Thanks for the information, list of foods and the link. :-)

-Grainlady

Do you have links to the actual research - the published papers, not just the website?

There's a good reason why some European countries ban imported GM-foods from America. Found a link that document the studies overseas against GM-foods. Here's an excerpt:

"The UK is one of the few countries that conducts a yearly evaluation of food allergies. In March 1999, researchers at the York Laboratory were alarmed to discover that reactions to soy had skyrocketed by 50% over the previous year. Genetically modified soy had recently entered the UK from US imports and the soy used in the study was largely GM. John Graham, spokesman for the York laboratory, said, “We believe this raises serious new questions about the safety of GM foods.”[4]

By 2004, farmers used an estimated 86% more herbicide on GM soy fields compared to non-GM.[9] The higher levels of herbicide residue in GM soy might cause health problems. In fact, many of the symptoms identified in the UK soy allergy study are among those related to glyphosate exposure. [The allergy study identified irritable bowel syndrome, digestion problems, chronic fatigue, headaches, lethargy, and skin complaints, including acne and eczema."

Here is a link that might be useful: Genetic modified foods and rising allergies

Strawberryhill, here's a bit more information on the Institute for Responsible Technology, listed on your previous link as "The most comprehensive source of GM health risk information on the web".

Here is a link that might be useful: Institute for Resposible Technology academics review

I read something today about GM foods when doing more research on lectins - talk about hand-in-glove..... GM foods are manufactured by splicing 'lectins' from one plant family to another. If that lectin happens to come from a plant family you are allergic to, you can have an allergic response and not know the cause because you are not aware it's in a GM food you may NOT have an allergy to.

People have health issues associated with lectins, (lectin intolerance) and soybeans have more toxic lectins than most other plants and physicians are clueless about these issues. Per usual, most physicians practice "medicine" (as in medication), not nutrition.

BUT all is not lost, there are positive things about lectins - it's about concentration and your response to lectins (commonly digestive issues, but the list of disease conditions is really pretty long).

FYI - Lectins are nature's way to defend the plant against pests and diseases (a natural pesticide).

Thanks to everyone sharing information!

-Grainlady

Thank you, Grainlady, for the info. which explains why my sister spent 50+ years of her life eating sesame seeds, but in recent years develop allergic reaction (rash). I have no problems with sesame seeds .. I eat ORGANIC brown sesame seeds from Whole Foods Market. My sister consume the regular, GM-white sesame seeds.

Not everyone is sensitive to GM-foods. My husband has no problems eating those frozen green soy-pods from Sam's club. I had one pouch, and had crippling tummy ache for the entire day, despite growing up with soy.

Years ago I used a huge amount of organic oat bran and wheat bran in my baking, plus for breakfast ... no problems whatsoever. Then I used Fiber One cereal and got severe tummy ache. I checked the ingredients and found it's made of mostly corn fiber. Then my sister-in-law told me her toddler also had upset tummy with Fiber One.

So I switched to Raisin Bran (made from wheat bran, and wheat is NOT genetically modified) ... no problems whatsoever with Raisin Bran, even when I ate that 3 times a day. I don't trust GM corn after my bad experience with Fiber One cereal.

I did more research to see if it's worth the money to buy organic frozen corn. Found a study on rats and GM-corn with disgusting tumor-pictures ...See below link:

Here is a link that might be useful: Tumors on rats fed with GM-corn

Straw - I can't speak to soy milk because I had some once and that was enough, but as for tofu, every package I've happened to buy or at least look at recently was labeled "certified non-GMO."

Thanks for that link, Ruthanna.

It's just a reminder that we can Google to our heart's content, but we have to remember that anyone can put anything on the internet, it doesn't make it so. Resources and information must be checked and verified, we can't just blindly believe it "because it's on the internet". Even Wikipedia is made of information from various unsubstantiated sources, which may or may not do the necessary research to prove their point.

That said, I just read an interesting article in "Grit" magazine, showing the correlation of increased usage of Roundup herbicide on wheat to the increased problems of gluten intolerance.

We are what we eat, or as Joel Salatin says, "We are what what we eat eats".

FOAS, I agree with you on the soy milk, nasty stuff, I hope to never drink it again. I do like tofu, though, and I've also found that my last several packages have been marked as GMO free.

Annie

More than a decade ago I read a book, "The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side .." by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, where she published the study in Hawaii. I include the entire abstract here. The link below explains why aluminum toxicity is a problem in industrial tofu-production: harsh chemicals which corrode aluminum.

