I never thought that reading ELLE
magazine would make me completely re-think my life. Or should I say my
lifestyle or way of life? I should perhaps be a bit more specific. I got a bit
behind in reading through my subscription, so I only just today took a look at
the August issue. Within this issue is a fantastic article on GMO’s and
allergies. The writer describes a period of 3 years of random symptoms that no
doctors could explain, as all tests came back normal. She was plagued by a general
feeling of being unwell and could not do anything about it. This piqued my
interest because it describes me perfectly. Lately even perfect strangers are
picking up on the fact that I’m a “sickly person.” That’s pretty sad. It is one
of the most frustrating things to feel like a prisoner in your own body and
that everything is out of your control. Like the author narrating this tale of
ill-health, I suffer from digestive issues, random muscle pain, insomnia,
headaches, low immune system, general lethargy, and the perpetual feeling of
having a head cold. When I saw this same list of symptoms in the article, I was
shocked.
I’ve been passed around from doctor to doctor
all looking repeatedly at my gall bladder, because I’ve had polyps for a while
and all of my digestive symptoms seemed to point to that being the issue, but unfortunately
for me, there is so much more going on than can be explained by this one problem
area. I’ve even felt lately like there is too much wrong with me to even burden
the doctors with, and although it is completely unfair to have to live a life
feeling this way all the time, that perhaps this is just my personal hurdle to
overcome. It’s also ridiculous to go to a doctor and just say “I feel sick…all
the time….I can’t explain it,” and there are friends and loved ones that can
attest to me breaking down in tears of frustration exclaiming “I just feel
sick, I don’t know why, and I am so sick and tired of feeling sick and tired!” When
I read this article by Caitlin Shetterly, I finally felt like I was not alone
in this. Caitlin went through the same struggle for 3 years, going to even more
doctors and homeopaths than I have, before seeing a high acclaimed allergist.
Oddly enough, I was supposed to see an allergist this week but ended up having
to work.
Anyway, to make a long story short,
the allergist listened to Caitlin’s list of symptoms and then informed her that
she had probably developed an allergy to genetically modified corn. What?!?!
Although there has been no clinical proof of GMO proteins being allergens, many
physicians and health-care researchers are starting to become sceptical.
I’ve been pretty openly against
GMO’s for a while now, which anyone who knows me can attest to, but I haven’t
(for some strange reason) attributed my current ill health to them. It isn’t a
coincidence though, I will wager, that (as reported by the National Health
Interview Survey) since 1999 the number of children with food allergies has
jumped by 50% and skin allergies by 69%. Moreover, there has been an
astronomical increase in autoimmune disorders such as type 1 diabetes, lupus,
and CELIAC DISEASE, as well as allergies. Indeed the amount of gluten intolerance
as of late is excessive, even if you take out those that are merely following
the latest health craze. We are currently in what Marc Rothenberg, MD, PhD has
described as an “allergy and autoimmune epidemic.” Indeed, all of my life
growing up I never had allergies, but now come any change of season I am
plagued by them. There also seems to be less and less that I can eat that doesn’t
make me feel sick or give me pain.
GMO’s have been approved for sale
in North America since the mid 1990’s with no clinical or human trials; to all
intelligent people reading this, you should be coming to the conclusion that WE
are the current human trial. Of course the industry professionals will say that
there is no concrete proof or that there have been no long-term effects
reported…but that’s because there hasn’t been a long enough timeframe in which
to evaluate GMO’s effects on us. Any controversial trials that have popped up
have been publically disputed, and what is worse and even scarier is that the
reason no GMO proteins register on the international allergen database is
because this research centre and database is hosted by the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln which is not so coincidentally funded by the six major biotech
companies: Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow, Dupont Pioneer, Bayer, and BASF. Oh yes,
there is more, any research studies submitted to the government on GMO’s is
funded by these big firms and they are able to cherry pick which studies they
submit.
Unfortunately too, we have
reached a point of no return where we can’t just say “hell no to GMO’s” since today
88% of corn and 93% of soybeans are GMO’s. It is becoming close to impossible
to find non-genetically modified corn, particularly because pollen and seeds
from GMO fields travel over to natural fields through wind delivery and animal
(particularly bird) dispersion. “What happens when we get to the point where
absolutely no more natural crops exist” is the scary question that no one seems
to be asking or want answered. If the food we eat is making us violently sick,
though, what does the future hold for us? Why aren’t we looking into this
further? Why aren’t we more concerned about what we put in our bodies? And why
is it that no one seems to be afraid that we are eating our way to death? I
applaud ELLE for putting this food for thought out there and I intend to keep
feeding on it.
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