Non-GMO’s, USDA Organic, Gluten Free – Important Food Labels!

 

This is the 5th in a series of blogs on the “Reality of our Food and the Demise of our Health.” Today I would like to share some basic information with you to help you understand and appreciate some of these very important food labeling terms.

But first, I said I would start off each blog with what the definition and the function of food is, just so we remember what the foundation of our focus in this series is each week:

Definition of Food

 

Food: substance consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, fat, and other nutrients used in the body of an organism to sustain growth and vital processes and to furnish energy. The absorption and utilization of food by the body is fundamental to nutrition and is facilitated by digestion. (Britannica)

Food: material consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, and fat used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes and to furnish energy (Merriam Webster).

Function and purpose of food: …to sustain growth, repair and vital processes and to furnish energy.

I am not a great expert in the field of each of these food labels and all of their requirements. But I have great respect for them and know they are key to maintaining and/or restoring your body back to good health.

Having said that, a lot of the content in this blog is coming from some reliable sources that are my go-to’s and that I trust. I have a link for each source so you can follow up and learn more than what I will share with you here.What I will attempt to do today is summarize some of their points for you (in GREEN) as well as share some of my commentary (in BLACK) to hopefully bring even greater clarity for you.

What I can say most about each of these labels is they truly are key to your health and important to pay attention to when grocery shopping and even when dining out.

Genetically Modified Organisms – GMO’s

From the Non-GMO Project website:
A GMO, or genetically modified organism, is a plant, animal or microorganism that has been subjected to biotechnology.
The key words here are “genetically modified,” and “biotechnology.”

GMOs can be processed into ingredients which are also genetically modified. Genetically modified ingredients are present in food and personal care products.
Another words, it’s not just straight up single foods like fruits, vegetables and meats. It’s packaged and processed foods that
can have multiple ingredients in them. This is just another reason to stay away from processed foods especially. But if you are
going to consume them, look for the Non-GMO label.

And personal care items are another line of products that most people don’t think about if they are trying to pay attention to
avoiding genetically modified products. A lot of our skin care products have ingredients in them that may come from seed oils,
animal fats, and grains – in processed forms of course, but still from genetically modified ingredients.

GMO developers use biotechnology to alter an organism’s fundamental characteristics.

This is probably the very foundational problem with our conventional food sources these days, they have been altered from its fundamental characteristics. Remember the function and purpose of real food is …to sustain growth, repair and vital processes and to furnish energy. Because the fundamental characteristics of what was at one time real food, but has been altered, this food can no longer serve its primary function and purpose.

Biotechnology includes techniques such as using synthetic genetic sequences to change the organism’s genetic material (i.e., DNA or RNA), or forcing the combination of very unrelated organisms that would not normally reproduce in nature.

When we consume these foods, that in their natural form would have great benefits to our own DNA or RNA, but are now altered, they are unnaturally altering our own DNA. Remember, we literally “are what we eat.” While this may not harm us if we consumed a very occasional GMO food, but we are being bombarded with this stuff everywhere we look. You must become more aware of what you are putting into your bodies, your temples that God created for you. Not man’s unnatural design.

Some examples of GMOs

  • Corn containing bacterial genes that cause the plant to produce an insecticide
  • Fast-growing Atlantic salmon with genes from a Chinook salmon and an ocean pout
  • Soybeans with edited genes which increase the amount of oleic acid
  • Hens with an inserted lethality gene that can kill their male offspring before they hatch

When you start taking a look at the ingredients of the foods you are consuming, you will realize how many products have wheat, corn and soy in them. And unless they are indicated that they are non-GMO – you are consuming genetically modified foods.

The GMO Process

Biotechnology can be used to create gene sequences that have never before occurred in nature, producing organisms that have never been part of the human diet.
This just screams man altering what God made for good for us – He is in all nature, and biotechnology is altering that. God will never be altered or killed, but we unknowingly are opting for man’s unnatural ways, for God’s ways when we consume GMO foods and products.

Biotechnology is a relatively recent development that has only been around since the 1970s.
Hmmm… is there a correlation to a rise in the chronic degenerative diseases including auto-immune conditions, cancers and childhood diseases? I think so.

Are GMOs labeled?

Sixty-five countries around the world, including Australia, Japan and all of the countries in the European Union, require genetically modified foods to be labeled. Canada does not require any GMO labeling.
This is the total opposite of what you will find in the United States (with the exception of Canada).

