More Reasons To Switch to Organic Foods For Your Entire Family, Straight from Germany.

In the US, genetically modified food does not need to be labelled. Some Americans still do not realize this. Genetically modified food is altered in a few different ways. For example, some crops are modified to contain pesticides and some are modified to withstand increasingly large treatments with herbicides like Monsanto’s RoundUp. Genetically modified food, given the potential health risks and given its association with harmful chemicals, is banned in many countries, including many European countries. In order to learn as much as we can about what initiated and perpetuates these bans, it’s useful to seek out information from these other countries. This is when Google’s translate button comes in handy.

Take this link, for example. It’s in German, but when you translate the page, there is a wealth of information and studies cited about the chemicals used in Monsanto’s RoundUp and their health risks. You do have to keep in mind that when reading translated information, sentence structure is often messed up a little, that is the only downside.

Mitochondria Triggers

In the US, we are exceptionally concerned with our children’s mitochondrial disorders. Diseases involving mitochondria are suspected in many of our nations most overwhelming childhood diseases.  Mitochondrial issues are often implicated as being the underlying issues that lead vaccines to trigger a response causing autism like behavior and allergies.  Merck’s Vaccines Division, Julie Gerberding confirmed to CBS News while she was Director of the CDC that, “if you’re predisposed with the mitochondrial disorder, it can certainly set off some damage. Some of the symptoms can be symptoms that have characteristics of autism.” That’s just a trigger though. The mitochondria have to have been in a state of unhealth to begin with according to Gerberding. Dysfunction in mitochondria is already associated with a number of other neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and in recent years, it has been admittedly a role in our children’s autistic like behavioral problems.  It is important to note that according to research cited in the German web page, studies indicate that Roundup causes disturbances in cell respiration and energy production in mitochondria.  This is a serious issue with fiercely reaching ramifications for our children. Considering that RoundUp can even affect sperm cells in men, reduce placenta cell viability at smaller concentrations than seen in agricultural use, and is regularly found in the cord blood of pregnant women coupled with the fact that mitochondrial disease is often thought to be something children are born with, we should be demanding for our FDA to explain to us why other countries have banned the use of genetically modified seeds. Especially since this stuff continues to affect cells through the mother’s diet and their non-organic food intake as our children grow. We should be asking ourselves why according to Hungary deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar, Hungary felt the need to completely destroy 1000 acres of maize that was found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds. Why is that even Peru has officially passed a law banning  genetically modified ingredients within the nation for a period of 10 years? Certainly, entire countries aren’t just filled with a bunch of crazy, hippie lawmakers!

 

“Completely Harmless”

To be fair, I should mention that Monsanto insists that RoundUp is a completely harmless product. Though according an article in The Huffington Post, this is simply not true. Yet, it is overwhelmingly used in the United States. Studies that show toxic effects of cellular damage occur even at levels to be expected from ingesting our tainted food supply are becoming more commonplace.

I have lost a child. She was stillborn and the cause of her death was a chromosomal flaw. That flaw has been found in studies to be linked to the toxicity of herbicides like RoundUp. That might just be an obscure statistic nationally, but that was MY CHILD. While I’ll most likely never have someone conclude, “Yes, RoundUp killed your baby,” I have read the studies and I don’t want anyone to have to know my loss. It’s simply better to be safe.

We do everything we can to give our children the best possible starts to life. We quit drinking, we quit smoking, we take our vitamins, we research cloth diapers… But it’s time for each of us to consider looking into the potential dangers of genetically modified foods on our children’s health. It’s a much more involved lifestyle change than simply saying no to vaccines or using cloth diapers, but considering the research available in other countries, making the switch to organic foods before even trying to conceive might be the safest thing you ever do for your child’s entire future.