By Dr. Mercola
In recent weeks, we’ve learned some very disturbing truths
about glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s
broad-spectrum herbicide Roundup, which is generously doused on
genetically engineered (GE) Roundup Ready crops.
GE crops are typically far more contaminated with glyphosate
than conventional crops, courtesy of the fact that they’re
engineered to withstand extremely high levels of Roundup without
perishing along with the weed.
A new peer-reviewed report authored by Anthony Samsel, a
retired science consultant, and a long time contributor to the
Mercola.com Vital Votes Forum, and Dr. Stephanie Seneff, a
research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), reveals how glyphosate wrecks human health.
In the interview above, Dr. Seneff summarizes the two key
problems caused by glyphosate in the diet:
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Systemic toxicity
Their findings make the need for labelling all the more
urgent, and the advice to buy certified organic all the more
valid.
The Horrific Truth about Roundup
In 2009, a French court found
Monsanto guilty of lying; falsely advertising its
Roundup herbicide as "biodegradable," "environmentally
friendly" and claiming it "left the soil clean."
Mounting evidence now tells us just how false such statements
are. I don’t believe that Monsanto is one of the most evil
companies on the planet for nothing. The company has done
absolutely nothing to improve their worldwide influence on human
and environmental health.
In the video above, Jeffrey Smith, author of the bestseller
Seeds of Deception, says Monsanto, during some
reflective moment, must have asked “What would Darth Vader do?”
Because what they’ve come up with is a way of pretending that
they’re beneficial and then insinuating themselves into the food
and agriculture industry, and now it turns out that what they
have is very, very dangerous.
Indeed, according to Dr. Seneff, glyphosate is possibly "the
most important factor in the development of multiple chronic
diseases and conditions that have become prevalent in
Westernized societies,” including but not limited to:
Autism |
Gastrointestinal diseases such as inflammatory bowel
disease, chronic diarrhea, colitis and Crohn's disease |
Obesity |
Allergies |
Cardiovascular disease |
Depression |
Cancer |
Infertility |
Alzheimer’s disease |
Parkinson’s disease |
Multiple sclerosis |
ALS, and more |
How Glyphosate Worsens Modern Diseases
While Monsanto insists that Roundup is as safe to humans as
aspirin, Seneff and Samsel’s research tells a different story
altogether. Their report, published in the journal Entropy1,
argues that glyphosate residues, found in most commonly consumed
foods in the Western diet courtesy of GE sugar, corn, soy and
wheat, “enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne
chemical residues and toxins in the environment to disrupt
normal body functions and induce disease.”
Interestingly, your gut bacteria are a key component of
glyphosate’s mechanism of harm.
Monsanto has steadfastly claimed that Roundup is harmless to
animals and humans because the mechanism of action it uses
(which allows it to kill weeds), called the shikimate pathway,
is absent in all animals. However, the shikimate pathway IS
present in bacteria, and that’s the key to understanding how it
causes such widespread systemic harm in both humans and animals.
The bacteria in your body outnumber your cells by 10 to 1.
For every cell in your body, you have 10 microbes of various
kinds, and all of them have the shikimate pathway, so they will
all respond to the presence of glyphosate!
Glyphosate causes extreme disruption of the microbe’s
function and lifecycle. What’s worse, glyphosate
preferentially affects beneficial bacteria,
allowing pathogens to overgrow and take over. At that point,
your body also has to contend with the toxins produced by the
pathogens. Once the chronic inflammation sets in, you’re well on
your way toward chronic and potentially debilitating disease. In
the interview above, Dr. Seneff reviews a variety of chronic
diseases, explaining how glyphosate contributes to each
condition. So to learn more, I urge you to listen to it in its
entirety. It’s quite eye-opening.
The Overlooked Component of Toxicity
The research reveals that glyphosate inhibits cytochrome P450
(CYP) enzymes, a large and diverse group of enzymes
that catalyze the oxidation of organic substances. This, the
authors state, is “an overlooked component of its toxicity to
mammals.” One of the functions of CYP enzymes is to detoxify
xenobiotics—chemical compounds found in a living organism that
are not normally produced or consumed by the organism in
question. By limiting the ability of these enzymes to detoxify
foreign chemical compounds, glyphosate enhances the
damaging effects of chemicals and environmental toxins you may
be exposed to.
