Tag Archives: GMO food

Chemicals in Our Personal Ecosystem

Right on the heels of reading the article Our Toxic Body Burden, a friend posted a link to the online documentary Genetic Roulette, which discusses the well documented (but not well publicized) effects that genetically modified foods are having on our digestive systems and health.

Vreni Gurd’s Wellness Tips article talks about the many sources of chemicals  we may be unwittingly ingesting. Some you’ll be aware of, but some may surprise you, such as cleansers and moisturizers. “If you put it on your skin you are drinking it.”

The documentary carries the theme further, exposing the chemical nature of the majority of processed foods and the marked increase in a wide variety of diseases linked to the digestive system and inflammation. As the digestive system is our first line of defense for our immune system, it makes sense that problems in our gut are going to lead to problems elsewhere. The scary thing is, once GMO enzymes and bacteria are introduced to your system, they can replicate and continue wreaking havoc.

More than ever our bodies are subjected to a myriad of chemicals in all forms and it takes some focused effort to reduce the effects. One of the key elements is keeping your liver healthy so it can do its best to detoxify your body from our environment. When I was diagnosed with skin cancer it became a priority to me to support my liver in cleansing my body. I believe our bodies are made to heal themselves and can do quite a good job if we support them by taking care of what we put in into the delicately balanced ecosystem of our bodies.

Please take the time to become more informed and make more informed decisions for your health and the health of your families.

Is GMO Always Bad?

I was chatting with a colleague this morning about mass agricultural commercialization vs. small scale total organic farming, and the idea that maybe the sustainable truth is somewhere in the middle. We discussed how important it is to hear each side out, and see where there’s common ground and a balance for the common good.

Then someone forwarded me a tribute on the life of Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Norman Borlaug, who passed away recently on September 12, 2009.

According to Andrew Steele’s article in the Globe and Mail, The Death of the Greatest Human Being Who Ever Lived, Borlaug spent his life focused on genetic research “specifically to alleviate starvation in the developing world. His goal was always to attack famine, not merely to improve margins in agribusiness.”

In favour of which side does one rule, in the moral dilemma when GMO’d strains of grain saved hundreds of millions of lives that might otherwise have been lost to starvation?

Hmmm, for me, that’s food for thought.