Food production is big business. In the U.S., quantity is more important than quality. The name of the game is high production and low price.
This makes finding naturally grown food more and more difficult. Genetically Modified (GM) foods, on the other hand, are cheap and easy to find. Whether they are safe to eat or not is a whole other story.
Buying organic whenever possible is a great start… But is that enough to fully avoid eating GM food?
The shocking truth is that as much as 70 percent of processed foods in the U.S. contain GM ingredients.1 You could be eating GM foods and not even know it.
Here are the top 5 GM foods you didn’t know you could be eating.
1. Soy: Soy is dangerous to your health. But GM soy is even worse. In fact, it is one of the worst GM offenders out there. A whopping 93 percent of soy in the United States is GM.2 You’ll find it in many processed and “natural” foods as an emulsifier. It’s usually the main ingredient in foods like mayonnaise and dressings. Soy lecithin is used in almost everything that comes in powdered form. And speaking of soy lecithin…
2. Chocolate: Most processed chocolates contain at least a few GM ingredients: high fructose corn syrup from GM corn, sugar from GM beets, and soy lecithin from GM soy.3 Soy lecithin is an emulsifier that keeps the chocolate solid and gives it longer shelf life. If your chocolate doesn’t come with a clear expiration date, do yourself a favor and skip it. Chocolate is delicious and even beneficial to your health. Just be sure to buy organic, dark chocolate.
3. Beef, Pork, and Chicken: Chicken, pigs, and cows that eat unnatural GM feed become GM themselves. One study finds that pigs eating a GM soy and corn diet have 20 percent more intestinal inflammation than pigs eating a natural diet.4 To make matters worse, a study out of Italy shows that the GM feed that animals eat even affects the milk they produce. According to the study, GM corn DNA was present in 25 percent of milk samples.5 Even if you steer clear of GM foods, your animal products may be passing their synthetic diet along to you. Animal products like…
4. Milk: Look at your milk carton. Does is say “rGBH free”? If not, you’re probably drinking GM milk. As of 2007, about 17 percent of cows in the US are injected with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), a GM synthetic hormone.6 Even scarier… the milk doesn’t have to say on the label that it contains rBGH. This kind of GM milk is used in a wide variety of milk-based products. To be safe, look for milk and other dairy products that explicitly say they’re rBGH-free on the label. (And as always drink it in moderation.)
5. Sugar Beets: Okay, so you may not be eating beets by the bushel… But beets make up more of your diet than you know. Fifty-four percent of sugar in the US comes from beets. And 90 percent of beets in the US are GM.7 MSG in the US comes from beets. MSG is in just about every processed food out there.8 Sugar and MSG are bad enough for you… But when you find out they come from fake beets, it makes eating them even more dangerous.
It’s fairly easy to avoid these GM offenders by buying quality organic, raw, grass fed, or naturally pastured foods. But it’s important to understand that even when you think you’re eating “all natural,” that food is probably as far from natural as you can get. And it may be full of GM ingredients.
Buying organic may cost a little more. But the higher price tag often comes with peace of mind.
Until there is clear and honest labeling of GM foods in the United States, doing your homework and eating organic is your best defense against the dangers of eating fake food.
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References:
1 http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/10/california-prop-37-monsanto-gmo-labeling
2 http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/10/california-prop-37-monsanto-gmo-labeling
3 http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/grocery_shopping/processed_foods/31.sweets_chocolate_ice_cream_genetic_engineering.html
4 http://rt.com/op-edge/study-monsanto-feed-pigs-060/
5 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16373205
6 http://www.greenamerica.org/pubs/greenamerican/articles/AprilMay2012/9-GM-ingredients-to-watch.cfm
7 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/margie-kelly/genetically-modified-food_b_2039455.html
8 http://institutefornaturalhealing.com/2013/08/this-poison-is-in-your-dinner-and-you-didnt-even-know-it/