Did you research GMOS when changing your diet?

LilEmm

Hi guys,

It seems like most of us aim to eat whole, healthy foods - was looking into (Genetically Modified Organisms) GMO's part of your change to a healthier diet?
Do you not care? Thoughts?

mycrazy8splus1

My family eats Kosher. I found out that they were using eel DNA in GMO tomatoes. I was like "really, now I can't eat tomatoes because they have eel in them!" I try to make sure we don't eat GMO's as much as I can but it seems they are sneaking it into everything these days. Monsanto is soooooo evil. They want to control the world through controlling the food supply.

ohmyatom

I think it's a little rash to think eating an organism with an eel gene in it makes it like eating eel. We share a lot of out DNA with other organisms. The coding for amino acids that make up our proteins are identical in all organisms.
GMO in and of itself does not bother me in terms of dieting. Splicing a gene into an organism may have environmental consequences, and so you may choose not to support them...but eating it is no worse for you than eating any other organism.
When you think about it...how have we arrived at domestic, say, cows?
We bred cows with good traits until we came up with a cow we can raise and eat.
We did the same thing to turn wolves into dogs.
To turn a barely edible grass into luscious corn.
We selected them for genetic traits. Selective breeding is the original round-about way to genetically modify organisms. Almost nothing you eat is as it was/is in nature.
I do have concerns about in-lab splicing type GMO, but I don't worry about health effects.

LilEmm

Interesting, interesting. thanks for sharing your thoughts! I

erin_zuk

I work for an organic and natural food distributor that refuses to carry any products with GMOs.

mvl1014

I'm a biologist, so I know the pros and cons to this one. I do choose to eat GMOs.

Klem4

Yes, I try my best to buy products that are non-gmo now. I'm still reading and researching all things ingredient related, and most of it is really scary!

DawnEH612

I have read up on GMO and have tried to weed out GMO as much as possible... also been trying to weed out soy products as best as I can... Given new research on that. I am vegetarian so hard to weed soy out entirely, but making effort to do so.

Brunner26_2

I think it's a little rash to think eating an organism with an eel gene in it makes it like eating eel. We share a lot of out DNA with other organisms. The coding for amino acids that make up our proteins are identical in all organisms.
GMO in and of itself does not bother me in terms of dieting. Splicing a gene into an organism may have environmental consequences, and so you may choose not to support them...but eating it is no worse for you than eating any other organism.
When you think about it...how have we arrived at domestic, say, cows?
We bred cows with good traits until we came up with a cow we can raise and eat.
We did the same thing to turn wolves into dogs.
To turn a barely edible grass into luscious corn.
We selected them for genetic traits. Selective breeding is the original round-about way to genetically modify organisms. Almost nothing you eat is as it was/is in nature.
I do have concerns about in-lab splicing type GMO, but I don't worry about health effects.

Excellent post

lachesissss

While I do not support the use of GMO's for controlling food supplies for profit, I recognize that they are in my food and I eat them. I do not worry overly about the health effects because, honestly, we've all eaten them for years. Can you point out a negative health effect that directly results from GMO's? No. So, as far as I'm concerned, they're ok to eat. If you can identify which foods they are in (which you can't unless it's disclosed that these foods are genetically modified), then I actively don't buy them. I'm more worried about High Fructose Corn Syrup in our diet and how we raise our cattle to be brought to mass market slaughter than I am about GMOs.

VelociMama

I think it's a little rash to think eating an organism with an eel gene in it makes it like eating eel. We share a lot of out DNA with other organisms. The coding for amino acids that make up our proteins are identical in all organisms.
GMO in and of itself does not bother me in terms of dieting. Splicing a gene into an organism may have environmental consequences, and so you may choose not to support them...but eating it is no worse for you than eating any other organism.
When you think about it...how have we arrived at domestic, say, cows?
We bred cows with good traits until we came up with a cow we can raise and eat.
We did the same thing to turn wolves into dogs.
To turn a barely edible grass into luscious corn.
We selected them for genetic traits. Selective breeding is the original round-about way to genetically modify organisms. Almost nothing you eat is as it was/is in nature.
I do have concerns about in-lab splicing type GMO, but I don't worry about health effects.

^ This. Very good post.

foleyshirley

I think it's a little rash to think eating an organism with an eel gene in it makes it like eating eel. We share a lot of out DNA with other organisms. The coding for amino acids that make up our proteins are identical in all organisms.
GMO in and of itself does not bother me in terms of dieting. Splicing a gene into an organism may have environmental consequences, and so you may choose not to support them...but eating it is no worse for you than eating any other organism.
When you think about it...how have we arrived at domestic, say, cows?
We bred cows with good traits until we came up with a cow we can raise and eat.
We did the same thing to turn wolves into dogs.
To turn a barely edible grass into luscious corn.
We selected them for genetic traits. Selective breeding is the original round-about way to genetically modify organisms. Almost nothing you eat is as it was/is in nature.
I do have concerns about in-lab splicing type GMO, but I don't worry about health effects.

Excellent post

Agreed!

foleyshirley

While I do not support the use of GMO's for controlling food supplies for profit, I recognize that they are in my food and I eat them. I do not worry overly about the health effects because, honestly, we've all eaten them for years. Can you point out a negative health effect that directly results from GMO's? No. So, as far as I'm concerned, they're ok to eat. If you can identify which foods they are in (which you can't unless it's disclosed that these foods are genetically modified), then I actively don't buy them. I'm more worried about High Fructose Corn Syrup in our diet and how we raise our cattle to be brought to mass market slaughter than I am about GMOs.

