The GMO Food Guide

[Res]

mercola (http://therawfoodsite.com/forum/www.mercola.com)

The next time you’re at the supermarket, you can use The True Food Shopping Guide to decipher which foods contain genetically engineered ingredients and which do not.

The True Food Network, the grassroots network of the Center for Food Safety, compiled this essential list.

You can browse through the online guide according to food category; there are 20 in all, including:


Condiments
Dressings and salad oils
Tomatoes and tomato sauce
Baby food
ChocolateThe True Food Network was established in 2000 to stop genetic engineering of food and farm crops, and to create a socially just, democratic, and sustainable food system. They have 40,000 members.

Click the link[/URL]

TRUE FOOD (http://therawfoodsite.com/forum/www.mercola.com)


[URL="http://www.truefoodnow.org/shoppersguide/guide_printable.html"]

[stumble]

I have been eating SAD my whole life and and investigating alternative methods of eating.

Would and olive oil and vinegar dressing be a appropriate dressing for a salad?

If I made my own cereal is there no milk I can put on it? How about if I get a cow?

Sandy

[Res]

Hi Sandy,

You can make and use Almond Milk for cereal or you can buy RAW milk from a health food store or dairy if one is nearby. We're not all in agreement here regarding dairy but I think it's fine if it's Organic Raw.

Olive oil and vinegar is fine. Make sure it's pure virgin olive oil and really check the vinegar label. My all time favorite salad dressing is Olive oil and fresh lemon juice with a sprinkle of sea salt and a grind of fresh pepper. This is a good start. :)

If you'd like to continue with this discussion lets meet up in the After the Cleanse thread, or the 30 day raw challenge thread. :)

Love,
~Res

[alicein1land]

Everything made by Monsanto is genetically modified! They make all of the commercial seed that farmers buy in this country; they completely control the market! DO NOT BUY THEIR STOCK, OR ANYTHING ELSE FROM THEM!!!

[unsure]

Comprehensive information about GMOs can be found at Say NO TO GMOs! (http://www.saynotogmos.org). About the best resource on the web.

[Res]

Here's more. It's a two parter because it's long. We do have a voice and it's our pocketbook and our voices. We need to get involved and get this stopped. We can do it because, "We the People...."

This Company May Be the Biggest Threat to Your Future Health

On March 11 a new documentary was aired on French television. It is a documentary most Americans will never see, explaining how the gigantic biotech corporation Monsanto is threatening to destroy the agricultural biodiversity which has served mankind for thousands of years.


For millennia, farmers have saved seeds from season to season. But when Monsanto developed GM seeds that would resist its own herbicide, Roundup, Monsanto patented the seeds. For nearly all of its history the United States Patent and Trademark Office refused to grant patents on seeds, viewing them as life-forms with too many variables to be patented. But in 1980 the U.S. Supreme Court allowed for seed patents in a five-to-four decision, laying the groundwork for a handful of corporations to begin taking control of the world’s food supply.

Since the 1980s, Monsanto has become the world leader in genetic modification of seeds and has won 674 biotechnology patents, more than any other company. Farmers who buy Monsanto’s Roundup Ready seeds are required to sign an agreement promising not to save the seed produced after each harvest for re-planting, or to sell the seed to other farmers. This means that farmers must buy new seed every year.

Monsanto puts pressure on farmers, farmers’ co-ops, seed dealers, and anyone else it suspects may have infringed its patents of genetically modified seeds. To do this, Monsanto relies on a shadowy army of private investigators and agents. They secretly videotape and photograph farmers, store owners, and co-ops. They infiltrate community meetings. They gather information from informants about farming activities.

Some Monsanto agents pretend to be surveyors. Others confront farmers on their land and try to pressure them to sign papers giving Monsanto access to their private records. Farmers call them the “seed police” and use words such as “Gestapo” and “Mafia” to describe their tactics.
Sources:

Vanity Fair May 2008 (http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805?currentPage=1)

[Res]

http://articles.mercola.com/themes/blogs/MercolaArticle/mercolaimages/Dr.Mercola.jpgDr. Mercola's Comments: Monsanto (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2006/12/14/can-you-really-trust-monsanto----how-they-corrupted-science.aspx), which was a plain old chemical business before it rechristened itself a "life sciences" company, and started using bioengineering to develop genetically altered crops, is one of the biggest threats to both mankind and the earth today. They have both the capability and the ruthless drive to, more or less single-handedly, destroy the world’s natural biodiversity and food supply for their own profit.

Complicating the picture further, Monsanto is also deeply entrenched with the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmacia Corporation was created in April 2000 through the merger of Pharmacia & Upjohn with Monsanto Company and its G.D. Searle unit. Few people ever make the connection between GMO crops and the sale of drugs.

