Something Is Just Not Right

It’s better to pay the grocer than the doctor.
(John Forti)

Consider these ominous trends:

• In the last 50 years, the average American man has gained 29.2 pounds, the average woman is 26 pounds heavier, and the average 10-year-old child is up more than 10 pounds.

• Obesity rates in the U.S. are becoming unconscionable. The President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition reports that from the early 1970’s to 2007-08, obesity rates quadrupled for children ages 6 to 11 – such that 1 in 5 American children is considered obese. The rates for adults doubled to 1 in 3. Recent reports project that by 2030, half of all adults in the United States will be obese (that’s a total of 115 million people)¹.

• Since 1975, autism rates in children have grown from 1 in 5,000 to a staggering 1 in 68, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – that’s an increase of 73X!

• Since 1980, the incidence of asthma in children has increased from 1 in every 27 to 1 in 9.

• From 1980 to 2011, the number of Americans with diagnosed diabetes has more than tripled (from 5.6 million to 20.9 million).

• From 1979 to 1991, twelve short years, the total deaths from Alzheimer’s disease in the United States has increased more than sixteen-fold from 857 to 14,112². According to final data from the National Center for Health Statistics of the CDC, 83,494 people died from Alzheimer’s disease in 2013³ – an increase of 97X in 31 years!

“Forty years ago, we were spending about 16% of our incomes on food and about 8% on health care,” says Mark Kastel, Co-Founder of The Cornucopia Institute, during an interview featured in the movie, BOUGHT. “Those numbers have almost completely inverted. We have the cheapest food in the world and the most expensive healthcare. ”

Something is just not right.

The pharmaceutical, agricultural, and food industries have been putting chemicals into our bodies through the foods we eat and medicine prescribed by our doctors, and we do not understand the reactions they may be causing.

Nancy Swanson, PhD, from the University of Washington, has studied and correlated the introduction of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in our food supply to the increasing incidence of many chronic diseases⁴.

While watching the movie, BOUGHT – Your Health, Now Brought to You by Wall Street, I learned that GMOs have been in our food supply since 1996, without our knowledge, without our permission, and without labeling

The movie describes three types of GMOs that made me care more about knowing what my family and I are eating.

1. BT TOXIN (a registered pesticide with the EPA)

Genetically modified seeds engineered to constantly reproduce BT Toxin on the crop so when bugs or other pests eat the plant, their stomachs explode and the bugs die instantly.

2. ROUNDUP READY (Roundup is the popular and powerful weed and grass killer)

Genetically modified seeds engineered to withstand Roundup. The farmer can blast the fields with Roundup and the crop won’t die, but everything around it does – including the bugs, worms, weeds, and all of the good bacteria in the soil.

The GMO crops contain a chemical from Roundup called glyphosate that can destroy gut bacteria when the food is consumed. Without healthy gut bacteria, our bodies cannot produce tryptophan. Without tryptophan, we cannot produce serotonin. Without serotonin, we can’t properly regulate blood sugar. Low serotonin levels have been linked to suicide, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, diabetes and other ailments.

3. DESIRED TRAIT (does not have pesticides injected into it)

A desired trait – such as making lettuce greener or tomatoes more red – is injected into the crop. The injections contain “promoters” that wake up genes in order to produce the desire trait. The problem is when we eat the food, we also eat the promoters and they may be waking up genes in our bodies – perhaps cancer genes or rare diseases that were latent but now become stimulated.

In the movie, Nancy Weiser, Co-Founder of Weiser Choices, says, “My feelings on GMOs can really be summed up in one word, which is, ‘UNKNOWN’. We do not know what are the long-term effects on humans and the environment. About 90% of our processed foods are GMO.”

Since I have nearly eliminated processed foods from my daily diet, I have witnessed improvements in my health and how good my body feels. My persistent sniffles and runny nose have disappeared. The constant bloated feeling is gone and my stomach has flattened. I feel healthier… and that feels great!!

It also tells me that something is just not right with our food supply.

If this post has inspired you to learn more about the impact of GMOs on your health, click here to watch the movie BOUGHT.

Image via Unsplash

This post contains affiliate links, which means if you click + purchase we will receive a small commission. Thank you for reading & supporting Happy Living!