Brain Aging and Midlife Tofu Consumption

Lon R.White, MD, MPH, Helen Petrovitch, MD, G. Webster Ross, MD, Kamal Masaki, MD, John Hardman, MD, James Nelson, MD, Daron Davis, MD, and William Markesbery, MD

National Institute on Aging, NIH (L.W., formerly), the Pacific Health Research Institute (L.W., H.P.), University of Hawaii at Manoa (L.W., H.P., G.W.R., K.M., J.H.), the Department of Veterans Affairs, Honolulu (L.W., G.W.R.), Kuakini Medical Center, Honolulu (H.P., K.M.) Hawaii, Louisiana State University (J.N.), Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the University of Kentucky (D.D.,W.M.), Lexington, Kentucky

Objective: To examine associations of midlife tofu consumption with brain function and structural changes in late life.

Methods: The design utilized surviving participants of a longitudinal study established in 1965 for research on heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Information on consumption of selected foods was available from standardized interviews conducted 1965-67 and 1971-74.

Results: Poor cognitive test performance, enlargement of ventricles and low brain weight were each significantly and independently associated with higher midlife tofu consumption.

A similar association of midlife tofu intake with poor late life cognitive test scores was also observed among wives of cohort members, using the husband’s answers to food frequency questions as proxy for the wife’s consumption.

Conclusions: In this population, higher midlife tofu consumption was independently associated with indicators of cognitive impairment and brain atrophy in late life.

**** An excerpt from the below link

Dr. Harris quotes a number of studies which support the relationship between aluminum consumption and Alzheimers, and he recently sent me another published in a French medical journal in July 2000 showing that traces of aluminum in drinking water significantly increased the risks of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

This was a large study of 3,777 people with a follow up after 8 years which suggested a strong cause/effect between aluminum and the kinds of brain problems reported in the Hawaii study and attributed by the researchers to tofu.

The aluminum factor currently seems like a very possible explanation for the alleged "brain aging" properties of soy -- many Hawaiian tofu-eaters are eating a lot of aluminum, too. Not so curiously, none of the soy manufacturers which Dr. Harris contacted with the results of his study ever responded. It would probably be very costly for those Hawaiian soy manufacturers to replace their tubes and processing equipment with non-aluminum parts.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aluminum in tofu-production and brain decline

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Wed, Feb 26, 14 at 23:21

Eden soy does a good job to explain the concerns about tofu & their products. Here's an excerpt to Eden Soy's website:

"Claim 12: Soy foods may contain harmful levels of aluminum. (Fallon, 1996)[21]

Answer 12: The author describes aluminum occurring in soy as a result of an industrial processing step. This occurs only when producers use harsh alkaline soaking solutions that leach aluminum from aluminum processing equipment. Not all soy processing uses alkaline soaking solutions and not all soy is produced using aluminum equipment. Harsh alkaline soaking solutions are used mainly in the production of modern soy foods such as soy protein isolates, soy protein concentrates, soy supplements, soy protein shakes, textured soy protein (TSP), etc. Eden does not use alkaline soaking solutions and does not use aluminum equipment. Our test results show no trace of aluminum in Edensoy, testing at a sensitivity of .1ppm. All other Eden brand soy products such as Eden Dried Tofu, Miso, Shoyu Soy Sauce, Tamari Soy Sauce and Tekka (miso condiment) are made without alkaline solutions and with non aluminum equipment.

Here is a link that might be useful: Eden Soy defense to concerns about Soy

There's a wide variation among the samples from Hawaii tofu manufacturers. See below link for the aluminum content of various sources of tofu. "William Harris, M.D. writes: On 11/30/99 I took 16 samples of soy products for an aluminum assay to University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. Agricultural Diagnostic Service Center".

Here is a link that might be useful: William Harris, M.D.'s data on aluminum and tofu

My picky kid has "food intuition" sense, she hates tofu and cooked corn .. GM corn from Sam's club is tough, hard to digest. It's a let-down from the organic sweet corn we grew in Michigan (when I was a teenager), so tender that I could eat 10 ears per day. I'll pay extra-money to buy organic corn just to get my kid to eat that stuff.

