Monday, December 8, 2014

Am I Eating GMO's? PART 2

In PART 1 of, Am I eating GMOS's?, I talked mostly about what the letters GMO stand for. To recap it stands for genetically modified organisms. I also talked about what genetic modification is and the argument for its purpose. For a recap or if you didn't read PART 1 here is the link Am I eating GMO's? PART .

I have had a week to ponder on what my next post would be about. There is so much information that I'm having a hart time gathering my thoughts and organizing them to present it in simple terms. It almost feels like a report for school.

When I was in college, we had to present a persuasive speech. I love to talk but not necessarily in front of huge groups. BUT I do enjoy talking about things I'm passionate about. So I wrote about genetically modified foods. Most people had never heard of GM foods or any of the information I presented. I was thankful for the opportunity to use a simple class project to educate my college class on GM foods. There was however a young man in the class who happened to be a farmer, and was very familiar with GM foods. He wrote a speech opposing mine, which made for an interesting debate. After I poured my heart out about the dangers of GM foods I felt like I had reached some. Then the young man got up and talked about how GM foods will stop world hunger. Thankfully in my speech I addressed that argument. Nonetheless, everyone walked away with good information and the sides of both.

With that said, I decided to talk mainly about the dangers of genetically modified foods for today. Specifically the side effects in animals and humans. The list of dangers of GM foods is exhaustive, but this is a great beginning to understand. If we know the side effects, and the actual evidence against it we will be more educated to make decision for ourselves about it.

The first side affect of GM foods that I began reading about was tumors, specifically tumors in mice fed a diet of genetically modified corn. The scientists fed the rats genetically modified corn for a long term period. They found that even when exposed to the smallest amount of GM corn they
developed mammary tumors, severe liver damage and kidney damage in as little as four months for males and seven months for female rats. This was so disturbing for me because my first thought was, am I eating GMO and how long will it take to affect me.

The best part about the research I read was it was conducted by independent scientists. This is highly recommended because independent scientists have no bias towards the results.  Any company that is willing to use outside independent scientists to test or research their product is highly reputable in my eyes.

I would like to add that after this study came out there was a lot of controversy. Immediately the company that makes GM corn, Monsanto, was ready to sue. Monsanto discounted the research of course. The scientists that work for Monsanto have determined that GM foods are safe, but like I said these scientists work for and are paid for by the company. To me of course a red flag goes up.

After this research I began wondering what does this mean, and what can I do about it? I started to think about food differently and wondered if some of my health problems were because of gmo's. Or even just my diet. That opened a ton of doors for me and my health isn't exactly where I'd like it but its better because of the knowledge I've gained about our food and GM foods.

Personally, anytime I ate wheat I felt bloated, and sick. I stopped eating wheat for awhile until I found a brand that said GMO-Free, I tried it and the symptoms were less, but still there. Eventually I went to organic only and immediantley I noticed a huge difference. Not all organic food is equal BUT organic food is not allowed to contain GM food at all.

I'll leave you with that for now.  I hope I was able to clearly present this research and will continue to work on that. Not sure what the next post will be about but hopefully it will be up in a week or so. Have a great week!

Here are some articles from the study.
Natural News GMO Study
CBS News GMO Study

~Honestmotherhood

“Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now.” (Often paraphrased as): “If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” ~Thomas Jefferson, 1781

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