What are allergies and how do they grow? The body’s immune system reacts to what it believes to be undesirable foreign invader particulate matter known as allergens which by a series of cascade mechanics it finally destroys. All very well when dealing with potentially harmful foreign invaders.
Immune system
However, not so great when as in the case of allergies that the immune system is hypersensitive and reacts needlessly by wrongfully identifying benign substances as harmful and assaulting them ferociously. Pollen which is a frequent activator as most allergy sufferers know. Besides pollen other airborne particulate matter is present in the kind of dust, dust mites, and mildew spores. Now to make things worse evidence indicates that genetically modified (GM) foods have led to a rise in allergies.
It’s been said that the security standards aren’t adequate enough to protect us from the hazards of GM foods identify lots of the risks. A fantastic place to begin for proof of this is the publication entitled”Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods” by JM Smith documenting many negative findings associated with allergies. From numerous studies on animals and people it challenges the wrong assumptions which were made that GM foods are safe.
Let’s see…
Have GM soy beans, corn and canola crops caused a rise in allergies? Through research the evidence suggests that the increase in allergies in the USA for example is linked to GM foods. In the mid-nineteen nineties as part of the GM process viruses and bacteria other than other genes were inserted unnaturally into the DNA’s of soy, corn and canola plants. The evidence indicates that these unlabelled GM foods found their way to American people’s diets and have been responsible for triggering life-threatening allergies and have led to increasing allergic reactions.
Taking soy for instance, when a food has been genetically modified it gives rise to creating a new protein. It’s believed that this new protein is responsible for the allergy. Besides soy, this happened in the mid-nineties when a brazil nut has been altered and consumed. It produced human allergic reactions as confirmed by blood tests. Fortunately this one never went on the market. A database has been published making up the proteins using their amino acid sequences from GM foods. This database was used to search for which of those GM proteins generated allergies. If it had been identified in a GM food then it had been removed from the market.
Good to know
However, some allergy inducing GM foods using their new proteins were able to go onto the market undetected since the database (WHO criteria ) hadn’t yet been compiled. This was the case of GM soy beans that had not been analyzed. To make things worse the gene that was inserted into the soy following ingestion was subsequently able to find its way into the DNA of human gut bacteria by a phenomenon known as horizontal gene transfer (HGT).
This has enabled the gut bacteria to generate the allergenic protein though the soy product was taken of the marketplace. Don’t kid yourself that the insertion of new genes into GM plants is totally safe and without potential glitches. The GM insertion procedure could obliterate or alter the DNA causing substantial changes to the plant’s natural functioning by changing its protein expression. This could lead to a different protein or more of the exact same one causing an allergy. It’s been stated that this has happened to soy and other plants.
Final note
Since 2004 farmers have improved their herbicide on GM plants by a gigantic 86% as in the case of soy areas. Unlike non-GMO the greater glycophosate herbicide levels are linked to increases in allergies. Consumption of soy through its GM protein can cause peanut allergy. This results from the soy protein cross-reacting with the peanut. Those already allergic to peanuts are more inclined to have the allergy switched on.
Could this explain the doubling of peanut allergies from 1997-2002? The biotech companies have got away with fulfilling people disapproval by not labelling their GM foods. Safety regulations have been lax leaving vulnerabilities in the longterm with ill-health that has been actualized, as in the case of allergies. However, a lot of folks are now searching for non-GM foods, such as those certified organic.
Campaigns have been happening for some time now, effectively providing consumers with accurate information on non-GMO, reaching food shops nationwide. An example of that is the’Organic Consumers Fund.’ Another alternative is to avoid foods which are known to have been genetically modified. Remember, allergies aren’t only restricted to GM Soy. You can find other GM foods resulting in ill health. I hope that I have invited the reader to look further into this.