One of the most potentially harmful aspects of genetically-modified crops, or GMOs, are that such crops are often engineered to be resistant to an herbicide. A farmer therefore can spray the herbicide to kill weeds, while the GM crop plant survives. But it means that the plant now has herbicide residues in it. So GMO crops pose a double-whammy: the crop itself with new genetically-programmed components, especially proteins, coupled with an herbicide.
Glyphosate is the most widely applied herbicide in the world, in part because GM corn and soy have been engineered to be glyphosate-resistant. So much glysphosate is being used in modern agriculture that EcoWatch tallied up the total of 2.6 billion pounds having been sprayed on crops in the 20 years between 1992 and 2012. Glyphosate is also used as an herbicide and dessicant in other agricultural applications outside of GM crops, though grains and soy carry the highest levels of glyphosate residues. If livestock such as cows and chickens are fed glyphosate-containing feed, glyphosate residues can be found in meat, eggs, and dairy products. And, to make matters even worse, glysphosate, because of its widespread, high-volume application, is now found in drinking water throughout the U.S.
And, given the bulk of animal and human data, there is no remaining doubt: glyphosate is carcinogenic, increasing risk for non-Hodgkin’s lympnhoma, B-cell lymphoma, and multiple myeloma, in particular. The Seralini study that showed a dramatic increase in breast cancer from glyphosate is also worrisome. (This was the study that was mysteriously retracted by the publishing journal without explanation, but has been rereleased.) But there’s more to the glyphosate story.
There is growing suspicion that glyphosate can act as an antimicrobial or antibiotic. (Monsanto even has a patent for glyphosate as an antimicrobial.) Animal model data demonstrate that glyphosate selectively kills beneficial bacteria, such as Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, Bacillus badius, Bifidobacterium adolescentis and Lactobacillus species, while allowing the proliferation of undesirable, even disease-causing, species such as Salmonella enteritidis, Salmonella gallinarum, Salmonella typhimurium, Clostridium perfringens and Clostridium botulinum.
Lactic acid producing bacteria that have beneficial effects, such as lactobacilli, lactococci, and enterococci, generate bacteriocins, or factors that suppress growth of undesirable bacterial species. Specifically, the bacteriocins produced by lactic acid producing bacteria help keep Clostridium species at bay, such as C. difficile that often emerges after antibiotics are prescribed. (Farmers in Europe are even seeing an increase in botulism in livestock due to emergence of Clostridium botulinum that is suspected to be due to glyphosate.) This selective effect of glyphosate, killing off lactic acid producing bacteria while leaving undesirable species untouched, may be one of the ways by which humans develop dysbiosis, or disordered growth of bowel flora, that can cause abdominal distress, irritable bowel syndrome, the intestinal “leakiness” that adds to risk for autuoimmune diseases, and other conditions.
In food, glyphosate persists for extended periods, is not removed by rinsing with water, and is resistant to cooking temperatures. Some forms of processing can even concentrate glyphosate residues, such as processing of wheat bran. There are limited data on the concentration of glyphosate in food, but the UK government has performed some studies in wheat products:
By eating food or drinking water that contains glyphosate, you are therefore exposed to at least some of these effects, particularly in the gastrointestinal tract. In a nutshell, the problems with glyphosate can be summarized as:
- Glyphosate residues in crops, especially grains and soy, and in drinking water in some regions, are at levels too high for human health.
- Glyphosate may act as a selective antibiotic in the human gut, killing off beneficial bowel flora species, while encouraging proliferation of pathogenic species.
- Glyphosate acts as an antimicrobial in the soil, accelerating the deterioration of topsoil, a major problem for agriculture and a phenomenon that has essentially undone every civilization ever since the advent of agriculture.
Some irresponsible authors have claimed that the only problem with wheat is its content of glyphosate which, of course, is nonsense. If that were true, all the problems of wheat would disappear just by choosing organic wheat products. It means that there would be no high blood sugars, no weight gain, no acid reflux, no bowel urgency, no cerebellar ataxia, no behavioral/emotional effects, no iron deficiency anemia, no celiac disease if you just choose organic wheat–absolutely not the case. But glyphosate is indeed yet another aspect of the wheat and grain issue for humans. And it may be one of the crucial reasons that underlies the epidemic of disrupted bowel flora. Glyphosate is something you need to avoid in order to begin the path back to restoration of healthy bowel flora.
