This is a guest article by Mannie Barling and Ashley F. Brooks – Simon
Apples, once the darling of nutrition, have become genetically modified (GMO) to increase production, sales and profits. The once formidable addition to our diets has become a shadow of its former self because apples no longer have the nutritional value of their chemical-free predecessors.
Some scientists opine that GMO apples have 76% less nutritional value than the chemical-free, organic version of the same food. A chemical-free, natural organic apple has significantly higher levels of all 21 nutrients analyzed compared with genetically modified fruits including vitamin C (27% more), magnesium (29% more), iron (21% more) and phosphorous (14% more).
How did a treasured American fruit become not only tasteless but harmful to children and adults alike? It is because the food industry uses the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus (CaMV) as a “gene promoter†to create these new apples.
The apple seed is split with the virus so that a pesticide gene can be inserted to kill insects. The pesticide causes the stomachs of insects to explode.
The Cauliflower Mosaic Virus is used because it is a powerful virus that cannot be destroyed during gene splitting. It is a retro-virus that alters the RNA, that causes changes in the DNA, resulting in similar viruses that ultimately become HIV, Leukemia Virus and hepatitis B. This is a very dangerous virus. Industry scientists ignore the axiom, “If you play with fire, you get burned.â€
The virus is found in every cell of the DNA and RNA of the GMO apple and the residue in the apples stays in your gut and leads to Crohn’s disease, IBD and IBS.
Dr. Daniel C. Dantini, a noted expert on the topic of food allergies and intolerance, opines that, “Any virus, bacteria, parasite, or yeast can inflame the intestine.” This will lead to immune problems within the body, inflammation and even include delayed food allergies.
It also produces “more virulent new virus diseases . . . CaMV viruses may also incorporate genes from the host plant creating virulent new diseasesâ€. Professor Joe Cummins made it clear that there is still a statistical risk involved for the creation of a dangerous virus. Much like a sci-fi film, it is another “mad scientist†playing with fire. From Frankenstein to Swamp Thing, films and literature are filled with these types of experiments gone bad.
According to author and expert, Jeffrey M. Smith, “This means that long after we stop eating GMOs [apples], we may still have potentially harmful GM proteins produced continuously inside of us.”
Sadly, genetically modified apples are further contaminated by the need for the farmer to use multiple applications of pesticides. More than 400 chemical pesticides are regularly used in genetic farming to kill weeds, insects and other pests. If that number frightens you, consider this: non-organic apples are routinely sprayed up to 16 times with 36 different pesticides before being picked. Then the apples are sprayed with ethylene and covered with wax to make them look prettier.
In addition, Big Food scientists even field tested chicken genes in apples. Chicken genes? What were they trying to do? Get the apples to sprout wings and fly to the market to save shipping costs? Make no mistake about it, these are not the apples your grandparents ate every day. Nor the “one a day keeps the doctor away†apples that doctors recommend.
As a result, Americans are eating an abnormal, adulterated copies of natural organic apples (modified by a “mad scientist†in a lab) soaked in pesticides and sprayed with chemicals. Do you really want to feed an adulterated apple to your child?
If you feed your child an apple a day, it will not keep the doctor away. On the contrary, a child will be exposed to more viruses, the possibility of childhood illness and disease, weight gain and obesity. Adults fare no better eating a genetically modified chemically soaked apple a day.
For expectant mothers, these are the types of foods that lead to chemically altering the DNA of a fetus and/or starting that fetus down the road to childhood diseases. Just look at the growing statistics on childhood illnesses to validate the problem. Is this what we want in our society – chemical garbage instead of the “real thing� Do we really want to make our children chemical dump sites for Big Food?
Johnny Appleseed lived by the Golden Rule as he planted the seeds of apples in the United States. He remained connected to nature and mankind through his deeply religious values. He was known to have no fear of man or beast.
One can only wonder how sad he would be to realize that the beast within man could destroy those beautiful seeds and have no conscious about harming others. What ever happened to that Golden Rule? Johnny Appleseed must be turning over in his grave.
This is why the nutritional value of GMO apples are negligible. Anything that increases the number of harmful chemicals in your body should be avoided. Any fruit that can alter your DNA and RNA and leave bacterias and viruses in your intestines should be banned from public consumption.
The food industry scientists are rolling the dice with peoples’ lives. If they roll the dice long enough, society will lose. That loss is already measured by the increase in diabetes, cancer, kidney and liver failure and the long line of Americans waiting for kidney and liver transplants.
None of this happened before scientists created genetically modified foods and more than 9,000 addictive chemicals now used in our food supply.
