bite my words

Dispelling nutrition myths, ranting, and occasionally, raving

Tag Archives: GMO


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Hypoallergenic apples

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Continuing on with the apple-theme from yesterday; researchers have been working on growing hypoallergenic apples. One group has been working on genetically modifying apple trees so that they produce apples containing fewer allergens. Another team has been working on breeding apple trees so that they produce similarly hypoallergenic apples.

Honestly, I think this is kind of ridiculous. Putting aside the potential issues stemming from genetic modification, I still have quibbles with the efforts ti develop hypoallergenic apples. For one thing, apples are not a commonly allergenic food. For another, I think this is taking the wrong approach to the problem. I think research would be better put into determining why people develop allergies and figuring out how to prevent or cure the allergy itself. It’s similar to treating symptoms rather than the root cause of an illness. The problem is not the apple.


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Prop 37

I’ve been seeing lots about the battle over Prop 37 in California for the past month or so. I just wanted to add my two cents as there’s one thing that’s really been bothering me.

On one side there’s Monsanto, the giant GMO seed company, fighting to prevent the labelling proposal. On the other side there are a number of people fighting to make labelling of foods containing GMOs mandatory. I’m fully on the side of the latter. We don’t know if GMOs are safe or not at this point and I think that as consumers we should be provided with the information to enable us to decide for ourselves whether or not we’re going to consume them. However, I keep hearing an argument from people in this group that’s completely invalid. The argument: if GMOs are safe for us to consume then why are food producers fighting the labeling; what are they trying to hide? I think this argument makes the pro-labeling group look foolish. Even if GMOs are safe, many people believe them to be unsafe. Of course  manufacturers are going to be opposed to the labeling proposition because they fear loss of sales, regardless of safety. Come on people, use better arguments! Fear mongering does not lend strength to your cause. I think knowledge is always good and that decisions shouldn’t be made based on making big food big money.


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GMOs bite back

You know, I honestly don’t know whom to trust or what to believe when it comes to GMO and biotechnology anymore. I don’t see the need to be messing with foods that have grown relatively naturally for years; if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I think that there are probably going to be serious consequences to nature as a result of these foods and there may be unknown risks to our own health as a result of consuming foods.

The prompt for this latest rant was a link to an open letter to the Dr. Oz Show Producers shared by many via twitter over the past several days. As I always enjoy the discrediting of Dr. Oz I decided to give it a read. Something about it rubbed me the wrong way though. It was written by Dr. Bruce Chassy, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology at the University of Illinois. His undergrad degree was in chemistry and his Ph.D. in biotechnology. As a bit of an aside, why is he teaching courses in nutrition? Food product development and safety, sure, but nutrition? Yet, he’s complaining about the inclusion of Jeffrey Smith as part of the Dr. Oz Show because he isn’t a scientist and therefore, isn’t qualified to comment on genetic modification of food. Pot meet kettle. Sure, his educational background may make him more qualified to teach nutrition than Smith is to educate about GM (he’s a marketing consultant turned activist). Anyway… more to the point… I think one of the main issues with this whole GMO debate is that many of the people who are most qualified to educate us on the topic are also in positions of conflict of interest. Most of these people, including Dr. Chassy, receive research funding from the companies responsible for the development of GMO (1). Can you trust the research results from a study in which the researcher has a vested interest in seeing a certain result? You probably shouldn’t. We need long-term unbiased research studies to know for certain.

This brings to mind the recent controversy over the study from France showing harmful effects of GMO and Monsanto’s Roundup Ready in rats. I actually had a blog post all lined-up and ready to go advising people to be cautious about GMO on the basis of that study. Then I read another post dissecting the study on the basis of the type of rats used and stuff. I don’t know anything about lab rats and I didn’t want to be taken for a fool so I deleted my post. Since then, many scientists have come to the support of Seralini while others have condemned his study. I’m still not entirely sure which side to believe and it’s also important to note that Seralini has backing from an anti-GMO agency, meaning that his research is also unlikely to be free from bias.

Perhaps GMO will prove to be safe but the key word here is prove. At this point we still don’t know enough and I’m personally not keen on being a test subject.


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My reaction to hypoallerganic milk

Recent news reports herald the advent of hypoallergenic milk from Daisy the cow in New Zealand. The researchers introduced two micro RNAs to suppress the production of beta-lactoglobulin (BLG), a milk whey protein which is the most common cause of allergic reactions to milk.

Genetic modification makes me nervous; primarily because it’s a notoriously imprecise science. You never know what unexpected side effects mucking around with DNA and RNA is going to have. For example, Daisy was born without a tail. Who knows what other non-visible effects the modification of her RNA had.

Aside from the risks of genetic modification, do we really need hypoallergenic milk? Even though the protein removed from this milk is the most common cause of milk allergy it’s not the only cause. There are other proteins in milk that people can be allergic to. How easy would it be for people with milk allergies to purchase this hypoallergenic milk? Do they even want hypoallergenic milk? This leads me to my final point… Milk is not a dietary necessity. Why risk manipulating the genetic profiles of cows in order to boost milk sales? Couldn’t research dollars be better spent?


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Fashion over function: the non-browning apple

You’ve probably heard about the non-browning Arctic Apple by now. Apparently they’ve turned off one enzyme so that the apples don’t get that unsightly browning, that apples currently get, when exposed to air. Why do apples turn brown when exposed to air? It’s due to enzymatic browning. Basically exposure of certain enzymes to oxygen cause them to react and turn the apple brown. There’s absolutely nothing harmful about this reaction it’s just not all that appealing to eat a browned apple. Enzymatic browning can be prevented or at least reduced by coating cut apple in an acidic juice, such as lemon juice, which both reduces the exposure of the enzymes to the air and partially deactivates the enzymes because of the acid in the juice.

The creators of the Arctic Apple would have you believe that the resistance to their product is a result of an unfounded fear of change. I don’t think it’s that simple. There is definitely fear there, but I believe it to be legitimate. By introducing these new apple trees to the orchards we don’t know what long-term effects they may have on the eco-system or apple growing industry. There may be unintended consequences that we won’t know about until it’s too late. For example, they might be damaging to the essential bee and pollinator population thereby wreaking havoc on all of our agriculture. Genetic manipulation is not the same as using grafting and cross-pollination to breed new plants. There are many more risks to the environment and to our health when it comes to GMO. The big question I have here is: why do we need a non-browning apple? Are we so obsessed with the aesthetics of our food that we’re willing to assume all of these risks just to avoid eating a slightly browned slice of apple?

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