By definition, “GMO stands for genetically modified organisms, and foods that contain ingredients with GMOs are considered GMO foods. GMOs are used in many crops, including soybeans, corn, potatoes and canola.”

Why Do We Care About The Corn?

So, why should the Center For Natural And Integrative Medicine care what some microscopic materials a geneticist has inserted into the corn? The short answer to this would be:

…because we care what our patients eat and because we care about what we feed our families.

The long answer is a bit more complex. We turn to expert food industry analyst Robyn O’Brien to briefly explain GMOs. She stated, “Introduced in the 1980s and patented for their novelty, GMOs, or genetically engineered organisms, quietly found their way into our foods in the 1990s.”  She added, “The novelty of these ingredients is so unprecedented that the Environmental Protection Agency now regulates genetically engineered corn as a pesticide.”

1. What Are Our Shopping Choices?

Before there were GMOs , insecticide was sprayed on corn, and washed off before consumption. Today 75-80% of the corn you buy at any American grocery store is genetically altered to create its own pesticide. So, pretend you are looking at two different bins of corn in a grocery store.  The corn in both bins looks nice; wrapped in bright green husks and showing their tufts of yellow silk. Now, do you want Bin “A,” the corn that is only regulated as food, or the GMO corn in Bin “B” that is regulated as insecticide? As federal laws stand now, you do not have a choice, because neither Bin A nor Bin B is labeled.

2. Is That Copyrighted Corn?

The FDA states that GMO foods are “substantially equivalent,” but the United States Patent and Trademark Office acts like the foods are substantially, significantly, and decidedly different.

They are so different that they are patented, “owned,” by the chemical companies that created them, and there are no long-term studies on the effects these unique designer foods might have on humans. You are invited to learn more about the risks of GMOs at the wonderful wellness source of Dr. Frank Lipman.

3. It Says What On the Label?

“Twenty-five states have introduced GMO labeling legislation, and more than 6 million residents voted for labels in California, the first state to introduce a labeling initiative last year.” Worried consumers have formed a coalition of more than 450 environmental, agricultural, consumer and parenting groups. They have petitioned the FDA for a federal labeling law for GMOs. They are demanding the “right to know which foods are genetically modified and which are not.”

Did you know:

…that “Sixty-four countries around the world label these ingredients…

…that a partial list includes every country in European Union, Japan, Australia, Russia, India, and China…”

…that over 20 countries around the world have banned GMOs, because of the lack of studies…

…that, contained in the genetics of a harmless bit of corn, there are pesticides that have been actually saturated with weed-killers…

…that we have no idea of the effect might be in terms of allergies incited by these newly developed GMOs?

4. How Can We Avoid GMOs?

Until and unless all foods are labeled, how can we protect ourselves?

First: Buy organic foods. Organic food companies are forbidden to use GMOs.

Second: When you are shopping, look for the “Non-GMO” Verified Seals. You will be seeing more and more of them. We hope.

Third: Do not buy the food products that are processed from the most likely GMO crops: This list includes Corn, Soybeans, Canola, Cottonseed and Beet sugar.

Fourth: Download a more complete list and a helpful Shopping Guides from The Institute For Responsible Technology.  The doctors and staff at the Center for Natural and Integrative Medicine hope this article has given you a little food for thought.  When you look at the label on the back of a package of processed food, we hope you ask yourself, “Do I really want to eat that?”

And we have one more thought:  If we eat all this extra genetic material, and we really are what we eat, what will we become?