Deciphering Food Labels
(Page 2 of 2)
March 11, 2008
By Stephanie Bloyd
Genetically Modified Foods
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The most commonly genetically modified (GM) crops include soy, corn, canola and cotton. All of these crops are used to make vegetable oil, and if you’ve ever checked the labels of processed foods, you’ll find most of them contain either soy or a corn derivative, such as high fructose corn syrup.
In much the same way the FDA allows drug manufacturers to conduct their own safety tests on new pharmaceuticals, companies that manufacture genetically modified foods conduct their own safety tests on this new biotechnology. (For a primer on GM foods, read Genetically Engineered Food: Promises & Perils.)
This means that few animal or human research studies have been conducted on genetically altered foods, according to Jeffrey Smith, author of Genetic Roulette. And the existing studies are bleak — finding problems such as organ damage, precancerous conditions and enhanced food allergies.
The most eye-opening studies deal with genetically altered soy. For instance, soy allergies in the United Kingdom rose 50 percent when GM soy first was introduced. And in the only GM food study conducted on humans, genes were found to transfer from GM soy into the DNA of the test subjects’ intestinal bacteria. Even more troubling was that the survival of the bacteria suggests it had the herbicide-tolerant function “turned on,” and was producing herbicide-tolerant proteins within the human gut. To learn more, visit Smith’s Web site, and watch for a series of articles on GM foods in upcoming issues of Mother Earth News.
The best way to steer clear of genetically modified food is to buy organic. Foods that earn the USDA Certified Organic logo can’t contain genetically modified ingredients. Or simply stop buying prepackaged foods and focus instead on cooking with whole foods.
To avoid spending all day reading labels in the grocery store, consider researching and replacing one product category on each visit — read salad dressing labels one week, for example, then check out cereal labels next time you’re at the store. If you gradually replace prepackaged products as they run out with healthier choices, you can minimize potentially high upfront costs.
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