Mannie Barling and Ashley F. Brooks, R.N., are the authors of award winning books – Arthritis, Inflammation, Gout, Crohn’s, IBD and IBS – How to Eliminate Pain and Extend your Life (Books and Authors 2010 Best Books in the Health, Diet & Reference Categories) and Mannie’s Diet and Enzyme Formula – A Change of Lifestyle Diet Designed for Everyone (Blogger News Net 2010 Best Health And Nutrition Book Award winner) available at HowToEliminatePain.com, Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and other booksellers around the world.
The authors’ latest book, It’s Not Your Fault – Weight Gain, Obesity and Food Addiction is now available at HowtoEliminatePain.com, Amazon and booksellers everywhere.
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18 users commented in " A Genetically Modified Apple a Day Does Not Keep the Doctor Away "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackWhat is your source for the assertions about the reductions in nutrient value?
There are many sources (among the more than 3,500) in the Reference sections of our books, Arthritis, Inflammation, Gout, Crohn’s, IBD and IBS – How to Eliminate Pain and Extend Your Life and Mannie’s Diet and Enzyme Formula – A Change of Lifestyle Diet Designed for Everyone, books citing the loss of nutritional value of genetically modified fruits and vegetables. We suggest that our readers go to these references and read the studies for themselves.
Since you are obviously a food industry-employed blogger, you can buy our books and take the journey into the ugly world of GMOs and make your own discoveries.
Recent government statistics in the UK and U.S. indicate that levels of trace vitamins and minerals in GMO fruit and vegetables have fallen by as much as 76%. The statistics disclosed that organic crops have significantly higher levels of all 21 nutrients analyzed compared with conventional produce including vitamin C (27% more), magnesium (29% more), iron (21% more) and phosphorous (14% more). Organic spinach, lettuce, cabbage and potatoes show particularly high levels of minerals.
World renowned biologist Pushpa M. Bhargava goes one step further. After reviewing more than 600 scientific journals, he concludes that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are a major contributor to the sharply deteriorating health of Americans. One of the causes is a loss of nutrition.
Studies by the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) prove that genetically modifying plants decreases the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables. More and more doctors are already prescribing GM-free diets.
Dr. Amy Dean, a Michigan internal medicine specialist, says, “I strongly recommend patients eat strictly non-genetically modified foods.” The reason again is a loss of nutritional value; the bacteria from Bt toxin and E. coli used as “promoter” viruses; and the increase in obesity, diabetes and cancer since GMOs were introduced by Monsanto in the 1990s. The statistics do not lie.
Ohio allergist Dr. John Boyles says, “I used to test for soy allergies all the time, but now that soy is genetically engineered, it is so dangerous that I tell people never to eat it.” Japan and Europe refuse to buy genetically modified soy from the U.S. because of the poisonous nature of the genetically modified foods.
Jeffrey M. Smith, Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible Technology, in his second book, Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, identifies 65 risks of GMOs (including a loss of nutritional values) and demonstrates how superficial government approvals are not competent to find most of them.
Mr. Smith invited the biotech industry to respond in writing with evidence to counter each risk (including loss of nutritional value), but correctly predicted that they would refuse, since they don’t have the data to show that their products are safe.
GMO foods were considered dangerous by “rank and file” FDA scientists, but the politically appointed Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto lawyer, pushed approval through anyway. Mr. Taylor left the FDA and returned to the employ of Monsanto at a hefty increase in compensation. Another industry fox in the public henhouse.
Famed Canadian geneticist David Suzuki answers, “The experiments simply haven’t been done and we now have become the guinea pigs.” He adds, “Anyone that says, ‘Oh, we know that this is perfectly safe,’ I say is either unbelievably stupid or deliberately lying.”
So, Robert, are you a sincere blogger with a question or are you “unbelievably stupid or deliberately lying”?
Thanks for these articles Mr. Barrett!
There are currently no GMO apples in the market. The only GMO apple even being tested for approval for market is called the Arctic Apple. It’s still years away.
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/story?section=news/consumer&id=7814056
“So, Robert, are you a sincere blogger with a question or are you “unbelievably stupid or deliberately lying”?”
Robert asked a question… So not only did you attack him for it, you stated something that had no grounds.
I’m all for keeping a watchful eye on GMOs but sourceless attack like this belittle the cause, next time try a more productive approach.
Great exchange here. The ‘facts’ being pushed by Mannie and Simon and then the checkmate by CallmeSoup…. funny stuff!
