Posted on 12/06/2016 6:00:26 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Imagine that I’m a mad scientist (or perhaps just a geneticist who doesn’t blink an eye while fiddling with nature’s design) and I want to see what happens when I introduce substantial genetic changes into a chimpanzee.
In my experimentation, I double the chimp’s height, change it’s hair color to yellow, induce mutations to change eye color, give it the ability to see better at night, increase muscle strength in its lower body so that it can jump long distances, and several dozen other changes. The end result looks different, acts different, has changes in physiology, its capacity to tolerate heat, cold, light, nutritional requirements, etc. Our chimp will likely develop new diseases from these changes, as well.
Is it still a chimp? Should this big, yellow, night-seeing, physiologically unique, jumping creature still be called a “chimpanzee”? Or is it some new creature altogether, concocted through unnatural means, generating changes not seen in nature, even incorporating changes that are not truly adaptive but suit some ulterior motive that I have?
I don’t think that we should call it a chimpanzee any more, but give it a label that makes clear that significant genetic and outward changes have been introduced. Perhaps we should call it a “Frankenchimp”—a chimp with extensive mutatations built into it. Imagine such changes were introduced into humans—extreme changes that substantially alter appearance, abilities, needs. It would be a stretch to call this creature “human.”
I engage in this thought exercise about chimps (thought only, thank goodness) to illustrate that wheat, in particular, has been subjected to some extreme changes: height, stalk thickness, seed size, seed head length, wheat germ agglutinin content, phytate content, alternations in the amino acid sequences of proteins such as alpha-amylase and thioreductases, changes in glutenin protein length and amino acid sequence, changes in the amino acid sequences of the gliadin protein, percentage of amylose sugar present, percentage of amylopectin A present, among many others. And note that modern wheat has the combined genomes (genetic content) of three grasses, the so-called A, B, and D genomes, all of which have had a variety of changes introduced.
Corn has likewise undergone extensive changes. Starting from teosinte, a wild grass with a small natural seed head, corn now has a large seed head (“cob”), large seeds, huge quantities of amylose and amylopectin sugars, changes in the zein protein (related to wheat gliadin), characteristics for pest resistance, as well as the toxic byproducts of genetic modification such as glyphosate, Bt toxin insecticide, and the altered genetics and protein products that result.
Like our chimp, perhaps we call it “Frankenwheat” or “Frankencorn.” It would be more truthful, though certainly a marketing nightmare for agribusiness. Regardless, the extensive changes built into these grasses suggest that the extensive and unnatural changes introduced make them so different that it is misleading to call them by their traditional names. Most of these new mutant varieties retain the capacity to mate with traditional strains, much as a human can mate with lesser primates (as apparently tested by the Nazis and/or Soviets during World War II), but the fact remains: what you thought was wheat or corn is something entirely different, new mutant varieties of Frankengrains with new and unexpected consequences for the unwitting humans who try to consume them.
And, of course, do not fall for the grain industry’s smokescreen propaganda claiming that you should rest assured that there is no such thing as genetically-modified (GM) wheat—they’re right: no GM wheat has yet been sold. But what they fail to tell you is that wheat (and other grains) have been subjected to methods to introduce genetic changes that pre-date GM, methods such as chemical and gamma ray mutagenesis that are, because they introduce dozens of mutations and not the relatively few of GM methods, are worse than GM. That is the sleight-of-hand used to conceal such things by agribusiness and its supporters.
Understand the fictions encapsulated in the “eat more healthy whole grain” message, however, and you are on your way to an impressive return to health. The modern conceit that we have sufficient knowledge to alter the genetics of things we eat is nonsense. Perhaps in 50 years we will have such collective wisdom and be able to eat, say, a GM apple that is grown sustainably, is as nutritious or better than natural apples, and introduces no adverse human or environmental effects. But we are far from those sorts of reassurances with grains. What we have now are all Frankengrains.
The article implies that corn only recently developed a cob due to modern geneticists’ intervention but in fact corn’s been continually selected for traits and modified for centuries.
Potatoes, likewise.
Corn and potatoes already had hundreds of varieties developed by native cultures before a single western geneticist ever took a look at them.
Animals can modify plant species too, it’s not just people. Animal spread seed of the plants that please the animals the most. The plants whose fruit is the most delectable will have their seed dispersed more widely to new and sometimes even better habitat for their growth that the original plant had at its disposal.
And even viruses and fungi can alter a plant species that hosts them.
Sounds like the author is terrified of evolution.
as I work with the end results of GMO grain research, I can assure you, there is GMO wheat being marketed all over the world and it has been for the past twenty years.
