Commentary: Women and Fetuses at Risk!

Genetically Engineered Foods
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Given 27-Oct-12; 13 minutes

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Large agribusiness conglomerates have used genetically modified seeds to wrest control of agriculture away from the common farmer. Genetically engineered foods (especially corn) cause obesity (in both animals and humans), making it difficult to process proteins. BT corn has been engineered to form its own pesticide, a chemical which is harmful to the human beings. Pregnant women are especially at risk. BT toxins may increase susceptibility to allergies, infections, inflammatory diseases and cancer


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From the beginning of the Bible nearly to its end, we move in a predominantly rural and agrarian world of field and vineyard, cattle and herds, sowing and reaping. Although cities existed in the world of the Bible, the majority of the people were directly dependent on the land for their livelihood. Across the globe, farming has always been a diversified part of human life.

Small, self-sustaining, family farms were the order of the day in most cultures. Even as small farms grew larger and more specialized over time, many of them still saved seeds or purchased them from other farmers, which kept control of farming in the hands of the people.

But today, that has all changed, as large chemical and agribusiness firms have acquired or merged with seed companies and others related to agriculture. They have successfully gained a foothold on genetically-modified crops with transgenic traits.

Scientists in Norway have released results from experimental feeding studies carried out over a 10-year period, and the verdict is in: If you want to avoid obesity, then avoid eating genetically engineered (GE) corn, corn-based products, and animals that are fed a diet of GE grain. The study reveals other significant health hazards of genetically engineered foods.

Their findings (which were published July 11, 2012) showed that animals fed genetically engineered Bt corn ate more, got fatter, and were less able to digest proteins due to alterations in the micro-structure of their intestines.

The project also looked at the effects on organ changes, and researchers found significant changes that affected weight gain, eating behaviors, and immune function.

  • According to results from a 10-year long feeding study on rats, mice, pigs and salmon, genetically engineered feed causes obesity, along with significant changes in the digestive system and major organs, including the liver, kidneys, pancreas, genitals, and more.
  • Animals fed genetically engineered Bt corn were less able to digest proteins due to alterations in the micro-structure of their intestines. They also suffered immune system alterations.

Impaired ability to digest proteins can have far-reaching implications for your health, and this genetically-modified corn is in everything, even in sweeteners—corn syrups and on and on. It is everywhere.

This is not the first time scientists have revealed significant biological impacts and related health problems as a result of eating a diet of genetically engineered foods. More often than not, unless the research is tainted by industry ties, studies into the effects of genetically engineered foods demonstrate that it is anything but safe. This isn’t so surprising when you consider that simple logic will tell you it’s probably not wise to consume a plant designed to produce its own pesticide, for example.

Bt corn is equipped with a gene from the soil bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which produces Bt-toxin—a pesticide that breaks open the stomach of certain insects and kills them. This pesticide-producing corn entered the food supply in the late 1990s, and over the past decade, the horror stories have started piling up.

Monsanto and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) swore that the toxin would only affect insects munching on the crop. The Bt-toxin, they claimed, would be completely destroyed in the human digestive system and would not have any impact on animals and humans. The biotech companies have doggedly insisted that Bt-toxin doesn't bind or interact with the intestinal walls of mammals, and therefore, humans.

The research proves all such claims false. Genetically modified toxin has been found in the blood of women and fetuses.

Prior findings have already shown that Bt corn is anything but innocuous to the human system. Just last year, doctors at Sherbrooke University Hospital in Quebec found Bt-toxin in the blood of:

  • 93 percent of pregnant women tested
  • 80 percent of umbilical blood in their babies, and
  • 67 percent of non-pregnant women

So, it is definitely crossing over into the human biome.

Bt-toxin breaks open the stomach of insects. Could it similarly be damaging the integrity of your digestive tract? If Bt-toxins can damage the intestinal walls of newborns and young children, the passage of undigested foods and toxins into the blood from the digestive tract could be devastating to their future health.

Scientists speculate that it may lead to autoimmune diseases and food allergies. Furthermore, since the blood-brain barrier is not developed in newborns, toxins may enter the brain, causing serious cognitive problems. Some healthcare practitioners and scientists are convinced that this is one mechanism for autism.