Here's an excerpt from the below link of how tofu is made: "To produce about 400 g of tofu you need 2 liter soy milk and two teaspoons calcium sulphate (gypsum). Instead of calcium sulphate, you can also use nigari, but which is more difficult to find ... nigari has a slight bitter taste." Info. about nigari:

http://www.kameyamado.com/english/how_nigari_is_made.html "when sodium chloride crystallizes, the liquid at this point contains a large number of minerals such as magnesium chloride, magnesium sulfate and potassium chloride, and is in fact nigari bitter ... magnesium sulfate gives it the bitter taste. "

In VN, my Mom made tofu monthly and she used calcium sulphate (gypsum). It's also cheapest. Gypsum is corrosive with 17% sulfur and 22% calcium. It corroded and rusted my metal scoop when I used in the garden for my roses The questions are: which tofu maker used calcium sulphate? And would that corrode stainless steel as well?

Other coagulants are magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt) with 13% sulfur, and nigari. Stainless steel equipment is more expensive than aluminum. I have an aluminum steamer which I bought for $2 at garage sale and it lasts me for 20+ years ... practically forever. My Mom used aluminum pots in Vietnam.

Knowing how corrosive calcium sulphate (17% sulfur) is, I would look to see if that is used, or the more expensive & bitter nigari, or the 13% sulfur & bitter magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt). While googling on tofu-making, I ran across a site with instructions on aluminum plates, and another site, below, with aluminum door (tofu corner).

Here is a link that might be useful: Aluminum door (tofu corner) made in China

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Thu, Feb 27, 14 at 11:33

I share your concerns about GMO foods but I do want to add that pre GMO it was not uncommon for people to develop allergies later in life. Late onset allergies happen for a variety of reasons. GMO can certainly be a cause but other factors come into play as well.

That so-called scientific paper on Roundup ready GM) corn causing tumors in rats was the most embarrassing piece of rigged junk science ever published. Read the actual paper. It presumed that because the GMO corn was bred to be resistant to Roundup, there would be a ton of Roundup residues in the corn because farmers could freely use the herbicide and that is what would cause the tumors. But the researcher despite going through bushel after bushel of corn couldn't find Roundup residues. SO HE PUT MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF ROUNDUP IN THE RATS' ONLY DRINKING. So the rats got tumors.

Guess what, Roundup already carries a warning label that don't drink this stuff.

Don't believe me? Its right there in the material and methods of the researcher's papers. Is this mentioned in any of the press releases or press coverage, especially the part about he couldn't find any Roundup residues? Nope.

I read the entire link below, and I don't see any data to support what you said "he put a massive amounts of roundup in the rat's drinking water." If you can provide links or excerpts to back that up, I appreciate it greatly.

Before throwing dirt at the studies, I challenge you to use yourself as a Guiana pig and eat Fiber One cereal (mostly corn fiber) at least 2 times a day for 1 year like I did, then do the same with organic oat bran cereal, then organic wheat bran cereal. You'll see the difference.

I already went through this with my sister, a corporate lawyer defending Monsanto. My motto is "No need to defame, throw dirt, attack, or argue, just eat the stuff and see for yourself." Talk is cheap. You can tell me with your words, but it's best through your action - stuff yourself with GM corn fiber, and see what happens.

Nothing in this thread is new, except for the Australian study on pigs which were cited at the beginning of the thread. The book I read years ago was, "The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick - And What We Can Do About It by O'Brien, Robyn and Kranz, Rachel (May 5, 2009). The book talked about bullying by Monsanto against the small farmers, and defaming international scientists. The politics and lobbying done by big corporation is aggressive and win-at-any-cost, such as the "revolving" door between FDA and Monsanto. Read the book and see for yourself.

The paper I read is in the link below: "A Comparison of the Effects of Three GM Corn Varieties on Mammalian Health"

Joël Spiroux de Vendômois1, François Roullier1, Dominique Cellier1,2, Gilles-Eric Séralini1,3

"Our analysis clearly reveals for the 3 GMOs new side effects linked with GM maize consumption, which were sex- and often dose-dependent. Effects were mostly associated with the kidney and liver, the dietary detoxifying organs, although different between the 3 GMOs. Other effects were also noticed in the heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system. We conclude that these data highlight signs of hepatorenal toxicity, possibly due to the new pesticides specific to each GM corn. "

Prof. Gilles-Eric Séralini is a molecular biologist at the University of Caen, team leader and author of books on environment and GMOs. He was expert for the French government (1998-2007) and the European Union at the WTO level and for the council of Ministers on GMOs (2003, 2008), president of the scientific council for independent research on genetic engineering (CRIIGEN), and receiver of Order of Merit for his scientific career (2008). Correspondence: criigen@unicaen.fr

Dr. Joël Spiroux de Vendômois is doctor in medicine, specialist in environmental pathologies and co-organizer of the first European meeting on environmental pathologies.