«Some irresponsible authors have claimed that the only problem with wheat is its content of glyphosate which, of course, is nonsense.»
In case anyone is wondering why glyphosate even arises as an issue with wheat, given that no GMO wheat is on the market yet (which means no glyphosate-resistant wheat) – if wheat contains glyphosate, that probably means that glyphosate was used off-label to terminate crop growth for harvesting convenience, a practice known as dessication:
https://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2012/01/a-wheat-farmer-weighs-in-on-wheat-belly/
Roundup-Ready wheat exists in the lab, but other than one or two accidental releases, it hasn’t shown up yet in the food-like substances at your local Metabolic Syndrome Mart.
Bob Niland,
Please put into google, roundup, label and wheat and you will find NUMEROUS Roundup labels from all over the planet where Monsanto has recommended in their preharvest staging guide, the use of Roundup weathermax and Roundup transorb HC (the word transorb has a R in superscript after the b as Monsanto is claiming trademark rights to the word) is recommended to be applied to wheat for controlling certain weeds as well as the readying of wheat, barley, oats, canola, flax, peas, lentils, soybeans, dry beans and even sugar cane.
It isn’t just the bread, but as you mentioned, bread has a myriad of issues.
Michael Kraidy wrote: «Monsanto has recommended in their preharvest staging guide, the use of Roundup…»
Thanks for correcting me. I searched a little harder this time, and if one drills down in the Monsanto product pages (in this case for Roundup WeatherMAX®), they rely on 3rd parties to provide on-line label data, and for that, one must enter a locale, commodity and pest. For the US and Canada at least, preharvest application is indeed “on-label” for a number of crops.
«…is recommended to be applied to wheat for controlling certain weeds…»
Correct again, so the dose might well be higher than just what’s needed to kill the crop.
«… as well as the readying of wheat, barley, oats, canola, flax, peas, lentils, soybeans, dry beans and even sugar cane.»
I didn’t exhaustively search all locales, but I saw enough preharvest application data for crops other than wheat that I’ll take your word for it, and that’s a disturbing list. Flax is a staple in WB recipes. Lentils and some beans are used in limited amounts. This reinforces the general advice to seek organic on these food crops.
My guess is that not much herbicide survives into refined sugar, but people eating standard diets would otherwise appear to be at non-trivial risk of ingesting a troubling amount of glyphosate (and other additives in various branded herbicide products).
________
Blog Reply Associate (click my user name for details)
Thank you, Dr. Davis, for yet another informative, and helpful article. Big agri is killing us. And apparently, they seem not to care, and operate with impunity. I try to buy local and organic, and live where the mid week and Saturday morning farmer’s markets are well attended and supported. Eating local, nutrient dense food is healing fuel for our bodies.
I came across this article a few days ago and think it’s well worth a read . . . . .
http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/roundup-the-nontoxic-chemical-that-may-be-destroying-our-health/
Joseph wrote: «I came across this article a few days ago and think it’s well worth a read»
That article is by Stephanie Seneff, who is what you might call a meta researcher. She doesn’t do trials, but analyses papers in the field. She’s an anti-GMO and anti-glyphosate activist, which is fine, but her enthusiasm may color her conclusions.
This statement from the article, for example, is actually in error, which undermines her argument:
`The practice of “desiccating” crops like wheat and sugar cane just before the harvest by spraying them with Roundup is also becoming more and more popular as a way to reduce the amount of vegetation that needs to be cleared in preparation for planting next year’s crop.’
That’s not why it’s done. It’s done to terminate growth of the crop and dry it out for harvest, often with wheat. The amount applied is just enough to kill the current crop, and probably does little in the way of pre-planting weed control. Dessication is a bigger threat to the current crop than to the next one, because the glyphosate gets into the crop being dessicated – it kills it.
But that chart correlating the rise in glyphosate use, originally sourced from here:
http://www.examiner.com/article/data-show-correlations-between-increase-neurological-diseases-and-gmos
is pretty scary, and the gut biome/ASD connection is also no surprise to anyone who has read Perlmutter’s “Brain Maker”.
Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to dramatically reduce exposure to glyphosate from foods. Consume no grains. Seek non-GMO vegetables.
