Guest blogger: Emily Wilder
If you’re reading Generation X-pose, you’re interested in getting to the deeper truth of things—beyond what you’re going to read in a normal newspaper and see on the evening news.
Like Dani, the owner of this blog, maybe you homeschool your kids so you can control the “truths” that reach their ears. Maybe you refuse to get them flu vaccines because of the questions behind the validity of the H1N1 “epidemic.” You’re not afraid to do what you think is necessary to keep your kids safe, healthy, and happy in the way you see fit.
There’s one huge thing, however, that many moms have not considered when they look to safeguard their kids from government and mainstream influence: the source of their food. There’s been a lot of liberal hullabaloo lately about eating local and organic foods in order to stop “climate change”—that’s not what I’m talking about.
I’m talking genetically modified (GM) foods that end up on your grocery store shelves. Why do they matter? Well, most of these foods have not been adequately tested for safety, or if they have, government-corporate influence keeps the truth about them suppressed.
How can they end up on the shelves, you might wonder? The giant corporations that create these foods are in bed with the government, so much so that in some cases their ex-CEOs now run the government organizations that regulate food.
If you’re like me, you don’t want your children’s diet run by a corporate-government conspiracy. If you don’t trust the government to do what’s right for your child’s heart and mind, why would you want them controlling the chemicals that go inside their body?
Here are some GM foods that are probably making their way into your kid’s mouth, and some information on why they’re bad and how you can avoid them.
· rBGH Milk: rBGH milk comes from cows who are injected with a chemical called recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). rBGH is a genetically engineered copy of cows’ natural hormone. When injected with this GM hormone, the cows produce greater amounts of milk than normal.
o Why is it bad? rBGH means more hormones end up in the milk (and in your kids). Research has shown that large amounts of this hormone cause
cancer in adults. Also, using rBGH means cows are milked more often than is natural. This over-milking causes udder infections. In turn, the cows are given more antibiotics to keep the infection down, which also end up in the milk you drink. And, on top of this, when the udders are infected, the pus and other ooze from the infected cow ends up in the milk too. Yuck!
o So the Food and Drug Administration says rBGH milk is okay. Does this make you feel any better? It doesn’t make me. In fact, the company that makes and sells rBGH, Monsanto, has an ex-executive in a
key position at the Food and Drug Administration, the government agency that regulates food safety.
How to avoid it: Milk is clearly labeled if it does not contain rBGH; look for this statement on the label.
· GM Soybeans: Much of the soy grown in the U.S. in genetically engineered. You wouldn’t know it though, since no products that contain GM ingredients are required to be labeled to let consumers know.
o Why is it bad? Well, it’s
impossible to predict the long-term effects of the genetic manipulation. We just don’t know what’s going to happen in 50 years to our children who have been constantly eating this GM soy in all their food. And GM soy is used in lots of convenience foods—from gummy snacks to McDonald’s hamburgers.
o How to avoid it: Well, truth be told, it’s probably impossible to keep your kids totally away from GM soy. After all, it’s unreasonable to expect that they’ll eat salad and carrots for every meal. But you can decrease their intake; choose less-processed foods over convenience foods (i.e. apple slices versus gummy snacks) and make fast food a special treat.
Emily Wilder is a guest blogger for An Apple a Day and a writer on medical assistant careers for Guide to Healthcare Schools.