Under the USDA’s National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NBFDS), some – but not all – products containing GMOs must be labeled in the United States. In its current form, categorical exemptions prevent this law from delivering the transparency Americans deserve.
You would have to read the real fine print in order to understand and know that a product has been labeled as containing GMO ingredients. There is no label jumping out at you on the front of the package, or even under any “warning” like you might see with something containing nuts or wheat – and this too is small. The emphasis and responsibility, including financial, is still imposed on the organic and non-GMO farmer. Like something being organic and consciously grown or raised with the health of the consumer in mind is above and beyond the norm.

Genetically engineered ingredients are common in animal feed. This impacts animal-derived products such as eggs, milk, meat, honey, and seafood.
Hence the reason for being cautious when you consume animal products. It’s not so much that the animal products themselves have an acidic pH or are inflammatory, it’s the genetically modified feed, at least in part, that makes them inflammatory. The other things that make animal products inflammatory are the growth hormones and anti-biotics injected into the animals themselves. These combined with GMO feed makes for a highly inflammatory food source.

GMOs also sneak into food in the form of processed crop derivatives and inputs derived from other forms of genetic engineering, such as synthetic biology. Some examples include hydrolyzed vegetable protein, corn syrup, molasses, sucrose, textured vegetable protein, flavorings, vitamins, yeast products, flavors, proteins, sweeteners, microbes, enzymes, oils and fats.
They are everywhere!

Most of the research used to claim that GMOs are safe has been performed by biotechnology companies.
Imagine that! Just like our drug research is done by the very makers of the drugs. “The fox guarding the henhouse” analogy.

Corn is on the High-Risk List because 93% of corn grown in the U.S. is genetically modified and GMO corn is widespread in the marketplace. Such prevalence means there is a high chance that corn-based ingredients would come from genetically modified corn unless the buyer intentionally sought non-GMO sources.
Corn is one of the highest food sources that are top on the list of GMO caution.

To learn more about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s), go to the Non-GMO Project website.

USDA Organic

Some may confuse the USDA with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Although they are both governmental agencies that oversee the safety of food and other products, they do have different roles.

While the USDA oversees agriculture, meat, poultry, and eggs, the FDA regulates pretty much everything else we eat and drink (including packaged foods, alcohol, etc.) as well as pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements.

As you read through this next section, I encourage you, that everywhere you read the word “organic” in your mind, replace it with “real food.” Hopefully this will help you put things into perspective a little better. Organic isn’t special it’s just real.

Organic Requirements


In order for a product to be 100% organic, it must be grown, raised, and processed without the use of:

  • most synthetic pesticides
  • most synthetic fertilizers
  • growth hormones
  • sewage sludge
  • irradiation
  • genetic engineering (genetically modified organisms or GMOs)

a farm must be free from the above substances for three years before it can qualify for organic certification.

The most important take-away from the above requirements is that the things organic food must be free from are all man-made, toxic substances! Another words, it’s okay for these things to be in our conventional food sources, they just can’t be in real foods called “organic!” And once again, the onerous of the expense falls onto the farmer, that then needs to be passed onto the consumer in order for the farmer to recoup their investment. Picture the old time farmer and his generations before him, who has grown his crops without any of this monkeying to his food for hundreds of years, and all of a sudden, if he doesn’t follow these toxic principles he now has to follow these suffocating government restrictions (because remember, they are the ones making the money by their palms being greased by Big Ag and Big Pharma) in order to identify his supply as real food.

If he doesn’t raise and sell his crops with the list of toxic substances, and tries to sell his product next to the modified produce, his will pale in comparison. When conventional food has been altered, in part, it is for the sake of artificial size, color and overall appearance – “Frankenfood” some folks call it. All of a sudden real food, well, doesn’t even look like real food anymore, because we have been fooled by outward appearances.

Farms that want to receive a USDA organic certification must go through an inspection with a USDA-accredited certifying agent. For crops, these agents inspect fields, soil conditions, approaches used to manage weeds and pets, water systems used, storage, and equipment. They might take soil samples and perform residue tests as well. For livestock, the agents inspect things like feed production, animal living conditions, preventative health management practices, and animal health records. They may take tissue samples to test, too.

