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Dangers of Eating GMO’s Search

by IrenesAdmin | Jan 25, 2019 | Healthy Lifestyle Tip

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Genetically Modi ed Foods GMO’s

From cucumbers and carrots to dogs and daisies, humans have altered countless species to t our needs. For
millennia we’ve been engineering plants by keeping the seeds from the best crops and planting those the
next season. Following this practice year after year has resulted in a slow but steady change. Intentional
cross-pollination and hybridization have been useful tools since the earliest civilizations. Today, though, those
processes are sometimes bypassed in favor of something riskier. Scientists can produce a change quickly by
selecting a gene from one organism that may result in a desired trait and inserting it directly into the
chromosome of another organism. Genes from organisms as dissimilar as bacteria and plants can be
inserted into each other. This shortcut is known as genetic modi cation or genetic engineering.

Genetically Modi ed Organisms and Foods

Genetically modi ed (GM) organisms have had their genetic material (DNA) altered in a way that does not,
and very likely cannot, occur naturally. The technology is sometimes called “modern biotechnology”, “gene
technology”, “recombinant DNA technology”, or “genetic engineering”. It allows selected individual genes to
be transferred from one organism into another, also between non-related species.
Most supermarket processed food items now test positive for the presence of genetically modi ed
ingredients, and biotech companies and university laboratories are cooking up new ideas for GM foods all
the time. According to the biotechnology industry, the majority of S. food and commercial ber will be
genetically engineered within the next 5 to 10 years.

Safety and Labeling

Only 40% of people in the US know that some of the foods they are buying and eating are genetically
modi ed, according to one survey. Additionally, nearly one out of four people incorrectly believes that such
foods are not being sold in the United States at all.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determined that genetically engineered foods are in most
cases “the same as or substantially similar to substances commonly found in food” and thus are not
required to undergo speci c safety tests prior to entering the market.
The GM status of foods does not have to be disclosed in this country. The S. government claims that
mandatory food labels are not necessary because genetically modi ed food “poses no inherent safety risk”.
Unsurprisingly, products do not voluntarily disclose their GM origins, and consumers remain in the dark.
The use of genetically modi ed food is a subject of enormous global controversy. Environmental and
consumer groups have demanded that the FDA follow the lead of the European Union, Japan and other
nations by requiring labels on GM foods. They argue that consumers should be allowed to know what they
are really buying.

Avoiding GM Foods

Because GM foods are so new, no one knows the extent of the risks associated with eating them. Virtually
the entire population has potential exposure to genetically engineered foods, yet we have only a handful of
studies addressing their safety.
Many people are concerned that GM foods might cause unexpected allergic reactions and other health
problems. There are many unknown factors that could be present in a new technology that manipulates
DNA, and any number of these could turn out to be harmful. There’s also a potential for the modi ed
genes of genetically engineered crops to “infect” similar non-modi ed and wild species, causing
uncontrollable problems within ecosystems.
If you really want to avoid the in uence of genetic engineering, buy fresh organic produce. Organic
certi cation prohibits genetic modi cation. If you want to buy processed foods while avoiding genetically
engineered ingredients, you will have to read the product labels carefully.
An organization called the NON-GMO Project scienti cally tests all of the individual ingredients that make
up a product using a third-party testing facility. Products that have been certi ed are labeled with a NON-
GMO Project Veri ed label. Otherwise, about 70% of processed foods contain GM ingredients.
In the S., anything containing the following foods most likely has genetically modi ed ingredients, unless
you buy organic: soybeans, corn, canola, cottonseed, and papaya. Livestock is usually fed genetically
modi ed feed, unless certi ed organic.

Sources:

1. 20 Questions On Genetically Modi ed (GM) Foods

http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/biotech/20questions/en/
2. Harvest of Fear http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/harvest/
3. Genetically Engineered Foods http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxi cation-diet/genetically-engineered-
foods.htm
4. Food Safety: How to Avoid Genetically Engineered Food http://www.safe-food.org/-consumer/shop.html
5. How Much of Your Pantry is Genetically Modi ed? http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/pantry-
genetically-modi ed.html

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