GMOs: Food For Thought

I think by now we’ve all heard that GMOs could be pretty bad for us on some level. We’ve avoided them for a long time based purely on everyone in the natural health world saying it’s a good idea to, but just learning the bare basics of what GMOs are and what they do, make it very easy to see WHY everyone should be avoiding these things like the plague, especially for their developing children. There are three types of GMO crops, each with their own scariness associated with them.

1. The first is Round Up Ready. These crops are engineered to withstand the pesticide Round Up, meaning, instead of having to be careful not to spray too much on the plants so the pesticide doesn’t end up killing them, these plants can now be DRENCHED in pesticide (poison) and stay looking great all the way from the field to your child’s plate!
2. The second may be even crazier… This is BT Toxin. These crops are engineered to produce their OWN pesticides at all times! When a bug eats these plants, their stomach literally explodes and they die. The level of magical thinking it requires to be aware of this fact and think that somehow these crops will only produce this pesticide only when bugs eat them and not our own children is beyond me.
3. The third type are called “promoters” which are made to “wake up” certain genes to produce a desired trait, such as a brighter color, longer shelf life, etc. The problem is, who can say for sure these things aren’t running around waking up other unintended genes leading to cancer or some other crazy disease once they’re eaten by our children??

As scary as all this is, if you’re making good food choices, it’s easier than you might think to avoid them. By law, foods labeled organic cannot be GMO. Personally, we put a lot more weight behind a label from the non-GMO project whenever there’s a choice coupled of course with an organic label.

That being said, the best way to avoid GMOs is to stop buying processed foods altogether or to get as close to that goal as you can, and knowing as much as you can about where your food comes from. I feel a lot more confident about a bunch of lettuce I buy from an organic farmer at the farmer’s market than a snack bar with 10 ingredients from the grocery store even if it is labeled organic.

The best part is, when we all stop buying GMOs, corporations will have no choice but to stop selling them! So don’t forget, every single dollar you spend is a vote cast. We can either keep stuffing the pockets of these greedy corporations or protect our local farmers, in turn protecting our own children and future generations to come.

Ryan Sternagel
Father and Caregiver to son Ryder with Neuroblastoma
​
Click Here To Follow Their Facebook Page