GMO : Explained. Part 1

Ever had a moment when you'd pick up a plastic fruit from one of those fancy displays and bit into it thinking it was real? Well, with what's going on in the food industry nowadays (and for decades), you shouldn't feel too bad.

Meaning?

You probably would have been better off eating the plastic fruit.

Not really, but let's just leave that there for dramatic effect. -fade in Inception soundtrack-

The more I read about nutrition, the more I learn about what foods are "real" (untouched) and what foods are modified. It's horrifying, to say the least, and to think that the majority of us munch on these on the daily is one thing that has to change.

One of the easiest ways to summarize what these posts are going to be is this:

Would you put used vegetable oil in your vintage Porsche? No, darling, you wouldn't. May it be labeled beautifully, said to be safe for car usage, and better for the environment because now EVERYONE can have more oil to put in their cars? No no, darling, you wouldn't. EVEN if it was chemically engineered to 'make your car perform better' because, well, science! No no NO, darling. You wouldn't. And shouldn't.

Metaphors aside, you can probably see where I'm going with this.

Our bodies run on food. We eat to live. We burn calories for energy and attain nutrients and minerals to keep our systems going. Basic nutrition 101, yes? So, why would we accept putting a lesser, nutrient-void, albeit prettier version of our fuel? We won't get what we need to function properly. Eating foods that have been modified and genetically programmed to have a "longer shelf life" and "glow in the dark when needs to be watered" is not going to get us anywhere. It's going to create deficits. No nutrients, no vitamins, no proteins, no minerals, all leads to imbalances in our body that, whether short term or over a long period of time, damages us from the inside out, both mentally AND physically.

So, what EXACTLY are these foods I'm talking about? You've probably heard of the term "GMO" in the news. Mainly in some recent fights in the USA to get food stuff that contain GMO ingredients to be labeled as such. 

GMO is an acronym of "Genetically Modified Organisms", which basically refers to any food product that has been altered from its natural state at the gene level. They're most commonly referred to as "genetically engineered", "genetically altered", or "genetically manipulated" food stuffs.

While as fancy pants new science as this may sound, it's been in the works for decades, if not longer.

For centuries, gardeners and farmers have been crossbreeding different species of plants to create heartier, better tasting, or more beautiful crops. It may sound innocent, and it was way back when, but what we're dealing with now is not choosing the best seeds from harvest, it's chemical engineering of the genes that make up our foods. Thinking of scientists in white lab coats? You're right.

"What is GMO?" a short animation.

The type of genetic modification of foods that we're talking about is very very different from the traditional plant breeding practices. With modern genetic engineering, genes from an animal, plant, bacterium, or virus are inserted into a different organism, thereby, irreversibly altering the genetic code, or "blueprint" that determines all of the organism's physical characteristics.

The result? Vegetables with longer shelf life by adding flounder genes (a fish), soybeans that are resistant to weed killers, potatoes that produce their own pesticides, potatoes with jellyfish genes that glow in the dark when they need water, and the list goes on. Sounds very sci-fi, yes, but this is our reality. 

It may sound "OK" at first, but what these modifications are doing is killing the natural state of our food and be ridding them of the factors that WE NEED in order to function.

Not only that, but they contain allergens, carcinogens, toxins, and anti-nutrients that have been found to kill of rats and mice in independent studies. 

A rather disturbing visual example can be found on the greenmedinfo website HERE, which shows physical tumors in the mice that were used for the study. I know that it's unpleasant to see animals abused for medical studies, but it's the best example I can give you. As well as this:

As Dr Mercola puts it: these mice showed symptoms of severe diseases in their life span and were killed by them. Seeing as humans have a longer life span, these symptoms usually won't show up right away. They create problems later in our lives and get passed on to our children.

  

GMO products come hand in hand with pesticides, which are used in almost all of our food crops worldwide (organic farming excluded). Pesticides are basically another form of GMO. They have created superweeds and superbugs that aren't affected by regular pesticides, therefore MORE use of pesticides are needed. The result? Death, to put it simply.

By using these pesticides, they kill the weeds by making nutrients unavailable to the plant, leading to the toxins in the soil to kill the plants and weeds, and polluting the soil. Thus, in turn, leads to the deficit of nutrients within the plants. These plants are then given to the animals that are farmed for our consumption, leading THEM to be nutrient void and sick, and then what happens? We eat them. We eat meat and vegetables that have little to no nutritional value that are pumped full of chemicals designed to break down any sustainable, life-giving nutrients. Below is a fantastic video explaining this:

For a slightly longer and more detailed video linked to the one above, watch this one below:

One major step you can do to avoid and help STOP the global use of GMO products is by your shopping.
People always say "well, it's such a huge issue, how can ONE person change this by not buying their products?". We are more than one person. WE are the people who choose whether or not these products will last. WE are the ones who can vote. WE are the ones who can tell them to go to hell and stop playing with our food. This is affecting not only our food, but our ecosystem, our environment, our HOME on which we ALL live: plants, animals, insects, down to the very last microbe. WE choose by what we buy. Each payment we make towards a specific product is a vote. A vote on what the companies should keep producing and what we should keep eating. By NOT voting for the GMO and pesticide ridden foods, we are in turn killing their profits. One by one, and the masses are fighting.

My wonderful and life long friend Anoud is collaborating with me on her blog TheGreenEve to further discuss the impacts of GMO products on our environment, so check there regularly for that. Her blog is a fantastic place to raise awareness on helping our environment, among other things.

I've been asked "how can I avoid these then? I can't/don't have access/money to buy all organic all the time". Not many of us do, but when you KNOW and are aware of what foods are the worst when it comes to GMO and pesticide use, you should invest in buying them exclusively organic to avoid as much contamination as you can. The list is called "The Dirty Dozen", a catchy name that you should memorize.

To read about it and learn the list, the DailyGreen has a post on their website for that : 

DailyGreenDirtyDozen

Another way to improve your food intake is by buying locally. Foods that are farmed within your region are usually less contaminated than those imported from foreign countries that have to be sprayed when flown in (for "safety" measures).

Trust me when I say that this is a process. AWARENESS is what we need to move forward and to avoid becoming living products of the "FrankeinFoods"

WikiHow has a great list of HOW TO AVOID GMO FOODS, which rounds up a lot of the above info and gives helpful hints on labeling. Click HERE to see that list.

Now that I've typed my way into carpel tunnel, I'd like to roundup all that I've said into the following:

You have the right to know what you are eating.

You have the right to choose what our food is made of.

You have the right to object and FIGHT for your choice.

You have the right, so be AWARE, read more, and SPEAK UP.

I hope you leave here with a more open mind to this controversial issue, and will come back for more!

Please please please ask questions, no matter how silly they may seem. I will answer all of them with love.

Stay happy, stay smiling, stay beautiful.