François ROULLIER is a statistician.

Dr. Dominique CELLIER is a researcher in bioinformatics, co-organizer of a Master 2 in bioinformatics and statistics at the University of Rouen.

Here is a link that might be useful: International Journal of Biological Sciences

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Thu, Feb 27, 14 at 20:22

The French are not dumb. Here's the news 3 days ago:

Published February 24, 2014, 09:26 AM - France moves to ban GM maize planting. France published a decree Feb. 17 to prevent the planting of genetically modified (GM) maize as a stop-gap measure, while the government works on changes to domestic and European laws to ensure a longer-term ban. By: Reuters.
http://www.agweek.com/event/article/id/22761/group/Crops/

For a list of countries that ban GM crops, versus those that embrace GM (USA, China, Canada), see link below. Also an excerpt from the below link:

"In India: The government placed a last-minute ban on GM eggplant just before it was scheduled to begin being planted in 2010. However, farmers were widely encouraged to plant Monsanto’s GM cotton and it has led to devastating results. The UK’s Daily Mail reports that an estimated 125,000 farmers have committed suicide because of crop failure and massive debt since planting GM seeds."

Here is a link that might be useful: List of Countries That Ban GMO Crops

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Thu, Feb 27, 14 at 20:46

For lazygardens: I found a site that contains links to the actual research and published papers on GMO. Just click on the footnotes inside the link, and it will lead you to the research papers. Here's an excerpt from the link below:

"There are eight GM food crops. The five major varieties��"soy, corn, canola, cotton, and sugar beets��"have bacterial genes inserted, which allow the plants to survive an otherwise deadly dose of weed killer. Farmers use considerably more herbicides on these GM crops and so the food has higher herbicide residues. About 68% of GM crops are herbicide tolerant.

The second GM trait is a built-in pesticide, found in GM corn and cotton. A gene from the soil bacterium called Bt (for Bacillus thuringiensis) is inserted into the plant’s DNA, where it secretes the insect-killing Bt-toxin in every cell. About 19% of GM crops produce their own pesticide. Another 13% produce a pesticide and are herbicide tolerant.

Read more at http://naturalrevolution.org/gmo-resources/

*** From Straw: God made food perfect for us. I trust Him, I don't trust the guy in the white coat who inserts foreign genes in the plant's makeup to tolerate a large dose of Round-up for the benefits of the corporation, rather than the consumers. Monsanto, the maker of GMO, is also the maker of Round-up.

Here is a link that might be useful: Health Risks of GMOs

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Thu, Feb 27, 14 at 22:16

The following was stated: "That so-called scientific paper on Roundup ready GM) corn causing tumors in rats was the most embarrassing piece of rigged junk science ever published."
------------------------------
H.Kuska comment. The following is a very recent reviewed published scientific paper on the subject.

The Abstract starts with: "A 2-year rat feeding study with genetically modified NK603 maize sparked an international scientific and public debate as well as policy responses by the European Commission. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) evaluated the study as defective based on conceptual and methodological shortcomings by retroactive application of the recommendations of its recent guidance on 90-day feeding studies. Our comparative analysis of the three relevant NK603 publications, including a 90-day feeding study of Monsanto, showed that all of them satisfy or fail
to satisfy the EFSA evaluation criteria to a comparable extent; the rejection of only one of the papers is, thus, not scientifically justified. We also show that EFSA's criteria are not standard practice in 21 other rat feeding studies lasting at a minimum of 12 months. The review reveals critical double standards in the evaluation of feeding studies submitted as proof of safety for regulatory approval to EFSA."

Please read the rest of the Abstract and the Conclusion Section.
-----------------------------
The following is from the paper:
"doi:10.1186/2190-4715-25-33
Cite this article as: Meyer and Hilbeck: Rat feeding studies with genetically modified maize - a comparative evaluation of applied methods and risk assessment standards. Environmental Sciences Europe 2013 25:33."

The authors information is:
"Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests. The work of HM was financially supported by ENSSER. ENSSER did not have any role in study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication.
Authors’ contributions
HM carried out the analysis of the documents submitted to EFSA by Monsanto with its application for approval of NK602 maize for food and feed purposes. HM and AH wrote the review. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank several ENSSER members for initial discussions and valuable comments.
Author details
1European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER), In den Steinäckern 13, 38116 Braunschweig, Germany. 2Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Institute of Integrative Biology IBZ, Universitätstrasse, 16, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland."

