Top Ten Most Modified Foods

Top Ten Most Modified Foods

from Healthy Child Healthy World

We often hear the question: “What foods should I avoid?” this is a great question, as many of our everyday foods are so genetically modified (GM) that they aren’t even close to the foods that originally developed over time on earth. So here is a list of the top ten most modified foods that you should try to avoid:

1)       CORN – Our #1 agricultural commodity. In 2009, nearly 20 million acres of GM corn was planted and harvested in this country, including Bt and Roundup Ready corn varieties. Corn has leaked into almost every part of our daily life, from food to clothing to plastics, corn is everywhere!

2)     SOY – The #2 agricultural commodity in our country. 60%(!) of processed food in this country contains some variation of soy in it, and over 80% of edible fats and oils in this country are soy based. Over half of the nearly 75 million acres of soy in this country are GM. Not to mention that Monsanto doesn’t allow farmers to clean their beans and re-plant them, you have to buy new seeds from them EVERY YEAR!

3)      POTATO - Currently, the only GM potato is a Burbank Russet variety, marketed under the name NewLeaf. This Bt-producing plant is lethal to the Colorado potato beetle – and possibly to beneficial insects.

4)     TOMATO - The first GM tomato, the Flavr Savr, was introduced commercially in 1994, but flopped because it proved tasteless. Since then, other varieties, including a cherry tomato, have been genetically engineered to delay ripening and extend shelf life.

5)      CANOLA OIL - Of the 15 million acres of canola grown in the U.S. and Canada annually, 35% is GM, mostly for herbicide-resistance.

6)     COTTONSEED OIL - In 2000, 61% of the 15.5 million acres of cotton grown in the U.S. was genetically modfied. Every year, half a million tons of cottonseed oil makes its way into salad dressings, baked goods and snack foods. About 1.4 million tons of cottonseed meal is fed to livestock annually. And as we eat those livestock, we also consume whatever they have consumed, so watch the meat you’re eating and make sure it is as green-fed as possible.

7)      PAPAYA - More than one third of Hawaiian papayas have been genetically engineered to withstand the papaya ringspot virus. Organic papaya growers in Hawaii worry that the pollen from GM papaya trees will contaminate their crops.

8)      RADDICHIO - Currently one variety of radicchio, called Seed Link, has been genetically modified to be resistant to the herbicide glufosinate.

9)     SQUASH - Several varieties of summer squash have been genetically engineered to resist mosaic viruses. Some scientists are concerned that resistance to the virus may spread to weedy relatives, such as gourds, found in the U.S., creating invasive superweeds.

10)   SALMON - A company called Aqua Bounty has engineered a salmon with genes from two different fish species so that it grows much more quickly than non-GM salmon. The company now seeks FDA approval to market this fish for human consumption. Escaped into the environment, (which is inevitable on fish farms), the GM fish may be larger and more aggressive, eat more food, and mate more often, though their offspring are less fit to survive in the wild, raising the possibility of wild species extinction. Human health effects are also relatively unknown. Currently, research on transgenic strains of 35 fish species world-wide is underway.