Should you care about GMOs?

Debating the use of GMO foods has become a necessity in recent years. But what are GMOs? Well, GMOs stands for genetically modified organisms. These were introduce after the creation of hybrid veggies and fruits. Hybrids were created to allow for year round cultivation in warmer states like southern California and Florida after the invention of refrigeration sometime around the 1950s. Soon after seed companies realized the opportunity to increase crop yield and so came GMOs. And just like that we now are dumping completely NEW lectins never encountered before seen by our bodies.

The main crops that are GMO include soybeans, corn, tomatoes, rapeseed (canola) oil. Prior to all these changes people used manure as fertilizer and mulch to protect the roots and soil microbes. But by the end of the twentieth century, BOOM, petrochemical fertilizers where used as a result of the abundance of munitions from World War II. Due to the genetic modifications these crops where resistant to glyphosate, commonly known as Roundup (a likely human carcinogen-WHO). Since these plants are engineered to survive exposure to glyphosate farmers utilize this chemical to kill weeds without affecting the yield of their main crop whether that be corn, soy, or wheat. But do not be fooled glyphosate is not an herbicide, it is an antibiotic. Glyphosate works by block the Shikimate pathway preventing the supply of tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine, 3 essential amino acids. Since animals lack these amino acids the only way we get them is through our gut bugs. Tyrosine & phenylalanine are key to thyroid hormone functions and tryptophan and phenylalanine are key for making serotonin (that hormone that makes us “feel good”). Blocking this pathway will also cause death of good gut bugs period causing dysbiosis. And one more thing roundup also prevents liver enzyme function preventing Vitamin D conversion into a way you can use to recycle cholesterol and therefore, raising your cholesterol. Remember as well that Vitamin D is necessary to gut-wall repair. Eating foods that contain glyphosate will also contribute to fatty liver disease.

Corn is a great example of how hard it is to avoid GMOs. Take fast food. These rely on corn oil to fry their foods, corn starch, cornmeal, and corn syrup to name a few of their ingredients. Curiously, a study looking an array of fast food restaurants found that 93% of all the tested burgers came from corn. Which means the cows were basically eating only corn. What about chicken? Was it any better? Nope. All of the restaurants, in the study, got their chicken supplied from Tyson. It is stated by the company that their chicken is fed corn and ONLY corn.

A large amount of the corn grown in America is used to feed livestock. The particular GMO corn grown in known as BT corn in which the particular lectin inserted is one that every human reacts to, negatively. It is so common now a days that it is even found in breast milk. GMO corn is known to cause osteopenia and osteoporosis in chickens. Nowadays, the chickens are bred to grow really fast and on top of that their feed is so high in GMO corn that they cannot even stand up so they place them in super crowded pens in order to have the physical touch keep them up.

We can help avoid glyphosate in our daily life by:

1) Instead of using roundup, mix gallon of white vinegar with a cup of salt and a tablespoon of liquid dish soap and spray the mixture onto the weeds.

2) Choosing organic non-GMO foods has become increasingly important due to most conventionally grown wheat, corn, oats, legumes, beans, and quinoa is done with glyphosate.

3) Understanding that not only products made with these foods but also eating animals that are fed these crops will have an effect on our health. So choose organically non-GMO fed meats as well.

Avoiding GMO foods will reduce your glyphosate exposure and therefore, enhance your gut biome function so choose organically non-GMO real foods as often as possible because your gut biome and health truly depend on it.