Words of Wellness: If your body could talk…

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LiveScience

“What’s that, tummy? I need to… ohhh…”

We’ve all heard the old adage ‘you are what you eat’, but have you ever stopped to think exactly how true that is?

Put simply, healthy eating is the key to wellbeing. We all have up to 100 trillion cells in our bodies, each one demanding a constant supply of daily nutrients in order to function optimally.

Food affects all of these cells, and by extension, every aspect of our being: mood, energy levels, food cravings, thinking capacity, sex drive, sleeping habits and general health..

So, why should we care about what ingredients we eat and where they originate?

Our state of health and wellbeing is dependent on our food source.  The quality of our food is affected as we all know by daily environmental changes, the way in which plants and animals are farmed and by the quality in which they are produced.

Did you aknow that corporations like Monsanto, Dupont and Grocery Manufacturers Association significantly influence our food as well.  These giant corporations are the biotechnology behind the making of genetically modified organisms.

Genetically modified organisms, “GMOs”, are plants or animals created through the gene splicing techniques of biotechnology.

This type of technology is experimental.  It merges DNA from different species, creating unstable combinations of plants, animal, bacterial and viral genes that cannot occur in nature or in traditional crossbreeding..

Virtually all commercial GMO’s are engineered in such a way that they can withstand direct application of herbicide and/or produce an insecticide.

Despite biotech industry promises, none of the GMO traits currently on the market offer increased yield, drought tolerance, enhanced nutrition, or any other consumer benefit.

Over 80% of all GMOs grown worldwide are engineered for herbicide tolerance.

As a result, use of toxic herbicides like Roundup has increased 15 times since GMOs were introduced.
GMO crops are also responsible for the emergence of “super weeds” and “super bugs”, which can only be killed with more toxic poisons like 2,4-D(a major ingredient in Agent Orange).

GMOs are a direct extension of chemical agriculture, and are developed and sold by the world’s biggest chemical companies.
The long-term impacts of GMOs are unknown, and once released into the environment these novel organisms cannot be recalled.

There is a growing body of evidence that connects GMOs with health problems, environmental damage and violation of farmers’ and consumers’ rights.  Most developing nations do not consider GMOs to be safe.

In more than 60 countries around the world, including Australia, Japan, and all of the countries in the European Union, there are significant restrictions or outright bans on the production and sale of GMOs.

In the U.S., the government has approved GMOs based on studies conducted by the same corporations that created them and profit from their sale.

Increasingly, Americans are taking matters into their own hands and choosing to opt out of the GMO experiment.

Unfortunately, even though polls consistently show that a significant majority of Americans want to know if the food they’re purchasing contains GMOs, the powerful biotech lobby has succeeded in keeping this information from the public.

Because GMOs are novel life forms, biotechnology companies have been able to obtain patents with which to restrict their use.
As a result, the companies that make GMOs now have the power to sue farmers whose fields are contaminated with GMOS, even when it is the result of inevitable drift from neighboring fields.

GMOs therefore pose a serious threat to farmer sovereignty and to the national food security of any country where they are grown, including the United States

In the U.S., GMOs are in as much as 80% of conventional processed food.

Alfalfa, corn, flax, rice sugar beets, yellow summer squash, canola, cotton, papaya, soy, zucchini and wheat are consider crops that are at risk of being genetically engineered, either because GMO varieties are in commercial production, or because of contamination from unapproved trial varieties.

Ingredients derived from these risk crops include (but not limited to): Amino Acids, Aspartame, Ascorbic Acid, Sodium Citrate, Ethanol, Flavorings, High-Fructose Corn Syrup, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, Lactic Acid, Maltodextrins, Molasses, MSG, sucrose, Textured Vegetable Protein, Xanthan Gum, Vitamins, Yeast products.

Milk, meat, eggs, honey and other bee products are animal derivatives that are also considered high-risk.

If your body could talk, what would it say about the food you are eating?

Take the Non-GMO Challenge.  Try eating one meal daily that contains NO GMOs or try one full month of being GMO free.  Look for those foods that are labeled “Non GMO Project Verified”.

For further information check out:  GMO Facts and Myths available at http://www.nongmoproject.org