GMO

You have heard of GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) right? Hopefully you care about it and pay attention.

I just read an article in Natural Muscle Magazine and it reminded me that I haven't written about this in a while.

Some food crops are genetically modified by gene cloning or protein engineering and are being sold to consumers before they have been properly and thoroughly tested.

Monsanto is of course behind most of this, 95% of all soybeans and 80% of all corn in the United States grow from seeds that have been genetically altered by Monsanto's patents. They are putting small farmers and growers out of business. If you have never seen the movie "Food, Inc." I highly recommend it.

The problems with genetically modified foods are too numerous to go into here, but we should all care about what we put into our bodies and into the developing bodies and brains of our children.

I avoid soy, although there have not been enough studies to conclusively state that soy is bad, it does seem to raise estrogen in bodies and estrogen is linked to breast cancer.

Frankenfood is what it is!

So how can you tell if the fruits and vegetables you are buying are GMO's?

Easy!

I have a saying that helps me remember (I am blond, it works for me)

9 is divine 8 is not great

And just what does this mean??

Fruits and vegetables usually have a label on them- you know those pesky stickers? 

Take a look at the bell pepper in the picture above, it has a 4 digit number, 4688 and this means the pepper was grown conventionally.

5 digit numbers can mean one of two things:

If they start with  an 8, they are genetically modified and heavily sprayed with chemicals.

If they start with a 9, they are organic.

It is illegal to sell foods in the US and Canada labeled 100% organic if they have been genetically modified in any way.

Here is a bunch of asparagus, and what does the sticker tell you?

4 digit number so conventionally grown, but it may still contain some GMO's.Unfortunately the labeling laws do not yet protect us, so the wisest choice is to buy 100% organic.

Maybe you cannot afford to buy all organic, then avoid the foods that are the most heavily GMO's. What are some of the most common GMO foods?

Soy, corn, canola oil, cottonseed oil, high fructose corn syrup, sugar beets, dairy, aspartame, papayas and farm raised salmon.

Here is a snappy music video about the dangers of GMO's (E-mail readers will need to navigate directly to the blog to view this).

Check out Seeds of Deception for more information and to educate yourself.