________
Blog Reply Associate (click my user name for details)
I appreciate your comment. My understanding has been the same as yours with the regard to the spraying of glyphosate on the wheat crops. I wonder if you’ve made this known to her? If not, would you mind if I forward your comment to her? Were there any other areas in her article that were found to be in error?
Joseph
Joseph wrote: «My understanding has been the same as yours with the regard to the spraying of glyphosate on the wheat crops.»
It turns out we’re both incorrect, and Seneff had it right. See the Roundup discussion above.
________
Blog Reply Associate (click my user name for details)
I certainly welcome to be shown where I’ve been incorrect. So, thanks Michael. And thanks, Bob, for the link to the source of the graph.
The fellow who forwarded the article to me thinks of it as being an outstanding one, as do I, I am most pleased to know that your critique as presented can be dismissed, as I did consider it to be a weighty one. I wonder if you could now be somewhat inclined to praise the article being as you didn’t provide me with additional errors?
Cheers
Joseph wrote: «I wonder if you could now be somewhat inclined to praise the article being as you didn’t provide me with additional errors?»
The writing is a bit scattershot, but on the whole it’s a nice concise cautionary tale for our time. Dr. Seneff is clear that correlation is not causation, but in addition to showing some striking correlations, she has also identified several biological pathways that might explain specific pathologies potentially driven by glyphosate.
She needs a bigger picture on the obesity problem. There are reasons why Wheat Belly warns about consuming corn, (unfermented) soy, canola oil, cottonseed oil, wheat and sugar cane, even if organic and non-GMO.
On the correlation-is-not-causation issue, the trend lines for some of the ailments she mentioned also track solidly against the rise in (just to pick some more or less at random):
⸗ semi-dwarf hybrid wheat production
⸗ high fructose corn syrup production
⸗ low-fat mania
⸗ antibiotic exposure and other gut biome disruptors
⸗ various environmental circadian disruptors
⸗ BPA and other endocrine disruptors
⸗ emulsifiers in processed foods
⸗ food colorants
⸗ elemental aluminum and novel Al alloy exposure
Some might turn out to be nil as causes. Various of these will turn out to be bigger factors than others. Some might turn out to be threats only in combination with others. The precautionary principle tells us to avoid what we can until all the facts are in.
Back on glyphosate, just trying to avoid exposure may be insufficient, as the stuff is so pervasive, plus our guts are under assault from a number of other agents. I’m beginning to wonder if in addition to daily prebiotic fiber in the diet, if it might not be worthwhile to run periodic routine courses of quality probiotic, and periodically get updated on which strain combinations to seek.
________
Blog Reply Associate (click my user name for details)
I would love to see someone graph the increases in the quantity of aluminum and mercury in flu shots and vaccines in a graph like this one with glyphosate and Roundup (realize that Roundup consists of a lot of other chemicals in addition to glyphosate).
As one can clearly see from Bob’s list, we are poisoning the hell out of the population. I think obesity is really caused by low nutrient density and overall lack of calcium in the food supply. The body tells you to eat when you don’t get enough calcium to make your liver happy. Ever since the free calcium program was killed in the early 40’s in the US and the green revolution kicked in, our food supply has never been the same. This is also why most produce doesn’t have very good flavor.
Add all the extra problems mentioned by Bob in addition to low nutrient density in soils and crops, this is why civilization is losing it. This is why there are so many kids being doped up on psychological drugs, there is no magnesium nor calcium in the food. High potassium and sodium makes folks nutty! High aluminum makes folks slow and non responsive, basically dumb.
Due to lower real incomes, folks are eating worse. More and more rice and wheat. The aluminum levels in rice alone are scary. Rice is a bio-accumulator of aluminum. So the poor, who eat more and more rice, get basically dumber and dumber. Aluminum is now in your deodorant, your toothpaste, pickles, olives, bread and in most water supplies, much of the salt (so that when it rains it pours), too many sources to list… the amount that the water engineers use in the treatment of the water for Coca Cola would scare anyone. And then put that acid soda made with phosphoric acid in an aluminum can….
I am afraid we are doomed.
Michael Kraidy wrote: «I would love to see someone graph the increases in the quantity of aluminum and mercury in flu shots and vaccines in a graph like this one with glyphosate…»
Those may not be the key factors to chart, and mercury prevalence may well be in decline at this point. I’ve not studied the vaccine controversy, and it’s not clear to me that if vaccines present hazards, exactly what the sources of risk are.