I believe the GMO crop issue is one of the most significant challenges to your future health. And, the drug industry is one of the primary driving forces for the traditional paradigm, which focuses on the treating symptoms with expensive band-aids, so you get sicker and sicker and require more of their self-serving expensive drug solutions to relieve your symptoms. Put these two health disasters together – where one is feeding the profits of the other -- and the picture becomes bleak indeed.
Folks, it’s time to just say no to this madness and abrogation of ethics.

Let your elected officials know how you feel about it; ask your local supermarket to stock their shelves with more natural organic foods; vote with your pocketbook – avoid everything that contains GMO products. That means abstaining from virtually all processed food products and sticking to fresh, locally grown, organic food stuffs, and going back to basic food preparation in your own home (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2006/12/28/preparing-your-meals-at-home-is-the-healthier-choice.aspx).
Cooking from scratch, with wholesome ingredients based on your nutritional type (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2003/02/26/metabolic-typing-part-three.aspx), is one of the absolute best things you can do for your long-term health.

Is New Terrifying Disease the Cause of Genetically Modified Foods?

Have you ever heard of “Morgellon’s Disease?”

As of February 2007, more than 10,000 reports of the mysterious disease have been reported on the Morgellon Foundation's website (http://www.morgellons.org/). That’s up from 2,000 reports in February of 2006.
Reports come from 15 nations across the world, including Canada, the UK, Australia and The Netherlands, as well as all 50 U.S. states. The majority of reports have come from Texas, California and Florida.

People with Morgellon’s disease describe it as a feeling of bugs or parasites scuttling around beneath their skin, accompanied by open lesions that heal slowly and ooze out blue, black or white fibers that can be several millimeters long. These fibers appear like pliable plastic. They can be as fine as spider silk, yet they are strong enough to distend the skin when pulled and elicit shooting pains when you try to remove them.

The CDC, unusually slow to respond to what can only be described as a new outbreak, has finally set up a web page (http://www.cdc.gov/unexplaineddermopathy/general_info.html) about the phenomenon, which they refer to as “Unexplained Dermopathy.” In August 2007 -- a year after vowing to look into the terrifying disorder -- they gave $300,000 to Kaiser Permanente to investigate the disease.

The CDC’s website lists additional symptoms, including fatigue, mental confusion, short term memory loss, joint pain, changes in vision, and social dysfunction, including suicide.
According to an article in Natural News (http://www.naturalnews.com/023004.html), published last week, Morgellon’s disease may be linked to genetically modified food.

While the CDC dragged its feet, a research team from Oklahoma State University lead by Dr. Randy Wymore, studied some of the fibers sent to them by Morgellons patients. They found that the fibers from different people look remarkably similar to each other, yet do not match any common environmental fibers.

Vitaly Citovsky, Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University in New York, discovered that the fibers contain the substance Agrobacterium, a genus of gram-negative bacteria capable of genetically transforming not only plants, but also other eukaryotic species, including human cells.
Are we now teetering on the brink of the GM food disaster (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2005/07/30/monsanto-report.aspx) we feared from the very beginning?
Information is Power, so Power Up!
If you aren't convinced this is an important issue for you, your children, and your grandchildren, then do yourself a favor and find some free time to review the evidence, starting with the related articles listed at the end.
You can also search my site by entering “Monsanto” into the search box. I have over 300 pages on this topic alone!
To further guide you in understanding the problems associated with GM foods, I strongly recommend reading the incredible series Seeds of Doubt (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/07/03/seeds-doubt.aspx), written by staffers at the Sacramento Bee.
And, last but not least, I urge everyone to watch the video The Future of Food (http://www.mercola.com/future-of-food/index.htm). Forward the link to this video widely among your friends, family and acquaintances. This in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind genetically modified foods is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. It will help you understand how and why the genetic engineering we allow to be unleashed today is a very real threat to ALL future generations.
How to Avoid GM Foods
Many of you probably don't understand just how ubiquitous GM foods are in the food chain (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2005/04/06/gm-foods-part-eight.aspx).
The fact is that genetically modified foods are so prevalent in the United States that if you randomly pick an item off your grocery store's shelves, you have a 75 percent chance of picking a food with GM ingredients. This is because at least seven out of every 10 items have been genetically modified.
The True Food Shopping Guide (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/09/18/the-gmo-food-guide.aspx) is a great tool for helping you determine which brands and products contain GMO ingredients. It lists 20 different food categories that include everything from baby food to chocolate.
Here are four simple steps to decrease your consumption of GM foods as much as possible:

Reduce or eliminate processed foods in your diet. The fact that 75 percent of processed foods contain GM ingredients is only one of the many reasons to stick to a whole foods diet. <LI style="COLOR: black">Read produce and food labels. Conventionally raised soybeans and corn make up the largest portion of genetically modified crops. Ingredients made from these foods include high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), corn flour and meal, dextrin, starch, soy sauce, margarine, and tofu. <LI style="COLOR: black">Buy organic produce. By definition, food that is certified organic (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2002/10/16/organic-label.aspx) must be free from all GM organisms, produced without artificial pesticides and fertilizers and from an animal reared without the routine use of antibiotics, growth promoters or other drugs. Additionally, grass-fed beef (http://www.mercola.com/beef/main.htm) will not have been fed GM corn feed.
Look at produce stickers. The PLU code on stickers for conventionally grown fruit consists of four numbers, organically grown fruit has five numbers prefaced by the number nine, and GM fruit has five numbers prefaced by the number eight.

