, or denounced if leaked into the open. It is no wonder that many people are taken aback by the horrendous findings on GM-foods below. GM-foods and nutritional deficiency The GM process often results (unintentionally) in the disruption of functioning genes in the genetically modified organism. In other words, while the GM-tomato may look like the “real” thing, it could actually be totally different in substance and nutritional value from its original form, because the genes that give the tomato its very nature have been altered. Indeed, the existing few studies that analyzed GM-foods already on the market found that these modified foods were significantly lower in nutritional value than non-GM-foods. This means that the long-term consumption of mainly GM-foods in one’s diet could bring about nutritional deficiencies. And when it comes to cancer, nutritional deficiencies have been found to be a major contributing factor. GM-foods and toxic genes The only human feeding study on GM-soybeans found that a gene inserted into soybean to make it herbicide-tolerant spontaneously transferred out of the soybean into the DNA of intestinal bacteria in the human subjects. This means that even if the subjects stop eating GM-soybeans, the bacteria in their guts will continue to produce the herbicide-tolerant protein in their bodies. Imagine what happens then when GM-corn with a gene inserted for producing a pesticide are eaten. One’s gut bacteria could ensure a lifetime supply of the pesticide, even if one diligently keeps away from crops grown with chemicals. And if this pesticide can kill insects, over the long-term, it is not inconceivable that it can kill a human, if not bring about degenerative diseases like cancer. Indeed, there had been many reports of farm animals dying from consuming GM-crops inserted with the Bacillus-thuringiensis-pesticide-producing gene. And in what is considered the first ever published study on the long term effects of consuming GM-foods, Gilles-Eric Seralini (from the University of Caen) and his team found that rats developed huge tumors, incurred widespread organ damage and eventually died prematurely, after ingesting GM-corn and trace levels of a chemical fertilizer (known as Roundup) often used with GM-crops. GM-crops and farming chemicals
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000
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