With aluminum, the key thing is the compound. Humans are adapted to naturally occurring Al compounds, but not to elemental Al or novel compounds and alloys. Vaccine supporters advance the argument that Al is the most abundant metal in the earth’s crust, and that we consume a lot of it by accident, but novel forms may pose novel hazards.
Mercury is being phased out in children’s vaccines, and may also be gone in unit-dose adult vaccines. The question of relative exposure also arises. How does the Hg exposure from thiomersal compare to, say, amalgam fillings, seafood, and industrial pollution (and I don’t know).
Then there are also possible hazards from antibiotics, formaldehyde, sugars, amino acids and proteins in vaccines. The SPF eggs used for production of some vaccines are not tested for all possible pathogens (such as prions). Combination vaccines (like MMR) may pose a problem for young immune systems. Wheat Belly has no posture on all this, but Dr. Perlmutter has advised seeking single vaccines for children, well spaced in time.
If there are hazards, another wild card is the status of the recipient’s blood-brain barrier. A grain eater is likely to have a compromised BBB, allowing any adverse injected agents to get into the brain. Being grain-free could have a major advantage when a vaccine is unavoidable.
«I think obesity is really caused by low nutrient density and overall lack of calcium in the food supply.»
I disagree. For the vast majority of people, obesity is trivially avoided and easily reversed by eating low carb. Staying low carb is substantially eased by including zero grains in the remaining carbs consumed.
Nutrient density and dietary calcium are problems, but not the key problems.
Calcium is actually a tricky matter. WB does not advocate Ca supplementation at present, and encourages getting it from food. Most forms of Ca supplements end up everywhere except bones, and are a cardiac hazard. An exception may be the hydroxyapatite form, but the jury is still out on that.
«This is why there are so many kids being doped up on psychological drugs, there is no magnesium nor calcium in the food.»
My general impression is that the rise in ASD is principally due to gut biome disruption, with multiple factors involved, including but not limited to:
○ no attention to gut flora (prebiotics & probiotics)
○ excessive antibiotic use (and no countermeasures)
○ diets essentially gut-hostile and inflammatory
○ C-section birth (and no countermeasures)
○ lack of breastfeeding
Supplementing Mg is usually needed, but is by itself insufficient to reverse the consequences of the problems above. Kids are being ruined, and it’s not due to Ritalin deficiency.
«Rice is a bio-accumulator of aluminum.»
Also inorganic arsenic, which is likely a bigger problem than aluminum.
«Aluminum is now in your…»
It’s everywhere. Isolated elemental Al was a precious metal until just over a century ago. Exposure to elemental Al is novel, as is exposure to novel alloys and Al compounds. Is it problem? The rise in the production of Al during the 20th is a perfect match for the rise in various chronic ailments.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#/media/File:Aluminium_-_world_production_trend.svg
Coincidence? Correlation? Causation?
Beats me, but I’m avoiding consumption and transdermal Al exposure just on the precautionary principle.
This means, for example:
• not using skin care products with Al salts,
• not using Al cookware, tableware, food storage,
• avoiding Al in food elements, such as baking powder,
• don’t drink canned beverages directly from the can
• no antacids
• take respiratory precautions when cutting Al metal
• there may be an issue with some clothing dyes
«I am afraid we are doomed.»
Not necessarily – we see dramatic improvements in health from following the Wheat Belly lifestyle, and people shifting to it are also shaping demand in the marketplace. Reduce your risks where you can.
________
Blog Reply Associate (click my user name for details)
I have been on Wheat Belly for six + months now and it has been amazing for me, I am the same person who has posted previously as a Weight Watchers Life Time member. I wanted to share with an article I just read on Yahoo regarding a possible Cancer causing Additive that may be in store bought breads and some processed foods. Boy!!! am I so happy I do not eat that anymore, thank you a million times over Dr. Davis for showing me the light, please see article below:
Potassium bromate has been identified as “potential human carcinogen” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer — and it’s also recently been found to be in at least 86 baked goods and products that you can find in the grocery store. (Photo: Alamy)
The bread you buy at the grocery store may include an additive that’s been linked to cancer, new findings reveal.