Obesity, acne, moodiness, difficulty sleeping, inflammation.
The Luddites, the Ted kazinskys, and the lawyers profiting from the fight against science are an interesting sideline for the ignorant and the dishonest.
Bookmark for later. I happen to be reading “Wheat Belly” right now.
The author is terrified of his own shadow.
“is there a good source of recipes and/or things to eat that satisfy that aren’t grain related?”
I use a lot of Paleo websites, recipes and cookbooks (my library has tons of paleo cookbooks). For me, the key to feeling full is enough protein and fats.
Gregor Johann Mendel was an Austro-German scientist and Augustinian friar and abbot of St. Thomas’ Abbey in Brno who gained posthumous fame as the founder of the modern science of genetics.
I am deeply saddened that my Lays, Fritos and Karrs snack mix is produced with GMOs. I can taste that all are different. The taste is what caused me examine the back of the bags for ingredients only to to find the phrase “Produced with Genetic Engineering.”
Then why do SO many people have terrible health problems these days, that get better when they go off grains? I love grains, I love bread, cakes, oatmeal,pancakes, biscuits with butter and jam. I would never stop eating those things to jump on a silly bandwagon. But I have all kinds of autoimmune problems that get really awful when I eat grains, and start clearing up when I stop. It is heartbreaking to me to not be able to eat what I want and I definitely wouldnt be on a restrictive diet if I was trying to follow some fad or something. It’s just an unfortunate fact of life for millions of Americans these days. There may have been hundreds of variations but something definitely changed in corn and wheat in the last 40-50 years.
Bt-Toxin Now Found in Many People’s Blood!
Last year, doctors at Sherbrooke University Hospital in Quebec found Bt-toxin in the blood of:
93 percent of pregnant women tested
80 percent of umbilical blood in their babies, and
67 percent of non-pregnant women
The study authors speculate that the Bt-toxin was likely consumed in the normal diet of the Canadian middle class—which makes sense when you consider that genetically engineered corn is present in the vast majority of all processed foods and drinks in the form of high fructose corn syrup. They also suggest that the toxin may have come from eating meat from animals fed Bt corn, which most livestock raised in confined animal feeding operations (CAFO, or so-called “factory farms”) are.
These shocking results raise the frightening possibility that eating Bt corn might actually turn your intestinal flora into a sort of “living pesticide factory”… essentially manufacturing Bt-toxin from within your digestive system on a continuing basis.
If this hypothesis is correct, is it then also possible that the Bt-toxin might damage the integrity of your digestive tract in the same way it damages insects? Remember, the toxin actually ruptures the stomach of insects, causing them to die. The biotech industry has insisted that the Bt-toxin doesn’t bind or interact with the intestinal walls of mammals (which would include humans). But again, there are peer-reviewed published research showing that Bt-toxin does bind with mouse small intestines and with intestinal tissue from rhesus monkeys.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/29/genetically-modified-crops-insects-emerged.aspx
I can’t digest enriched supermarket wheat myself. However, I believe there is an important p,ace for grains and seeds and nuts in our diet as long as that place is far down the list in quantity of what we eat. Grains shouldn’t be at every meal. But our gut bugs create our health and well being, even our moods. We need the RIGHT kinds populating in us to be healthy. And they love resistant starch. Grains and tubers are an important part of their diet.
The best grains are the least adulterated ones. Steel cut oats, for example. But also white rice is good because it has a lot of resistant starch, especially when cooked and then cooled (like in sushi or other Japanese cold rice dishes). Prepared things like breads are healthier if they are fermented, like a real sour dough.
I can bake with organic white whole wheat with no iron or other “enrichment” added. But I don’t touch anything made with wheat that I did not personally make. I live gluten free when I eat out. Lettuce wrap is better than those hideous buns anyway!
But you can get plenty of starches your gut bugs need from cooked potatoes and sweet potatoes and other tubers and roots. You could live grain free and still have happy gut bugs!
Sad, isn’t it? 99% of all “corn on the cob” sold is gmo. We found only twice organic corn in a market this last summer. Those were the only corns on the cob our family got to eat.
https://jovialfoods.com/einkorn/
This is another good alternative. I tried it and it tastes really good. I am too sensitive right now to use it to make baked goods very often but it is definitely an alternative if you bake a lot
(Einkorn wheat , a low gluten ancient form of wheat - pre hybridization)
Not long, come to Texas and you can see. They are bad dudes and can kill you. They will not look you up to kill you but will if they deem you a threat. Wild hogs are also smart animals.
Not long, come to Texas and you can see. They are bad dudes and can kill you. They will not look you up to kill you but will if they deem you a threat. Wild hogs are also smart animals.
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