LYME/AUTISM
GROUP BLASTS GM FOODS AS DANGEROUS
By
Jeffrey Smith
August 30, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
Stop
eating dangerous genetically modified (GM) foods! That’s
the upshot of the Lyme Induced Autism (LIA) Foundation’s position
paper, released today (August 25, 2009). The patient advocacy group
is not willing to wait around until research studies prove that genetically
modified organisms (GMOs) cause or worsen the many
diseases that are on the rise since gene-spliced foods were introduced
in 1996. Like the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM)
earlier this year, the LIA Foundation says there is more than enough
evidence of harm in GM animal feeding studies for them to “urge
doctors to prescribe non-GMO diets” and for “individuals,
especially those with autism, Lyme disease, and associated conditions,
to avoid” GM foods.
Dr.
Jannelle Love, founder of the Autism Relief Foundation, is quoted in
Kimberly Wilcox’s excellent article:
The
LIA Foundation calls for physicians and patient advocacy groups to explain
to patients the role that GM foods may play in disease and to distribute
non-GMO educational materials, including the Non-GMO Shopping Guide,
which makes it easier to find brands without GM ingredients. (See nonGMOGuide.com).
They also called for a moratorium on all GM foods and for “Research
to evaluate the role of GM foods on autism, Lyme disease, and related
conditions.”
GMOs:
pervasive and high-risk
The
five main GM foods are soy, corn, cotton, canola, and sugar beets. Their
derivatives are found in more than 70% of the foods in the supermarket.
The primary reason the plants are engineered is to allow them to drink
poison. They’re inserted with bacterial genes that allow
them to survive otherwise deadly doses of poisonous herbicide. Biotech
companies sell the seed and herbicide as a package deal. Roundup Ready
crops survive sprays of Roundup. Liberty Link crops survive Liberty.
US farmers use hundreds of millions of pounds more herbicide because
of these herbicide-tolerant crops, and the higher toxic residues end
up inside of us. The LIA position paper acknowledges that “Individuals
with infections that compromise immunity… and/or high toxin loads
may also be especially susceptible to adverse effects from pesticides.”
Some
GM corn and cotton varieties are also designed to produce poison.
Inserted genes from a soil bacterium produce an insect-killing poison
called Bt-toxin in every cell of the plant. Bt is associated with allergic
and toxic reactions in humans and animals, and may create havoc in our
digestive system (see below).
All
GM crops, in fact, should be considered high-risk. Irrespective of which
gene you insert, the process of genetic engineering itself results in
massive collateral damage within the plants’ natural DNA. This
can result in new or higher levels of toxins, carcinogens, allergens,
or nutrient-blocking compounds in our food.
Because
of a corporate
takeover at the FDA, they don’t require a single safety test
on GMOs—so almost none of the potential side effects are evaluated
before the crops are approved for sale. The few animal feeding safety
studies that have been conducted, however, show serious problems. It’s
obvious why those suffering from autism, Lyme, or any ailment,
would want to stop being used as a guinea pig in this massive GMO feeding
experiment.
AAEM
physician Amy Dean, a board certified internal medicine specialist,
says:
Autism,
food allergies, and GMOs
It
is noteworthy that children with autism are often allergic to corn and
soy. Both are genetically engineered. Many are also allergic to dairy.
The
LIA
press release points out, “dairy cows are usually fed GM feed
and sometimes injected with GM bovine growth hormone.” Although
no studies have looked at the impact of eating meat or milk from GM-fed
animals, secret
FDA documents made public from a lawsuit revealed that their Center
for Veterinary Medicine was very concerned that toxins from GM
foods might bioaccumulate in the livestock. If so, their milk and
meat may be even more dangerous than the GM plants.
Studies
on the impact of bovine
growth hormone on the cows’ milk are less ambiguous. The dairy
products from treated cows contain higher amounts of puss, antibiotics,
bovine growth hormone, and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). The
last on the list is considered most dangerous. IGF-1 is linked to a
much higher risk of cancer, and according to one study, may also be
responsible for the high rates of fraternal twins born in the US.
Advertisement
GMO
health risk sampler
Our
Institute for Responsible Technology’s Campaign
for Healthier Eating in America has been very busy distributing
our Non-GMO Shopping Guide to doctors around the nation, who are quite
concerned about the impact of GMOs on their own and their patients’
health. They are also giving patients our small
pamphlet that summarizes the health dangers of GMOs. This helps
to inspire people to use the Shopping Guide. Some of the health risks
are included below. (Citations are posted.)