But that’s not all. Dr. Stephanie Seneff has been conducting
research at MIT for over three decades. She also has an
undergraduate degree in biology from MIT and a minor in food and
nutrition, and I have previously interviewed her about her
groundbreaking insights into the critical importance of
sulfur in human health. Not surprisingly, this latest
research also touches on sulfur, and how it is affected by
glyphosate from food.
“[W]e show how interference with CYP enzymes acts
synergistically with disruption of the biosynthesis of
aromatic amino acids by gut bacteria, as well as impairment
in serum sulfate transport,” the authors write.
“Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions
associated with a Western diet, which include
gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart
disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and
Alzheimer’s disease. ... [T]he recent alarming increase in
all of these health issues can be traced back to a
combination of gut dysbiosis, impaired sulfate transport,
and suppression of the activity of the various members of
the cytochrome P450 (CYP) family of enzymes.”
The Roundup-Autism Connection
For the past 30 years, Dr. Seneff has been passionate about
teasing out potential causes of autism, after seeing what it was
like for a close friend whose son was diagnosed. She points out
the clear correlations between increased glyphosate use over
recent years (the result of genetically engineered crops causing
weed resistance, necessitating ever-larger amounts to be used)
and skyrocketing autism rates.
The rate of autism has risen so quickly, there can be no
doubt that it has an environmental cause. Our genes simply
cannot mutate fast enough to account for the rapid rise we’re
now seeing. The latest statistics released by the CDC on March
20 show that 1 in 50 children in the US now fall within the
autism spectrum2,3,
with a 5:1 boy to girl ratio. Just last year the CDC reported a
rate of
1 in 88, which represented a 23 percent increase since 2010,
and 78 percent since 2007. Meanwhile, I remember when the
incidence of autism in the US was only 1 in 100,000—just short
of 30 years ago!
Dr. Seneff identified two key problems in autism that are
unrelated to the brain yet clearly associated with the
condition—both of which are linked with glyphosate exposure
(starting at 10 minutes into the interview, she gives an
in-depth explanation of how glyphosate causes the many symptoms
associated with autism):
- Gut dysbiosis (imbalances in gut bacteria, inflammation,
leaky gut, food allergies such as gluten intolerance)
- Disrupted sulfur metabolism / sulfur and sulfate
deficiency
Interestingly, certain microbes in your body actually break
down glyphosate, which is a good thing. However, a byproduct of
this action is ammonia, and children with autism tend to have
significantly higher levels of ammonia in their blood than the
general population. Ditto for those with Alzheimer’s disease. In
your brain, ammonia causes encephalitis, i.e. brain
inflammation.
Another devastating agent you really do not want in your body
is formaldehyde, which a recent
nutritional analysis discovered is present in genetically
engineered corn at a level that is 200 times the amount
that animal studies have determined to be toxic to animals.
Formaldehyde destroys DNA and can cause cancer.
Other research backing up the Roundup-autism link is that
from former US Navy staff scientist Dr. Nancy Swanson. She has a
Ph.D. in physics, holds five US patents and has authored more
than 30 scientific papers and two books on women in science. Ten
years ago, she became seriously ill, and in her journey to
regain her health she turned to organic foods. Not surprisingly
(for those in the know) her symptoms dramatically improved. This
prompted her to start investigating genetically engineered
foods.
She has meticulously collected statistics on glyphosate usage
and various diseases and conditions, including autism. A more
perfect match-up between the rise in glyphosate usage and
incidence of autism is hard to imagine... To access her
published articles and reports, please visit Sustainable Pulse4,
a European website dedicated to exposing the hazards of
genetically engineered foods.
When Food Is Poison...
What the biotech industry, spearheaded by Monsanto, has
managed to do is turn food into poison... quite literally, and
in more ways than one. Here, we’re just talking about the
effects of Roundup. There are plenty of indications that the
genetic alteration of a crop itself can pose significant health
concerns. So with the vast majority of GE crops, you have no
less than two potentially hazardous factors to contend with,
glyphosate toxicity being just one part of the equation.
