By: Melita Horvat |
Studies confirm: GMO causes obesity |
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Obesity is one of the most urgent and fastest growing health issues in the world.
The statistics show that it affects as much as one third of the world's population.
In spite of vocal warnings from the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of obese people has been growing year in, year out.
Experts predict that a half of the world's population will suffer from this problem by 2050.
The statistics presented are particularly worrying since excessive weight significantly contributes to many diseases:
- diabetes
- lung disease
- digestive system disease
- cardiovascular disease
- brain stroke
- cancer
According to recent research, GMO food is one of the biggest culprits for this epidemic.
GMO – danger on your plate
The term GMO covers plants or animals whose DNA has been altered in a lab, or in other words modified by genetic material from other living organisms - plants, animals, bacteria or viruses.
The purpose of such genetic engineering is enhancing resistence to disease, pesticides and weather. A higher yield brings higher profits.
In recent years one of the most frequent disagreements among health experts has regarded the level of safety of GM food.
While some see it as a practical solution for combating hunger in the world, leading world experts warn that GMO is a danger for health and the future of the human race.
As early as 2005 F. William Engdahl published the book "Seeds of Destruction" in which he warned:
Spreading genetically modified crops and foods throughout the world is so common nowadays that it deserves to be called a crime against humanity.
The scientists' caution and fear are justified because the consumption of GM foods is linked to health problems such as diabetes, digestive disorders, inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune diseases, sexual dysfunction, infertility, autism, allergies, asthma, cancer and many other diseases.
GMO vegetables, fruit, wheat and other foods have recently been linked to excessive weight.
Studies confirm GM food causes obesity
Within a long-term project of studying effects of genetically modified food on health, Norwegian scientists carried out a research based on testing two groups of rats.
The first group was fed organic, and the other GM food. During 90 days the weight of rats fed GM corn increased substantially. The same group was observed to eat more corn.
At the end of testing Ashild Krogdahl, a professor at the Norwegian Faculty of veterinarian sciences and at the same time the lead author of the aforementioned research, expressed his concern and posed a rhetorical question:
If the same effect is applicable to humans, how will the GM corn and other foods grown with these methods impact the people who have been eating it for years?
A study published in 2009 in International Journal of Biological Sciences also confirmed GM food contributed to the obesity epidemic.
The study was carried out on mice whose weight at the end of testing increased by 37%.
Non-profit organization Organic Centar found that the levels of nutritious content had dropped by 10-25% compared to 50 years before.
This notably refers to GM crops. Experts believe the insufficient nutritive value of foods is one of the factors contributing to the weight gain.
When there is a deficit of nutrients, one must eat a higher quantity of foods in order to ingest recommended nutrient levels that the organism needs.
That was confirmed by the said Norwegian study during which it was noted rats ate more GM corn, and less organic corn.
Another reason, according to the experts, are chemicals, specifically herbicides from GM crops.
GM crops are designed in such a way to withstand a high concentration of toxicity in order to develop a higher resistence and produce higher yields.
The toxic chemicals accumulated in the crops enter the organism through food disturbing the endocrine function or upsetting the intestinal flora health. This, beside other health issues, results in weight gain.
A rise in hunger and obesity
The statistics of the past decade doesn't support the claims of GM champions that it is a great solution for the world hunger.
At the same time, it confirmes the increase in the problems, including obesity:
- The quantity of GM crops is on the rise, while GM food in all shapes or forms is getting more and more prominence on the shelves in the malls.
- More food is being thrown into garbage then ever before.
- The percentage of hungry people is on the increase.
- Obesity rate is growing.
Data on obesity rates from 2014 provide sufficient basis for the suspicion that GMO and excessive weight are related.
600 million adults are obese
1,9 billion people are overweight
42 million children under five are either obese or are overweight
Statistics show that the problem of excessive weight mostly concerns the United States.
This country is also on the very top in the sales and the consumption of GM foods.
Research has shown that up to 80% food items on the shelves of the American shops contains GM ingredients.
Taking all these facts into consideration, we may assert that the scientists' findings regarding GM food and obesity have firm foundations.
What can the consumers do?
In spite of these alarming data, it is expected that the production and consumption of GM foods will continue to rise.
The reason is huge profits, which preclude the independent scientific studies on GMO by the big companies.
It seems that many questions related to GMO will long remain unanswered.
What you can do is take care of your and your family's health by choosing food certified as organic whenever possible.
You should also raise the awareness in your social environment about the harmfulness of GMO and educate others about the importance of healthy nutrition.
Finally, support the legislation ordering that the GM food must be appropriately marked and that it must not be placed in the same category as naturally grown food.
Sources for this article include:
[url=http://blogs.naturalnews.com/]http://blogs.naturalnews.com/[/url]
[url=http://www.prevention.com/]http://www.prevention.com/[/url]
[url=http://www.ewg.org/ ]http://www.ewg.org/ [/url];
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