First, I want to apologize to Robert if he felt I was attacking him. I am responding to a host of comments on our blogs throughout various sites that shows a united industry attack on our books, the scientists, researchers and the thousands of research articles that support our views.
There has been a race to get GMO apples on the market for more than two years. With two years of testing under their belt, the industry is close to obtaining approval of the GMO apple. If Monsanto had applied for the patent and approval, it would have been granted by now. Because the technology was created by Australians for potatoes and now promoted by Canadians in apples, the process of approval has slowed.
At a time when the courts are addressing the lack of testing and potential contamination of local crops by untested GMO sugar beets and cotton crops, it would be a crime to permit GMO apples to gain a foothold in our grocery stores. Since the initial crops would be grown in Canada, GMO apples would be put into the market without any testing on humans nor environmental impact reports.
My mistake was not including the following paragraph that appears on the blog on our website. In an effort to keep some of these blogs short, I should not have deleted the following:
“Sounds scary, doesn’t it? The food industry has been trying to get the FDA to approve GMO apples for some time now. When I first wrote this blog, it seemed like the GMO apples were about to be approved. They are not on the market yet but will be soon unless Americans stand up and object to their entry into our food chain.”
Again, to Robert, I apologize.
Wow, Mannie, pretty harsh treatment to Robert who simply asked for your sources of data. Even when you answered him you didn’t provide the sources, only refer to your books…hmmm
Even if Robert is a food industry-employed blogger, which I doubt, are you suggesting that your data/opinion ends the discussion?
I am in the food industry employed by a commercial fruit nursery. For the record, it would take years for an apple/fruit to go from a breeding program to being commercially available. Yes, you would see some (5-20) trees planted in an orchard environement after year two but to create a product available on a commercial scale would take upwards of 8-10 years. The cost to establish an orchard runs in the neighborhood of $13,000 per acre.
Next, the new variety would have to establish a market. This requires hundreds of thousands of dollars in promotion and introduction, not to mention retailerswould have to create shelf space which is very hard to come by.
Of course, no business would go through this kind of expense unless they felt there was a market and consumers would purchase the fruit.
The market would dictate the successfulness of the product. Today, we have organic fruit and conventional fruit available on the same shelf. I see nothing wrong with providing consumers with a choice rather than mandating all must purchase one or the other. Similarly, I would look at GMO products as a personal choice to be made by me. Ultimately, if consumers do not purchase the product, the growers/marketers will discontiue its production.
Lastly, we do not have GMO product on our property nor are we working on any GMO product for the future. Likewise, I know of no commercial apple nursery that is working towards this end.
I am not associated with the food industry, but I do work with DNA in medicine and I feel the need to say something because the ignorance and fear-mongering presented here is scary. The whole point of this genetic modification is to reduce the amounts of pesticide chemicals needed on apples. There is evidence that large amounts of pesticide residue could be bad for you, and the goal of this genetic modification is to lessen the amount of exposure. The genetic process uses a small DNA tool (promoter) copied from a virus. All living cells normally and naturally use promoters throughout their DNA. The viral promoter was used because it is strong, and because where the promoter came from should not matter (based on all we know about how DNA works). There are no viruses added to the food! There are no infective parts of viruses present! There are no viral antigens for your gut or immune system to see! Nothing viral, none, nada!!!
One can argue about the safety of the protein that causes pest resistance (which is in the food), but this was copied from a natural protein made by other plants and is not a virus or a chemical. Your arguments about viruses is fear-mongering from ignorance. Your comments about toxic chemical are backwards- in this case there are less chemicals. There is no reason to expect a difference in nutritional content and I doubt that studies showing the differences you claim are real. This particular genetic mod may be good or may be bad, it will need to be thoroughly tested. But don’t blindly attack with clearly false fears. New and untested does not make it Godzilla.
BruceG I have to admit that I could be wrong, I base my comments on Monsanto GMO seeds, known as ‘Round Up Ready’. They are not engineered to require less pesticide, rather they are more resilient to pesticide. You indicate that this Apple adventure is different…
I am not a food-industry employed blogger; I am the creator of this site. Apologies for not coming back sooner.
What is your source for the assertions about the reductions in nutrient value? You say there are many; great. Please cite some.
You say there are numerous government statistics that “levels of trace vitamins and minerals in GMO fruit and vegetables have fallen by as much as 76%.” OK. What statistics? Government science is, with national-security type exceptions, a matter of public record. Can you provide a link to online government documents showing this information, or a cite to an offline version, a paper report, or what have you?