Very nice post. Did you know that 90% of US products made from corn are GMOs, and have been for quite some time? Most of the US sugar supply was coming from GMO sugar beets. Health wise, there have been few to no side effects, so I have no problem at all from a health standpoint. As a biotechnologist, my main concern with GMOs are environmental, especially the roundup resistant crops. We are starting to see weeds that are now resistant to round up.

Did you know they are working on a GMO cow that produced milk that doesn't lead to as many allergy reactions in infants? GMOs are not our enemy, if done right.

lachesissss

While I do not support the use of GMO's for controlling food supplies for profit, I recognize that they are in my food and I eat them. I do not worry overly about the health effects because, honestly, we've all eaten them for years. Can you point out a negative health effect that directly results from GMO's? No. So, as far as I'm concerned, they're ok to eat. If you can identify which foods they are in (which you can't unless it's disclosed that these foods are genetically modified), then I actively don't buy them. I'm more worried about High Fructose Corn Syrup in our diet and how we raise our cattle to be brought to mass market slaughter than I am about GMOs.

Very nice post. Did you know that 90% of US products made from corn are GMOs, and have been for quite some time? Most of the US sugar supply was coming from GMO sugar beets. Health wise, there have been few to no side effects, so I have no problem at all from a health standpoint. As a biotechnologist, my main concern with GMOs are environmental, especially the roundup resistant crops. We are starting to see weeds that are now resistant to round up.

Did you know they are working on a GMO cow that produced milk that doesn't lead to as many allergy reactions in infants? GMOs are not our enemy, if done right.

While they aren't our enemy, I'm not entirely sure that we need the excessive amount of genetic manipulation in our food supply, either. As seen with weeds, genetic drift will always occur, and may reduce bio-diversity in the long-run.

Don't get the impression that I'm pro-GMO's. However, I am con the use of GMO as a buzzword, when the reality is that the situation of the use of GMO's in the food supply is very, very old news. I mean, how else do we constantly have fresh non-seasonal produce always available in huge variety/ abundance in the grocery store. Nature, if left to it's own devices, doesn't exactly work that way, and I think that we've encountered the situation in the US to where we've over-manipulated our food supplies to suit our needs, and that can be to our detriment.

yallcallmedeb

I have largely removed any beef or dairy from cows treated with bovine growth hormone from my family's diet. My daughter processes bovine growth hormone. It caused her to gain 4 lbs a month as an infant. When we switched her to organic, the weight loss immediately stopped. We now have available to us a lot of products that are hormone free but not fully organic which makes them more affordable. If we had not discovered her sensitivity to bovine growth hormone, she would not be alive today. We still have some leftover weight from the hormones to deal with but she is doing so much better now.

GCLyds

I'm a biologist, so I know the pros and cons to this one. I do choose to eat GMOs.

There are many scientists that choose not to.

mycrazy8splus1

"Genetic manipulation might be small in size in terms of the genes involved, but the implications are nothing short of huge. Think of fish that could be engineered not to have fins or scales (would they then be kosher?) or pigs engineered to have cloven hooves. In fact, there is a petition currently pending at the FDA that would allow genetically modified salmon into the food supply. These salmon have been genetically engineered to contain the gene of an eel in order that they will grow to market weight more quickly. Eels, however, are not kosher animals and therefore the question is not at all hypothetical as to whether these salmon would be kosher. Not to mention that kosher animals that are fed GMO foods (currently common practice) are less likely to be kosher at the time of slaughter, given their higher rates of organ defects and succeptibility to disease that would preclude an animal from being considered kosher." (from http://www.jewcology.com/content/view/Why-Genetically-Modified-Foods-Should-Not-Be-Considered-Kosher)

for some of us the questionis not a health one but a religious one!

slkehl

While I do not support the use of GMO's for controlling food supplies for profit, I recognize that they are in my food and I eat them. I do not worry overly about the health effects because, honestly, we've all eaten them for years. Can you point out a negative health effect that directly results from GMO's? No. So, as far as I'm concerned, they're ok to eat. If you can identify which foods they are in (which you can't unless it's disclosed that these foods are genetically modified), then I actively don't buy them. I'm more worried about High Fructose Corn Syrup in our diet and how we raise our cattle to be brought to mass market slaughter than I am about GMOs.

Agreed

9xuzts

I found this article about a study on GMOs to be interesting. Apparently Monsanto did tests on rats that only spanned a few months while the people who discovered negative side effects did much longer projects....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/19/monsanto-corn-study-france_n_1896115.html

Brunner26_2

I have largely removed any beef or dairy from cows treated with bovine growth hormone from my family's diet. My daughter processes bovine growth hormone. It caused her to gain 4 lbs a month as an infant. When we switched her to organic, the weight loss immediately stopped. We now have available to us a lot of products that are hormone free but not fully organic which makes them more affordable. If we had not discovered her sensitivity to bovine growth hormone, she would not be alive today. We still have some leftover weight from the hormones to deal with but she is doing so much better now.

Bovine growth hormone has nothing to do with this discussion. GMO's are not the same as growth hormones.

for some of us the questionis not a health one but a religious one!

While I don't believe that taking a gene from organism and placing them in another should automatically make that organism non-kosher (eel and salmon have more similarities than differences, genetically), I'm not religious, so I guess I can't fully understand. The rules about what one can and can't eat seem arbitrary to me anyway, and not scientific in any sense.

mycrazy8splus1

for some of us the questionis not a health one but a religious one!

While I don't believe that taking a gene from organism and placing them in another should automatically make that organism non-kosher (eel and salmon have more similarities than differences, genetically), I'm not religious, so I guess I can't fully understand. The rules about what one can and can't eat seem arbitrary to me anyway, and not scientific in any sense.

it's the differences that matter to those of us that are religious though.