[happydonna]

I always pay attention in order to not buy something which is genetically modified. I cannot understand people who buy such food. Alarmingly more and more people do not care about what they are actually eating. Something like that will never happen to me. Luckily there is a diary close to were I am living and of course I always buy the milk there. I am totally against GMO food and I think that more people should go along with my opinion.

[DietsThatWorkEliza]

This is a great thread! A lot of useful links to read up on. Finding unmodified foods is getting so much harder these days with nearly everything available at supermarkets containing some sort of GM. I think a resource like the guide mentioned will essential for the raw food dieter to navigate the GM filled food world now days!

[Res]

Mercola.com

Everything you MUST KNOW About Dangerous Genetically Modified Foods

One of the overarching threats to humanity is the willful modification of our food sources, and I believe one of the reasons why people allowed it to occur in the first place is because we’ve become so far removed from the sources of our food.

Many children today do not even realize exactly where the various meats come from, for example. They’ve never set foot on a farm.

No thought is given to how milk and other products consumed every day are produced. Many assume that the food in the frozen food isle is actually real food, not realizing they’re chockfull of unnatural additives; preservatives, colorings, and artificial flavorings.

The distance between our food source and us is, I believe, an alarming problem! And it has allowed giant corporations to essentially hijack your health for profit.

Returning to natural eating habits is a must if you want to thrive in today’s modern world, and banishing genetically modified (GM) food products is an essential step of this process. Man was created to thrive on certain combinations of nutrients, readily available in our natural food sources.

But the rise of modern food manufacturing completely changed man’s relationship to food. Without being told so specifically, you’ve been led to believe you can live on synthetic chemicals. But you can’t! Not to any great degree of success.

Make This Year the Year When You Say NO to GMOThis Weston A Price lecture by GMO expert Jeffrey M. Smith is a must-see for everyone. As always, Smith delivers a compelling picture of the GM problem, and offers practical solutions, many of which I will list below.

As Smith states, we, as individual consumers, have enormous power to change this world for the better by making healthier choices. The market simply cannot afford not to pay attention once the tipping point of consumer demand has been reached. So by switching brands, slowly but surely the rejected brands must follow suit once they realize that using a certain ingredient has become a liability.

Consumers move the market – not the manufacturers. That means YOU!

Smith believes that the tipping point for beginning the shift away from GMO ingredients in the US food supply is about 15 million people.

The problem we face here in the US is the fact that GM products are not labeled. But according to one poll, if GM products WERE labeled, 53 percent of Americans say they would not eat them!

After some 14 years of fighting for GM labeling in the US, it’s time to realize that we can’t wait for government to listen. Instead, we must educate each other, which is exactly what Smith’s organization www.ResponsibleTechnology.org (http://www.responsibletechnology.org/) is all about.

Their slogan, “Healthy Eating Starts with NO GMO,” is worthy of being pasted on your refrigerator as a constant reminder.

The Health Hazards of GMO FoodsFor an in-depth education on the many dangers of GM foods, I highly recommend reading Jeffrey Smith (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/11/06/the-real-reasons-you-want-to-avoid-genetically-modified-foods.aspx?PageIndex=2)’s books, Seeds of Deception (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0972966587/optimalwellnessc) and Genetic Roulette (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0972966528/optimalwellnessc).

Smith documents at least 65 serious health risks from GM products of all kinds, including:

Offspring of rats fed GM soy show a five-fold increase in mortality, lower birth weights, and the inability to reproduce
Male mice fed GM soy have damaged young sperm cells
The embryo offspring of GM soy-fed mice have altered DNA functioning
Several US farmers have reported sterility or fertility problems among pigs and cows fed on GM corn varieties
Investigators in India have documented fertility problems, abortions, premature births, and other serious health issues, including deaths, among buffaloes fed GM cottonseed products
Animals fed GM foods have developed bleeding stomachs, potentially precancerous cell growth, damaged organs and immune systems, kidney inflammation, problems with blood and liver cells, and unexplained deaths
Soy allergies have skyrocketed after the introduction of GM soy
Genes from GM crops transfer to human gut bacteria, which might transform your intestinal flora into a “living pesticide factory”No one knows the full extent of what happens to the end product when you splice in new genes, and then eat that product for several generations. The only thing that is guaranteed is that it will create surprise side effects.