"Received: 15 August 2013 Accepted: 18 November 2013
Published: 1 December 2013"

Here is a link that might be useful: 2013 review

already tired of GMO protest! The real food, that is what nature intend for us to enjoy, why people can not tell the difference, imitation crab is not the real McCoy, not the juicy delicious King Crab, why you accept cubic Zircon when you can have the real diamond?

Thank you, Strawberryhill for your extensive research and we are totally supportive of your information on this site.

The link to the scientific paper is on my work computer which I won't be at until Monday. Meanwhile here's some of the scientific review of the study: Michael Grayer, a medical statistician, pointed out that the study included 18 groups of rats that were exposed to GMOs or Roundup (nine each for male and female rats), compared to only two control groups. "The potential for cherry-picking the nice positive results here from a sea of boring null ones is immense," he wrote on his blog. "Not saying they did it, of course, but it's certainly a concern."
Also, if this experiment truly showed a link between genetically engineered food and tumors, one might expect the rats that ate more of the GM corn to develop more tumors. In fact, the opposite happened. The rats eating a diet of 33 percent GMO corn stayed healthier than animals eating food with a GMO concentration of just 11 percent.
Seralini, for his part, says that this simply shows that GMOs are toxic in a different way. They merely need to rise above a certain threshold level to have harmful effects; increasing the concentration doesn't increase the harm.
Some scientists were inclined to dismiss the study simply based on Seralini's history of anti-GMO claims. "I know this guy. He has published a lot of rubbish," says Harry Kuiper, a Dutch scientist who used to be in charge of the European Commission's research program on the safety of genetically modified foods. That program sponsored many previous studies, including animal feeding studies, which came to less alarming conclusions and got much less attention than Seralini's.

I am far from trusting of Monsanto or other corporation but I don't see organizations that are philosophically opposed to GMOs being any more factual or objective in their research. I would like to see sound science provide real hard data for good decision making instead of fear mongering or grandstanding on anyone's or any side's part.

Hi Kimka: The best way of being objective is to try the stuff yourself: eat Fiber One cereal (mainly corn fiber) for 1 year, and see for yourself. Talk is cheap, it takes courage to try things for yourself, rather than throwing dirt at others. It's more useful to do one's research, rather than nit-picking or bad-mouthing others.

I checked Henry's credentials at http://home.roadrunner.com/~kuska/ Henry is a retired chemistry professor from The University of Akron (1965-1993). He obtained his Ph. D. in chemistry from Michigan State University in 1965 ... that's when I was still in my diaper. You ask for sound science, you get that from Henry. I respect Henry because he takes time to find the truth, rather than putting others down.

Like Henry, I'm out to find the truth, rather than slandering. My B.S. is in Computer, minor in chemistry. I took all the science classes: biochemistry, microbiology, plus Genetics in college.

Here is a link that might be useful: Henry Kuska's Home page

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Fri, Feb 28, 14 at 12:54

Hi Strawberry Hill.

I'm not trying to slander or put down anyone on this forum. But I have a real problem with those (especially scientists) who purposely use smoke and mirrors if not outright lies to try and get others to support their philosophical position...like the scientist who made up the data about vaccines causing autism. He finally admitted he made up his data and no other scientific study has duplicated it. But that hasn't stopped the anti-vaccine juggernaut.

I have been a direct part of two major teams working on GMOs. One of them was the big multi-player project to check if there really was any risk posed by BT corn varieties to Monarch butterflies after a Cornell University prof's study of 10 caterpillars (that was his whole study 10 of them). That project by design included scientists from U.S. and Canadian universities, anti-GMO group researchers, USDA researchers, the Cornell scientist, even two industry researchers. When all of the data was in and analyzed, it turned out that as a Smithsonian scientist and reviewer said more Monarchs die on car windshields every summer than die from Bt corn pollen. Its mostly a matter of timing. The pollen is only shed 10-14 days a year and the timing of pollen shed doesn't overlap with when caterpillars are around corn fields. The pollen completely degrades pretty quickly after shed. The Union of Concern Scientists and Green Peace were part of the project and review and didn't disagree because the mountain of scientific data is indisputable. But if you go to the Green Peace web site, it still has a big Bt corn is killing the Monarchs section.

By the way, besides the problems with the loss of overwintering habitat in Mexico, the biggest problem Monarchs are facing is that counties and states keeping mowing all of the roadsides where an overwhelming majority of the milkweed (monarch caterpillar's only diet) grows. If they would let it grow, the Monarch population might rebound some.

