Do you eat GMO
 

I've been trying to find a healthy cereal but everyone keeps complaining about Cheerios and other top brands having gmos.ive done a tiny bIt of research there bad. But honestly they seem to be in everything and it seems like more of a pita to avoid them then to eat them.

Do you eat gmo foods why or why not!

I just want to point out I don't blindly trust the FDA a lot of what they deem safe is banned in loads of other countries.

I find it difficult not to. For one, labeling is not yet mandatory for GMO's. It should be, as not all conventionally grown foods are GMO but really the only way to guarantee you're not eating GMO right now is to choose things labeled organic.

I don't trust the FDA at all. They're totally in bed with Monsanto.

I think there are two issues that are tied together unfortunately.

1) Is Monsanto evil?
2) Are GMO foods bad for you?

Now usually people who view Monsanto as evil (and damn if they don't have some evil practices) lump GMOs as being bad for you.

Here is an interesting article about one of the leaders in the anti-GMO food movement.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_te...was_wrong.html

Do I eat GMOs? Most likely. I eat a lots of organic food (and GMO foods can't be labeled organic) but not everything. I don't eat a lot of packaged foods. I generally choose items that say non-GMO if they aren't organic.

Do I think GMOs are dangerous? I think the verdict is still out on that as studies are ongoing. I am not entirely anti-GMO, I am what I would call GMO cautious.

I haven't had the money to eat organic foods in several years, to be honest, so I do eat GMO foods. However, I still try to be mindful to eat non-processed and whole foods, and to avoid certain ingredients like HFCS and artificial flavourings/additives. I figure this means I do the best I can, and still take care of my health in ways not specific to the GMO issue since that's something I have the means to attend to at this time.

I do the best I can. It's not always possible to avoid it but as long as I eat natural foods I try not to worry too much. I never use canola or vegetable oils, and just stick with olive or Safflower oil. I avoid certain brands and do my best to buy seasonal organic and/or local produce. I am familiar with certain brands but it's hard to know all of them by heart. There are online guides and lists that you can find and carry with you to the grocery store to double check the items you want to buy.

As I understand it if you eat wheat, organic or not, but just any kind of wheat you are eating GMO. Norman Bulllog (spelling) architect of the 'green revolution' developed higher yield dwarf wheat that did not exist in Nature.

I think the U.S. is planted in this now along with most of the rest of the world. And no, no one knows the ultimate health effects of this wheat. That was not taken into account during its development.

Of course things happening in same time is not causation. But many many diseases have skyrocketed since this wheat came into being and obesity has soared. Other people will say it helped stave off mass hunger. So you would have to go completely wheat free to avoid GMOs.

Actually, it appears the opposite is true? There is no GMO wheat in the US?

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/flours/gmo-wheat.html

I am unsure Bourlag's wheat is planted in the US but I looked it up:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/bl...-av-2009-09-14

Bourlag, as far as I can tell, did not use genetic modification for his production of wheat. He used a technique used for thousands of years by farmers in which you cross two similar plants to create a plant with the best properties of both. This has also done with animal farming. I would say 90% or more of the foods we eat today didn't exist naturally until intervention by farmers. If you look into grafting, you can find more details about it. With animal farming, it involved breeding different types of animals together. That is why they say the cattle we have today are much fatter than the cattle that existed thousands of years ago, due to breeding. It is also why our carrots are sweeter and other vegetables/fruits are bred to be sweeter. There is a noticeable difference between wild blueberry plans and farmed blueberry plants. Same is true for other plants found in the wild vs farmed plants. I know a lot of people love Honeycrisp apples but honey crisp apples are also a form of crossing different types of apple plants to get a sweeter, crunchy apple.

I believe Bourlag was trying to avoid what happened with the potato famine by crossing strains of wheat to make something more resistant. And I will say this technique can happen naturally but it is very rare.

Those are excellent points. In his time the techniques available now did not exist. And it is true farmers and livestock farmers have been doing artificial selection for millennium. Heck even pet owners.

So I suppose green revolution wheat isn't 'GMO' in how we are using it in the present. But it is also not the wheat of a 100 years ago. And he wasn't necessarily looking at the effects on nutrition in all its possible ramifications. How could he? I think what we now term GMO food is pretty darn scary from the huge unknown perspective. I definitely want labeling in the U.S.

I will also say something to keep in mind for nutrition is that our soils are so much poorer. And you can't just look at the produce itself but the fertilizers being used. Tomatoes are a sad example. They might look similar to 100 years ago. But when measured in labs they are sad nutrition wise to a 100 years ago.

Actually tomatoes also are no where near where they were 100 years ago, again they were bred for durability and sweetness. And the tomatoes we eat today don't look anything like the tomatoes that were available pre-farming.

My husband and I were talking this weekend about agricultural diversity, to which we have none. If you eat an apple, you basically get a choice of a couple but there are tons of varieties of apples. I remember going cherry picking with my parents and farms would have something like 20 varieties of cherries but we get 1-2 versions in the store.

Our soil also has issues with lack of nutrients and sometimes contamination. So yes, farming even without GMO has changed.