However, according to Smith’s research, what we do know is that between 1994 and 2001 -- the same time that GMO’s flooded the market – food related illnesses DOUBLED.

GMO foods can be: • Allergenic

• Toxic

• Carcinogenic

• Anti-nutritional
It may also create brand new diseases that we’ve never seen before (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/05/01/this-company-may-be-the-biggest-threat-to-your-future-health.aspx), in addition to spurring on the disease rate of some we already have, such as cancer.


Moratorium Called on GM Foods! On May 19th, 2009, the The American Academy Of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) sent out a press advisory calling for Immediate Moratorium On Genetically Modified Foods”? and for physicians to “educate their patients, the medical community, and the public to avoid GM (genetically modified) foods when possible, and provide educational materials concerning GM foods and health risks.”

They also advised that physicians should “consider the role of GM foods in their patients' disease processes.”

In their position paper (http://www.aaemonline.org/gmopost.html), the AAEM states that several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM foods, including:

Infertility
Immune problems
Accelerated aging
Insulin regulation
Changes in major organs
Gastrointestinal changes and problems
The AAEM concludes, “There is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects. There is causation, as defined by recognized scientific criteria. The strength of association and consistency between GM foods and disease is confirmed in several animal studies.”
I’ve recommended this before, but it bears repeating – Educate your doctor!


Many physicians are still completely unaware of this problem, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with handing them a printout of the moratorium (http://www.aaemonline.org/gmopost.html), or suggesting they take a look at the research.

The Institute for Responsible Technology also offers two full audio lectures on the dangers of GMO’s, available for download here. (http://www.responsibletechnology.org/utility/showArticle/?objectID=166) They’re free, and you’re even allowed to burn them onto CD’s to give away.

Why not give a copy to the members of your family, friends, and yes, even your doctor?

Playing with Technology We Don’t Fully Comprehend Dr. Mae-Wan Ho of the Institute of Science in Society (ISIS) explains the heart of why GM foods are so dangerous:“The genome is remarkably dynamic and ‘fluid’, and constantly in conversation with the environment. This determines which genes are turned on, when, where, by how much and for how long. Moreover, the genetic material itself could also be marked or changed according to experience, and the influence passed on to the next generation.”

But when genetically modified “rogue genes” are inserted into a genome, it cannot possibly mimic the complex processes -- the “dance of life” -- that’s necessary for survival in nature.“The rogue genes inserted into a genome to make a GMO could land anywhere; typically in a rearranged or defective form, scrambling and mutating the host genome, and have the tendency to move or rearrange further once inserted, basically because they do not know the dance of life.


That’s ultimately why genetic modification doesn’t work and is also dangerous.”
(con't next page)

[Res]

Four Ways to Avoid GM Foods
As stated by Smith, there are four main ways to avoid GM foods:

Buy organic
Only buy products that carry a Non-GMO label
Only buy products listed in the non-GMO shopping guide (http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com/SG/Home/index.cfm)
Avoid products that contain these at-risk ingredients:
Soy
Corn
Cotton
Canola
The offspring of these products include items such as maltodextrin, soy lecithin, and high fructose corn syrup.

As for fresh produce, you’ll want to avoid some varieties of zucchini, crookneck squash, and papayas from Hawaii, as these are mainly GM.

Other common GM-containing foods to avoid include:

Milk containing rbGH
Rennet (containing genetically modified enzymes) used to make hard cheeses
Aspartame (NutraSweet)Avoiding GM products in your diet means avoiding all of the foods and ingredients mentioned above, or choosing organic versions of them.


If your diet consists largely of processed foods, you can be sure you’re eating about 70 percent GM foods, as the ingredients listed above (particularly corn and soy) are in a vast majority of all processed food products!

I highly recommend downloading the Non-GMO Shopping Guide (http://www.responsibletechnology.org/GMFree/Non-GMOShopping/index.cfm), issued by the Institute for Responsible Technology. They also offer some helpful basic advice for how to avoid GMO’s when eating in restaurants (http://www.responsibletechnology.org/utility/showArticle/?objectID=1853)!

Help Others Help Themselves Last but not least, I also recommend watching The Future of Food (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/01/11/the-future-of-food----you-need-to-watch-this-video.aspx) to learn more about the food you eat. It is perhaps one of the most important videos on this subject, and one that everyone in America should watch and pass on to others, along with the free audio lectures by Jeffrey Smith (http://www.responsibletechnology.org/utility/showArticle/?objectID=166).

In conclusion, remember to appreciate the power of your pocketbook! If more of us begin to refuse GM foods, food manufacturers will have no choice but to listen.

[kristik]

This thread is great. A lot of really good information, thank you.