The report, which comes courtesy of environmental research and advocacy organization Environmental Working Group, shows that potassium bromate is used in at least 86 baked goods and other products commonly sold in supermarkets.
Among the products that contain it: Hormel Foods breakfast sandwiches, Goya turnover pastry dough, and Weis Kaiser rolls. See the full list of products here.
When reached for comment, a representative for Hormel tells Yahoo Health that the products listed in the EWG report “were discontinued over 18 months ago,” were part of a limited distribution test market in three cities, and are no longer on shelves. “Providing consumers with safe products is the No. 1 priority at Hormel Foods,“ the representative said. “All ingredients in our products are used at levels approved by government agencies and regulations.”
Joe Perez, senior vice president of Goya Foods, tells Yahoo Health that his company has removed potassium bromate from all of its products, including the Goya Dough for Turnover Pastries, which was flagged by EWG. “However, it is possible that some of our old packaging may still state potassium bromate as an ingredient,” he says. “We have been working with our suppliers to change all of our packaging with the most up to date product information.”
The Environmental Working Group tells Yahoo Health that products included in its report are kept in the EWG database for two years after their label information is recorded, and products with label information recorded more than a year earlier are noted as such. Manufacturers can contact the EWG regarding old or outdated products.
Potassium bromate is added to flour to strengthen the dough, help it to rise higher, and give the bread a white color. But it has also been identified as a “potential human carcinogen” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and is listed as “possibly carcinogenic” by the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
Various lab tests on animals found that potassium bromate caused significant increases in kidney, thyroid, and other cancers in animals. A 2011 study published in the journal Chemico-Biological Interactions also found it can damage DNA and cause oxidative stress in humans.
While it’s uncertain how much potassium bromate a person would have to consume to experience negative health consequences, the Food and Drug Administration has placed a limit of 75 parts per million in food products.
Potassium bromate has been banned as a food additive by the European Union, U.K., Canada, and Brazil. The state of California also requires that foods that contain potassium bromate have a warning label.
Thank you,
Kathy
Kathy wrote: «Potassium bromate has been identified as “potential human carcinogen” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer — and it’s also recently been found to be in at least 86 baked goods and products that you can find in the grocery store.»
Thanks for reporting this. IARC classifying something as 2B (“potential”) is an interesting development, but not as severe as 2A (“probable”), which is how they tagged glyphosate recently.
As currently reported in the press, however, it might be a distraction, for several reasons:
1. The greater hazard in typical baked goods is wheat, sugar and adverse fats. Just considering the carbs alone, high blood sugar, and the resulting diabetes and obesity, are all highly correlated with cancer risk. Consuming non-bromated baked goods probably doesn’t reduce this risk materially. EWG doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo on this.
2. Non-native halogen (in this case a bromine) compounds in foods may present a greater risk to thyroid specifically than as general carcinogens, due to displacing iodine at that organ, and contributing to the rampant under-diagnosed hypothyroidism extant. Later Kathy quoted “Various lab tests on animals found that potassium bromate caused significant increases in kidney, thyroid, and other cancers in animals.”
3. This “flour improver” is not the only source of non-native bromine in flours. In some locales (such as the US) bromates (such as methyl bromide) are used as fumigants/pesticides on seeds in storage and transit. This suggests that in addition to cancer and thyroid risk (and perhaps as part of the etiology of those), bromates may be gut biome antagonists, with implications for immune response. So just avoiding processed foods listing potassium bromate as an ingredient won’t necessarily protect you against bromine exposure, if those foods rely on bulk seeds.
Avoiding baked goods with any grain content, on the other hand, provides dramatic protection against multiple threats.
________
Blog Reply Associate (click my user name for details)
Bob Niland wrote:
“With aluminum, the key thing is the compound. Humans are adapted to naturally occurring Al compounds, but not to elemental Al or novel compounds and alloys. Vaccine supporters advance the argument that Al is the most abundant metal in the earth’s crust, and that we consume a lot of it by accident, but novel forms may pose novel hazards.”
This page may be of interest . . . . .
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/03/31/aluminum-vaccines.aspx
and this one . . . . .
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/09/21/could-this-be-the-most-dangerous-aspect-of-vaccines.aspx
Ingesting is one thing, injecting is another . . . . . .