You say the American Academy of Environmental Medicine has studies showing a loss of nutrients in GM modified food. What studies?
Now I’m just confused. Do they sell GMO apples at the store or arr they not on the market as of yet?
GMO apples are sold in Australia and Canada in the form of sliced apples in bottles, cans and other products. They are on the verge of being approved in the U.S. along with other genetically modified apples from Monsanto. If you buy a product containing sliced apples imported from the east, it could very well contain GMO apples. But, if it is not tomorrow, it will be in our immediate future. The marketplace for apples is too large for Big Food to ignore.
I apologized once to Robert and apparently should do it again. I now know who you are and will fish out the information for you out of the more than 5,000 references we read for the book. I haven’t read any of those references since early last summer when we wrote the book.
I will have it up as soon as I complete what is on my desk.
Okay Robert, here are some of the references you requested. The Virginia Worthington artilce provides an interesting history of nutrition in fruits and vegetables. If you would like more, I can send you more. These are probably the easiest for you to fond on the Internet. The European studies are much harder to access.
McCance & Widdowson (1991) The composition of foods. MAFF and the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Bergner P (1997) The healing power of minerals, special nutrients and trace elements, p. 312. Prima Publishing, Rocklin, CA.
Soil Association (2001) Organic Farming, food quality and human health: a review of the evidence.
Worthington V (2001) Nutritional quality of organic versus conventional fruits, vegetables, and grains. The Journal of Complimentary Medicine, vol. 7, No. 2, p. 161 – 173
Brandt K and Molgaard JP (2001), ‘Organic Agriculture: Does it enhance or reduce the nutritional value of food plants’, Journal of Science in Food and Agriculture, 81, p. 924 – 931
These apples are already in the stores. I ate an apple the other day and left the core on my nightstand. Two days later, none of the core had turned brown at all. I have been eating apples for 37 years on this Earth and never seen anything like this before. I am sure the GMO have already cross pollinated with regular apples. They are lower in nutrient too, epecially Magnesium. Shame on the mad scientist who thought the could improve apples!!!!
Thank you fo rthis article. It puts a name to why I BLEED from my ass everytime I consume a GMO corn product – any american non-orgainc corn is apt to have the Cauliflower mosaic virus and the BT pesticide gene. If I even consume american licorice, or bake with normal baking powder (even Whole Foods version causes it in me – I use Potato starch baking powder), will have one or two bowel movements with IBS/inflammation results, and a quarter roll of tissue later my bleeding may be controlled.
This is Monsanto poisoning me, and our criminal federal government between the USDA and the FDA giving Monsanto free rein to sicken Americans with their poison food. Its worse than Orwell foresaw. I eat only organic corn and Australian (Cannaberra) licorice as the Ausies don’t believe in GMO. Can we join a class action lawsuit against Monsanto – they are destroying our way of life!
Please help me. I am a GMO Corn sufferer.
If I eat any product on the market today that has been made from any of the thousands of byproducts of american non organic corn (the 85% that is Monsanto GMO created), I am physically effected (my hemorrhoids open up and gush – taking most of the toilet roll to stem it and even then the massive inflammation of my hems, it’s painful!
I know this occurs only after consuming lets say a bagel that happens to be made with baking powder that happens to be made with Corn Starch (even 365 whole foods has it in their product). Anything made with HFCS and there isnt a soda on the market that isnt except for 365 cane sugar tonic water. I have to eat only organic and that’s tough when on the go.I also can attest for Canaberra licorice cause American licorice or any american chocolate or candy bar from Mars et al POISON! Monsanto should be shut down and its CEO and Board of Directors sent to Guantanamo as they are more such terrorists, poisoning the american people with their untested virus machine!
Thanks for the article, I want to know more how this virus is causing such inflammation in my body.
911truthseeker, 1)glad you’re seeing truth
we all should.. 2)You should loo into gluten intolerance. Your corn problem sounds awful, just horrid, and there are many people who are grain and/or gluten intolerant (the protein that bothers gluten intolerant people has a look-alike in corn, dairy, and many grains besides just the standard gluten-free diet.)… Anyway, gluten intolerance (related to corn intolerance & allergies) can cause these horrible physical & mental health issues, and can be solved with a gluten (and/or grain)-free diet.
I post a lot of articles about this stuff- see my blog if you’re curious, or google of course.
Also, I’d be very curious to know whether you’re GMO corn sensitive, or if it’s all corn… that would signify something if I were in your situation. Lots of people have a GMO sensitivity but not to organic.
Best of luck!! Michelle
Ps. cool article.
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