See if you’re also “inspired.”
Digestive
disorders
According
to GMO safety expert Arpad Pusztai, PhD, the digestive tract is the
first and largest point of contact with GM foods and can reveal reactions
to various toxins. Lab animals fed GM feed developed lesions in the
stomach, damage intestines, and abnormal and proliferative cell growth
in the walls of the stomach and intestines.
Toxic
intestinal bacteria
The
beneficial bacteria living inside our digestive tract is used for digestion
and immunity. Excessive herbicide residues on herbicide-tolerant GM
crops may kill beneficial gut flora. More importantly, the only published
human feeding experiment revealed that the genetic material inserted
into GM soy transfers into bacteria living inside our intestines and
continues to function. This means that long after we stop eating
GM foods, we may still have dangerous GM proteins continuously produced
inside us. Consider, for example, if the gene that creates Bt-toxin
in GM corn were also to transfer. It might turn our intestinal bacteria
into living pesticide factories.
Compromised
immune system
Virtually
every animal feeding study that looked for immune changes from GMOs
found them. GM-fed animals had sluggish immune responses, damaged organs
associated with immunity, altered parameters in the blood, and dangerous
inflammatory and immune reactions.
Allergies
No
tests can guarantee that a GMO will not cause allergies. Although the
World Health Organization recommends a screening protocol, GM soy and
corn fail those tests—because their GM proteins have properties
of known allergens.
Soon
after GM soy was introduced in the UK, soy allergies skyrocketed by
50%. A skin prick allergy test verified that some people react to GM
soy, but not to natural soy. GM soy contains as much as 7-times the
amount of a known soy allergen. Both GM soy and corn contain at least
one new unexpected allergen, not found in natural crops.
The
biotech industry claims that Bt-toxin is harmless to humans and mammals
because the natural bacteria version has been used as a spray by farmers
for years. In reality, hundreds of people exposed to natural
Bt spray had allergic and flu-like symptoms. Now, farm workers throughout
India are getting those same symptoms from handling Bt cotton. Likewise,
mice fed natural Bt had powerful immune responses; now mice
and rats fed Bt corn also show immune responses.
GMOs
may make you allergic to non-GM foods
Since
GMOs were introduced in the US, food allergies have become a huge problem,
especially for kids. Some of the foods that trigger reactions, however,
are not genetically engineered. But studies show how GM foods might
create sensitivity to other foods, and may in fact be contributing to
this national epidemic.
GM
soy, for example, drastically reduces digestive enzymes in mice. If
our ability to breakdown proteins was impaired, we could become allergic
to a wide variety of foods.
Mice
fed Bt-toxin not only reacted to the Bt itself, they started having
immune reactions to foods that were formerly harmless. The Bt-toxin
in the corn we eat may have a similar impact. Mice fed experimental
GM peas also started reacting to a range of other “safe”
foods. The allergen responsible for this reaction may be found in GM
foods on our supermarket shelves.
GMOs
and liver problems
The
liver is a primary detoxifier. Its condition can indicate if there are
toxins in our food. Mice and rats fed GM feed had profound changes in
their livers. In some cases, livers were smaller and partially atrophied.
Some were significantly heavier, possibly inflamed. And certain cellular
changes indicated a toxic insult from the GM diet.
Reproductive
problems and infant mortality
Both
male and female animals showed horrific problems when fed GM soy. More
than half the babies of mother rats fed GM soy died within three weeks,
compared to 10% of the non-GM soy controls. The GM babies were also
considerably smaller, and were unable to conceive in a subsequent study.
Male rats and mice fed GM soy had changed testicles, including altered
young sperm cells in the mice. And when both mouse parents ate GM soy,
the DNA of their embryos functioned differently. GM corn also had an
impact. The longer mice were fed the corn, the fewer babies they had
and the smaller their babies were.
Livestock
sterility, disease, and death
Many
of the problems seen in laboratories are also reported by farmers and
investigators in the field.
•
Thousands of sheep, buffalo, and goats in India died after grazing on
Bt cotton plants after harvest. Others suffered poor health and serious
reproductive problems.
• Farmers in Europe and Asia say that cows, water
buffaloes, chickens, and horses died from eating Bt corn varieties.
• About two dozen US farmers report that GM corn
varieties caused widespread sterility in pigs or cows.
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Ready
to change your diet?
Inspired?
How about alarmed? Choosing non-GMO diets is not only a good idea for
those suffering from disease, but for anyone wanting to eat healthy
and prevent disease.
Safe
eating.