I've gone on way too long here. But I'm always glad to provide lots of primary scientific data or discuss or debate ideas. But my biggest single position is that I hope people will always gather facts and make up their own mind about things. And yes, I do eat GMO foods.

On Thu, Feb 27, 14 at 19:51, Strawberryhill posted a link to a reviewed published 2009 scientific paper from the GE Séralini group.

They stated the following: ""Our analysis clearly reveals for the 3 GMOs new side effects linked with GM maize consumption, which were sex- and often dose-dependent. Effects were mostly associated with the kidney and liver, the dietary detoxifying organs, although different between the 3 GMOs. Other effects were also noticed in the heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system. We conclude that these data highlight signs of hepatorenal toxicity, possibly due to the new pesticides specific to each GM corn."

H.Kuska comment. Please notice that they stated: "Effects were mostly associated with the kidney and liver, the dietary detoxifying organs, although different between the 3 GMOs."
--------------------------------------------
The following reviewed published 2013 scientific paper:
Title: "Gamma-Glutamyl Transferase Activity in Kids Born from Goats Fed Genetically Modified Soybean" also found kidney and liver disturbances not only in the goats fed the GMO food but in their offspring. Please read the Discussion Section to put the following Conclusion Section in context.

"Conclusion
Our results show that transgenic genes could be detected in organs and blood of kids whose mothers were fed GM soybean. In these animals, the presence of normal serum levels of tested enzymes shows that no cell injury occurred but cell metabolism seems to be affected both in liver and kidney. Such results are in agreement with recent studies which showed alteration of other enzymes local production and confirm the feeling that research concerning the effects of GM feeding is still far from over."

H. Kuska additional comment. Also please note that they reference one of the GE Séralini group papers (reference 2). " Several data indicate liver and kidney problems as end points of GM diet effects [2]."

Here is a link that might be useful: link to 2013 reviewed published scientific study

Thank you, Dr. Henry, for that paper on toxic GM-effects on goats.

Corn & soybean & canola & cottonseed are genetically modified, the Republic Magazine stated that other grains are safe: "Other than corn, no GM grains are sold on the market. Look for 100-percent wheat pasta, couscous, rice, quinoa, oats, barley, sorghum, and dried beans (except soybeans).

Most GM ingredients are products made from the “Big Four:” corn, soybeans, canola, and cottonseed. Sugar beets and 50% of Hawaii papaya are genetically modified."

**** from Straw: That's why I buy sugar-cane products, rather than sugar made from beets. I fed my kid those Pepperidge Farm cookies (made from cottonseed oil) and she broke out in rashes and scratched herself bloody. I ate those cookies and had the worst hayfever: runny nose & sneezing.

Went shopping yesterday: They had strawberries for $2.50 versus organic strawberries for $3.45. I sniffed both: the organic strawberries was more fragrant, versus the regular with a slight chemical scent. After sniffing both for several times, my nose was in pain (I stuck my nose too close). I realized that it's the pesticides sprayed on that inflamed my nose. My nose burned for hours afterwards Two years ago I tasted grape at the store, and had a tummy ache. Strawberries is known for the most pesticides

I'm very sadden by UK’s Daily Mail report that an estimated 125,000 farmers in India have committed suicide because of crop failure and massive debt since planting GM seeds. Recent Center for Human Rights and Global Justice report: "Indian farmers bought genetically modified Bollgard Bt cotton seeds from the Gates Foundation-backed Monsanto corporation ... 85 percent of cotton grown in India being Monsanto-controlled Bt cotton by 2009.

However, the seeds were expensive, and spiralling prices (coupled with planting restrictions from the multinationals selling the seeds) led farmers to hefty loans. Almost 300,000 cotton workers have committed suicide to date, some of them by drinking the same insecticides they were sold by multinationals."

From Straw: Years ago I watched a documentary film "Seeds of deception" where Mexican agriculture scientists voiced concern with GM seeds corrupting the bio-diversity of local seeds, which are well-adapted to drought and adverse local conditions.

Dr. Frank Lipman, from http://www.drfranklipman.com/basic-questions-on-gmos/ stated, "The major benefit of all commercial GMO’s is that they are bred to either tolerate direct application of herbicides and/or have the ability to produce their own pesticides. They have not been bred to increase yield, become drought tolerant, improve nutrition or to have any other benefit to the consumer. So at present they have no health benefit, their benefits are purely economic."

