GMOs: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Since yesterday's post was about boycotting the GMO giant Monsanto, I thought it was time to take a good look at the evidence supporting the idea that GMOs are indeed bad for you. At a glance, they seem like a good thing. Genetically modified to be resistant to common diseases and pesticides, engineered to produce more crops per acre, and sprayed with Monsanto's herbicide Roundup to get rid of weeds, the science behind GMOs seems like it would be fueled by good intentions. But when you look at the mounting evidence that GMOs are sickening the American population, you can't help be be skeptical.

Even the American Academy of Environmental Medicine Recognizes the Danger

While the FDA refuses to acknowledge even the possibility of harm that GMOs could cause, the highly regarded American Academy of Environmental Medicine calls for more studies and tests on the effects of GMOs before allowing the public in general to consume them. Read their stance on GMOs here.

They aren't the only ones who recognize the potential danger of this "biotechnology." GMOs are banned or partially banned in countries and provinces around the world, particularly in the European Union. England, Scotland, Wales, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Australia, and Brazil are only a few of the countries with at least partial bans of GMOs, particularly Monsanto's deadly Bt-toxin corn. In America, GMOs aren't even legally required to be labeled, so the only way to be sure that you are buying a non-GMO product is to find one that has been voluntarily and independently verified as non-GMO. Look for the non-GMO Project verified seal, particularly on foods that contain soy and corn ingredients and oils.

GMOs are Linked to...

Monsanto's two biggest illness-inducing ingredients are known as Bt-toxin, a pesticidal gene (for lack of a better word) that kills pests by punching holes in their insides when they eat the GMO; and glyphosate, the main ingredient in the herbicide Roundup. Between the use of two of them, a host of problems have seemed to become exponentially more common in the American people since the mid- to late- '90s. Interestingly, this is about the same time that GMOs started making their way onto our dinner tables.

More and more studies are linking GMOs, and specifically Bt-toxin and glyphosate, to hugely American problems like birth defects and infertility, cancer and organ damage, and even non-celiac gluten sensitivity (gluten intolerance).

What GMO Advocates Say

The most oft-repeated argument for the safety of GMOs is that Bt-toxin is found naturally in soil, and that even natural farmers use it as a pesticide. This is true, of course. However, when the Bt-toxin is injected into the DNA of corn, soy, and other GM crops, every single cell of that crop is infected with the toxin, so humans are exposed to substantially higher amounts of it than they would otherwise be.

This site explains how Bt-toxin works. Although many GMO proponents link to it, the very first sentence is cause for alarm: "Bt has to be eaten to cause mortality." And while human digestive systems are different and much more complex, not to mention less delicate, than that of an insect, twenty years of exposure to a toxin that puts holes into your digestive system is bound to start causing problems through the generations. Interestingly, gluten-related problems are often associated with the formation of holes in intestinal walls which allow particles to enter the bloodstream that shouldn't, while making the digestion of necessary nutrients difficult.

My Own Experiment

As I have mentioned, my two-year-old is gluten intolerant. Since he started eating solid food, around six months, he had rashes in the crooks of his knees and elbows and became an extremely fussy baby. As he grew older, he started to develop the classic rash around his mouth as well, and his behavior made me wonder if he might even have autism or at least Aspberger's. At the end of my rope, I decided to take him off gluten to see if such a simple diet change could offer an answer to my parenting woes.

Within a week, his behavior improved dramatically and his physical symptoms have since completely disappeared. Family and friends have all commented on how he seems like a completely different person from a year ago, when I finally put him on a gluten-free diet.

In writing this post, I ran into dozens of comments and posts by people who claim that their gluten-related symptoms didn't show up at all when they traveled to Europe, where GMOs and wheat treated with glyphosate-containing Roundup are banned. This suggests that perhaps the gluten in wheat isn't causing the reactions - it is the American Roundup-treated wheat itself. Rather than having a sensitivity to gluten, perhaps my son is exhibiting physical reactions to glyphosate which are triggered by the gluten. If that were the case, he may be able to eat European, non Roundup-treated wheat.

King Arthur flour is a European brand of flour that can be bought right at Wal-Mart, and most of their flours do not use chemical bleaching agents or other harmful additives. So, for my experiment, I will switch to King Arthur flour (organic, unbleached, and unenriched if I can find it) and gradually introduce breads and other foods made with it in my son's diet. Even if he still shows gluten-intolerant symptoms, it will certainly be better for the rest of my family. And if not, we can safely assume that there is something about American wheat that triggers a reaction to gluten.