As discussed above, glyphosate has a number of devastating
biological effects. So much so that it may very well be one of
the most important factors in the development of a wide
variety of modern diseases and conditions, including autism. In
summary, these detrimental effects include:
Nutritional deficiencies, as glyphosate immobilizes
certain nutrients and alters the nutritional composition
of the treated crop |
Disruption of the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids
(these are essential amino acids not produced in your
body that must be supplied via your diet) |
Increased toxin exposure (this includes high levels of
glyphosate and formaldehyde in the food itself) |
Impairment of sulfate transport and sulfur metabolism;
sulfate deficiency |
Systemic toxicity—a side effect of extreme disruption of
microbial function throughout your body; beneficial
microbes in particular, allowing for overgrowth of
pathogens |
Gut dysbiosis (imbalances in gut bacteria, inflammation,
leaky gut, food allergies such as gluten intolerance) |
Enhancement of damaging effects of other food-borne
chemical residues and environmental toxins as a result
of glyphosate shutting down the function of detoxifying
enzymes |
Creation of ammonia (a byproduct created when certain
microbes break down glyphosate), which can lead to brain
inflammation associated with autism and Alzheimer’s
disease |
How to Protect Yourself and Your Family from This Systemic
Poison
It's important to understand that the glyphosate sprayed on
conventional and genetically engineered crops actually becomes
systemic throughout the plant, so it cannot be washed off. It's
inside the plant. For example,
genetically engineered corn has been found to contain 13 ppm
of glyphosate, compared to zero in non-GMO corn. At
13 ppm, GMO corn
contains more than 18 times the “safe” level of
glyphosate set by the EPA. Organ damage in animals has
occurred at levels as low as 0.1 ppm. If that’s not reason
enough to become a label reader to avoid anything with corn in
it, such as corn oil or high fructose corn syrup, I don’t know
what is.
You’d also be wise to stop using Roundup around your home,
where children and pets can come into contact with it simply by
walking across the area.
Until the US requires genetically engineered (GE) foods to be
labeled, the only way you can avoid GE ingredients is to make
whole, fresh organic foods the bulk of your diet, and to only
buy
100% USDA certified organic processed foods. Meats need to
be grass-fed or pastured to make sure the animals were not fed
GE corn or soy feed.
Last but not least, do not confuse the
“natural” label with organic standards.
The natural label is not based on any standards and
is frequently misused by sellers of GE products. Growers and
manufacturers of organic products bearing the USDA seal, on the
other hand, have to meet the strictest standards of any of the
currently available organic labels. In order to qualify as
organic, a product must be grown and processed using organic
farming methods that recycle resources and promote biodiversity.
Crops must be grown without synthetic pesticides, bioengineered
genes, petroleum-based fertilizers, or sewage sludge-based
fertilizers.
Keep Fighting for Labeling of Genetically Engineered Foods
While California Prop. 37 failed to pass last November, by a
very narrow margin, the fight for GMO labeling is far from over.
The field-of-play has now moved to the state of Washington,
where the people's initiative 522, "The People's Right to Know
Genetically Engineered Food Act," will require food sold in
retail outlets to be labeled if it contains genetically
engineered ingredients. As stated on LabelitWA.org:
"Calorie and nutritional information were not always
required on food labels. But since 1990 it has been required
and most consumers use this information every day.
Country-of-origin labeling wasn't required until 2002. The
trans fat content of foods didn't have to be labeled until
2006. Now, all of these labeling requirements are accepted
as important for consumers. The Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) also says we must know with labeling if our orange
juice is from fresh oranges or frozen concentrate.
Doesn't it make sense that genetically engineered
foods containing experimental viral, bacterial, insect,
plant or animal genes should be labeled, too? Genetically
engineered foods do not have to be tested for safety before
entering the market. No long-term human feeding studies have
been done. The research we have is raising serious questions
about the impact to human health and the environment.
I-522 provides the transparency people deserve. I-522
will not raise costs to consumers or food producers. It
simply would add more information to food labels, which
manufacturers change routinely anyway, all the time. I-522
does not impose any significant cost on our state. It does
not require the state to conduct label surveillance, or to
initiate or pursue enforcement. The state may choose to do
so, as a policy choice, but I-522 was written to avoid
raising costs to the state or consumers."
Remember, as with CA Prop. 37, they need support of people
like YOU to succeed. Prop. 37 failed with a very narrow margin
simply because we didn't have the funds to counter the massive
ad campaigns created by the No on 37 camp, led by Monsanto and
other major food companies. Let's not allow Monsanto and its
allies to confuse and mislead the people of Washington and
Vermont as they did in California. So please, I urge you to get
involved and help in any way you can, regardless of what state
you live in.