*** From Straw: It's about power, money, and control. Politics and economic factors are factors, besides ill health. The vindictive dirt-throwing, defamation attacks against international scientists, and bullying tactics of big corporations made me more sick than the ill-effects of GM-foods.

We are saved from our wheat being genetically-modified, thanks to the farmers voicing concerns that our wheat can't be exported, if genetically modified.

More from Dr. Lipman: "In Europe, over 175 regions and over 4500 municipalities have declared themselves GM-free zones. And in 2009, Germany along with France, Hungary, Italy, Greece, Austria, Poland and Romania banned Monsanto’s MON 810 GM corn because of its documented dangers to biodiversity and human health. Additionally, states in Australia, regions in New Zealand and Brazil and the countries like Venezuela, Zambia, Sudan, Angola and others, all want to be GM-free.The balanced reporting of the press in Europe of the dangers of GMO’s made a significant contribution to the decision to reject GMO’s.

Below link is a detailed list from Republic Magazine on which foods are GM-tainted:

Here is a link that might be useful: List of GM foods vs. non-GM

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Sat, Mar 1, 14 at 15:06

Straw, while I share your concern about GMOs, I'm wondering if you're perhaps grasping at, well, straws, with some of your conclusions.

Obviously you and your daughter are food sensitive based on the reactions you've described. But to try some cookies, have two different reactions which may or may not have something to do with the cookies, and then blame one ingredient for the reaction is hardly anything remotely close to a controlled experiment.

Similarly your burning nose from sniffing strawberries. You say you sniffed BOTH strawberries, but you blame the burning nose on pesticides in the non-organic. Maybe it was the pesticides from the organic? (I understand they use pesticides, just "organic" pesticides.) Again, far from a scientific conclusion as you've presented it.

Hi Foodonastump: There's a wise saying, "don't criticize unless you walk a mile in the others' shoes." I appreciate if someone try the same as I did, and report the result. Please sniff the strawberries 10 times at the store, before you criticize my inflamed nose. Your criticism are not objective either, because you are not in my shoes.

I don't write for critics to nit-pick, I write to benefit mothers and young children who are sensitive to pesticides and chemicals. Cottonseed is a heavily sprayed crop, and its protein is structurally similar to peanuts, which both I and my kid are allergic to. See below link for the list of 54 pesticides on strawberries:

9 ��" Known or Probable Carcinogens4
24 ��" Suspected Hormone Disruptors
11 ��" Neurotoxins
12 ��" Developmental or Reproductive Toxins

Environmental Effects:

19 ��" Honeybee Toxins5

**** Here's the info. for cotton from http://www.ecochoices.com/1/cotton_statistics.html

Of all insecticides used globally each year, the estimated amount used on traditional cotton: 16-25%, more than any other single crop. (EJF. (2007). The deadly chemicals in cotton. Environmental Justice Foundation in collaboration with Pesticide Action Network UK: London, UK. ISBN No. 1-904523-10-2.)

Five of the top nine pesticides used on cotton in the U.S. (cyanide, dicofol, naled, propargite, and trifluralin) are KNOWN cancer-causing chemicals. All nine are classified by the U.S. EPA as Category I and II��" the most dangerous chemicals.

In the U.S. today, it takes approximately 8-10 years, and $100 million to develop a new pesticide for use on cotton. It takes approximately 5-6 years for weevils and other pests to develop an immunity to a new pesticide.
600,408 tons of herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers, fungicides, and other chemicals were used to produce cotton in 1992 in the 6 largest cotton producing states. (Agricultural Chemical Usage, 1992 Field Crops Summary, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service)

Here is a link that might be useful: What's on my foods: 54 pesticides on strawberries

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Sat, Mar 1, 14 at 15:31

"Structurally similar to peanuts," which you're both allergic to. So you're blaming cottonseed - which given what you've said sounds plausible - but my issue is that you've taken it a step further by insinuating it's the GMO factor that's causing your reactions.

Earlier in this thread you talked about corn products and how you felt better after having got off them. I have no reason to question your experience but did you switch to non-GMO corn for another year to determine whether your problem is corn itself or whether it's GMO corn?

To me - as I've read it - it's kind of like someone talking about their reaction to nasty Asian farmed shrimp, when the fact of the matter is they've simply got a shellfish allergy.

I'm not read the studies in depth (or much at all, honestly) but is there anything that discusses immediate reactions as you've described, or is the concern longer term effects? Sorry, but in your paragraph about your reaction to cottonseed oil, your conclusion about it being similar to peauts which you now you're allergic to, seems reasonable. Taking a jump and insinuating that it's because the cottonseed is GMO is not a reasonable conclusion In my opinion.