If Bt genes are colonizing the bacteria living in the digestive tract of North Americans, we might expect to see an increase in gastrointestinal problems, autoimmune diseases, food allergies, and childhood learning disorders since the advent of Bt crops in 1996—and that’s exactly what’s being reported.

We have been eating these things since 1996, and it has been having its effects. For example, between 1997 and 2002, the number of hospitalizations related to allergic reactions to food increased by a whopping 265 percent. One out of 17 children now has some form of food allergy, and allergy rates are rising rapidly.

There is plenty of evidence showing that the Bt-toxin produced in genetically modified Bt crops like corn and cotton plants is toxic to humans and mammals and triggers immune system responses. For example, in government-sponsored research in Italy, mice fed Monsanto's Bt corn showed a wide range of immune responses, such as:

  • Elevated IgE and IgG antibodies, which are typically associated with allergies and infections
  • An increase in cytokines, which are associated with allergic and inflammatory responses. The specific cytokines (interleukins) that were found to be elevated are also higher in humans who suffer from a wide range of disorders, from arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, to MS and cancer
  • Elevated T cells (gamma delta), which are increased in people with asthma, and in children with food allergies, juvenile arthritis, and connective tissue diseases.

Rats fed another of Monsanto's Bt corn varieties called MON 863, also experienced an activation of their immune systems, showing higher numbers of basophils, lymphocytes, and white blood cells. (If you have an increase in white blood cells, it indicates that there is an infection, or that there is something foreign. That is exactly what is happening from eating this Bt corn and other Bt produce.) These can indicate possible allergies, infections, toxins, and various disease states, including cancer. There were also signs of liver and kidney toxicity.

There is no doubt that genetically engineered foods trigger adverse immune system responses and worse. There is no doubt—the scientific evidence is in. God never intended for His creation of perfect foods for the human body to be genetically modified and re-engineered into deadly-poisonous frankenfoods. This disorder of the food provided for us has been caused by the god of chaos and confusion. The lying god of this world who promotes self-absorbed pleasure, which will be the death of us all, if God were to allow it to go that far.

Through food, God signals not random provision or pleasure, but rather a certain intended order to life. In the Bible, God creates a well-ordered earth, able to produce enough food for the creatures living on it. His providence is sufficient for all, and He clearly grieves over and cares for those who receive too little when the balance and order of food distribution is disturbed.

God’s creation of healthy food marks the proper limits on earth. The most basic, concrete stuff of life pictures the most basic level of obedience or disobedience. And the fact that God designed humans to take that stuff into their bodies so that it becomes part of them offers a perfect picture of opening themselves up to good or evil, taking in either one or the other so that it becomes part of them.

This is true for the human mind and it is true for the human body. You have heard the profound saying, “You are what you eat.” This has never been more true than today.

In the New Testament, Jesus begins to explain the distinction between physical food and spiritual food when He tells His disciples not to worry about what they would eat or what they would wear. In Luke 12:23, He says,

Luke 12:23 "Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing."

In this passage Jesus does not denigrate the value of physical food, but He affirms God's providence over that area of life, and challenges His disciples to seek a whole different realm—to “seek first the kingdom” (Matthew 6:33).

Nevertheless, it is our responsibility to take good care of the body and mind God has given us, because if we have God’s Spirit, it is His temple. In I Corinthians 3, the apostle Paul writes,

I Corinthians 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

Yes, his priority meaning there speaks of the spiritual realm, but there is also a physical application regarding not only what spiritual food goes into our minds, but what physical food is ingested as well. We must do our best to guard ourselves against Satan’s perversion of the food God has designed perfectly for human beings, which man is perverting in every way he can.

We must always ask for God’s help in doing this, and always ask for His blessing, thanking Him for what He has provided. May God help us all to avoid GMO frankenfoods as much as possible. It can be expensive, but we have to an effort to try to avoid these things. We certainly need God’s protection in all areas of life, and now we are seeing how very important it is in our ingestion of food.

MGC/aws/dcg





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