Again, I'm all about organic and I'm all about strong scepticism re GMO's and I certainly appreciate this thread and links to further reading, I'm just questioning some conclusions based on anecdotal evidence.

Hi foodonastump: I did not state that it's the GM component of cottonseed is what my family sick. I simply report the adverse reaction to eating Pepperidge Farm cookies with cottonseed oil, to spare other kids the misery of scratching until they bleed. It's YOU who made the link to GM, not me.

My peanut allergy is a late-life development, after I turned 50, lousy sleep & rash. I was a heavy-peanut eater since childhood. But my reaction to cottonseed oil in Pepperidge Farm cookies was very severe, worst than hay fever, sneezing constantly & wheezing.

I simply report about my inflamed nose after sniffing strawberries. I sniffed the organic once, it was fragrant enough so I stopped sniffing. But I sniffed carton after carton of regular strawberries many times until I could find a fragrant one that match the organic.

With regard to GM-corn. I ate Fiber One for 1 year with severe tummy upset. So I quit that and switched to Nature Path Organic corn cereal .. love that stuff, no problem whatsoever.

I bought the organic strawberry. Today, after 24 hours lapse after my last sniffing. I took the organic container, and put my nose smack on the berries, and sniffed exactly 10 times. My nose was mildly irritated for 1/2 hour, but not to the degree of yesterday when it was dripping nose, and inflamed nose for the entire evening.

I searched on organic strawberries, and yes, they contain pesticides, but at a lesser level than regular strawberries. Driscoli made both regular and organic strawberries, with organic costing at least $1 more. I wish people would TRY things for themselves and report the results, rather than nit-picking on someone else who report for others' benefits. It's more useful to report your own experience & research, than nit-picking someone else. I have done enough testing with foods, now it's YOUR TURN.

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Sat, Mar 1, 14 at 19:48

Well when the subject of the thread is GMO foods, and then in a post you mention cottonseed as one of the "big four" GMOs, and the very next paragraph is about how you and your kid reacted badly to Pepperidge Farm cookies made from cottonseed oil, I don't think I was going out on much of a limb interpreting it as you drawing a link. It wasn't until I questioned it that you brought up the issue of pesticides and your peanut allergy.

I stand by my comments based on the way you presented it. That said just about everything is making me argumentative today (at best) and I just read the Contraindications warnings on some medicine that I'm taking for a week and it lists "psychic derangements" as a possible side effect. So I'll leave it at that. For a week at least. :-)

Seaweed, I have a 45 carat Cubic Zirconia ring that I love wearing (and do not take seriously), but there is no way I could have a real diamond that size! My ring is a replica of JaLo's engagement ring from Ben Affleck, but I am not concerned that the engagement did not work out, and so the ring might as well be fake! I am not sure why you would compare jewelry to food. I take food seriously, but jewelry is for fun.

I took food allergy tests a few years ago and learned that I have moderate allergies to soy, wheat, corn, rice, barley, and oats. I have a feeling that it would be better for me not to eat any of these, but this list is too long, and my allergies are only moderate. I am not sure what I would eat if I gave up soy, wheat, corn, rice, barley, and oats, but at some point, I would like to give it a try. I guess I could eat fruit, nuts, and meat, but that might get a bit expensive. I wonder how many other people have these allergies and are unaware of them. My doctor told me that I might not like the results if I had these tests done, and he was right!

Lars

Strawberryhill, I really appreciate the information you've posted and the serenity with which you reply to people who disagree with you. I've been running a similar thread on a different site, and I get very frustrated with the attitude of the people who simply don't want to hear that there's anything wrong with GMOs, and besides, "we need them to feed the world."

Re impacts of non-organic fruits, after eating nothing but organic apples for years I was tempted by a shiny non-organic Winesap at a farmers' market, but when I bit into it my lips started to burn. I forgot about that experience until without thinking I tried another non-organic apple a year or so later and found the same thing. Lack of exposure definitely can sensitize you to chemicals. And non-organic apples and strawberries are among the most chemically-laden.

I thought about this a long time.

We have to look out for ourselves now. I respect freedom of choice but believe that it is also our right to know what is in our food. Our beautiful country is full of sick people eating dangerously and taking medicine to try and feel better. The results will be in after a few generations but that will be too late for us and our kids.

Please use caution and buy the safest food you can afford

Thank you Strawberry for looking out for kids everywhere.

It's not just allergies anymore