Can you just imagine?! Why are they not doing this to the altered crops and animals? This is where the danger lies! You should be seeing prices being forced up by these government restrictions, not by the farmer. And not because anything “special” has been done to them or added to the real food.

I have always felt that the impression people have about something that is labeled as “organic” is that it’s “just for the rich” or that something special, high quality, different has been done to the food to make it “organic.” But nothing is further from the truth!

If you don’t get anything else out of this article, please know this: Organic food is just real food! Grown the way real food should be. It’s not set apart “just for the rich” – all of us need this real food that has been forced to identify itself as such by our very own government. In the meantime, they are enabling and even supporting, with your tax dollars and mine, for the Big Ag business along with, of course, the pharmaceutical industry who provides them with the toxic chemicals, to poison us and sell their products so cheap, enticing us to “bargain shop.” Especially the most vulnerable and those in the greatest nutritional need.

Certified farms and food processors have to go through this inspection and certifying process once a year in order to continue to use the USDA organic labels on their products.
Once a YEAR?! And we wonder why organic food is so much more expensive!

Types of Organic Labeling


There are essentially three different types of organic labels given out by the USDA:

  • “100% USDA Organic” means exactly what it sounds like: the product contains 100% organic ingredients.
  • “USDA Organic” means that at least 95% of the ingredients in the products are organic. The remaining 5% of the ingredients that are NOT organic have to be on the “National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances.” For example, a product can contain non-organic baking soda or citric acid and still carry the “USDA Organic” label (as long as those ingredients do not add up to more than 5% of the product).
  • “Made with Organic __________” means that a product is made with certain ingredients that are certified organic. For example, chocolate chip cookies might be “Made with Organic Chocolate”, but the wheat used to make the flour is not organic. In order for a product to have this label, it must contain at least 70% organic ingredients.

Products that contain less than 70% organic ingredients cannot bear the USDA Organic label. If they use some organic ingredients, they can indicate that on the ingredients list.

In the United States, it is illegal for a company to label or market a product as “organic” without it actually being certified organic by the USDA. Farmers and food manufacturers have to be very careful about this because violations can result in hefty fines (up to $18,530 per violation).

On one hand, this law is a good thing because it helps prevents greenwashing. Companies cannot legally advertise a product as organic if it has not been verified to be so by a third party under a strict set of standards.

On the other hand, this law can hurt smaller farmers who do use organic farming practices but have not been certified organic by the USDA. Becoming certified can be expensive and many small farms cannot afford the extra costs (or they choose to save that money and pass along the savings to their customers by selling their goods at a lower price).

For this reason, farmers who do use organic practices but are not certified, have to be careful in how they phrase things to customers. Instead of saying “Our produce is organic,” they might say something like “We grow produce without using synthetic pesticides or fertilizers or GMO seeds.”

In my humble opinion the organic farmer should start being proactive and start by stating “our produce is real produce” with pride and confidence. Call a spade a spade.

The USDA organic certification covers most agricultural products and many byproducts, such as:

  • Crops (like wheat, soy, nuts, fruits, and vegetables)
  • Products made from those crops (i.e. almond milk made from certified organic almonds)
  • Livestock (like beef and chicken)
  • Foods with organic ingredients (as discussed above)
  • Textiles (like cotton)

If any of these items are not listed as organic, you can almost guarantee they are altered and genetically modified. As was pointed out earlier “organic” means free of being genetically modified.

Is Organic Food Really Healthier for You?

As we discussed here, the answer is: yes. Organic food really is healthier for you.
Conventional (or non-organic) crops are sprayed with pesticides and other toxic chemicals that have been linked to everything from cancer and ADHD to infertility and Parkinson’s and more.

This makes sense when we consider the fact that many of the herbicides that are used today were originally developed to be poisons like Agent Orange.
Agent Orange is what was highly used during the Vietnam war causing so many of our Vietnam vets to become so ill and cancer ridden later.

Organic food also tends to have more nutrients. Considering that many people are nutrient deficient, organic food can help to solve that problem. It is often more flavorful as well!
Not only that, but there are many reasons that organic crops are better for our communities and society in the long run. Whereas conventional monocrop farming strips topsoil, organic and regenerative farming maintains the healthy soil that future generations will need for their food supply. Organic farming also helps to protect our pollinators (which necessary for food production and healthy ecosystems, but are endangered).

This about sums up all the reasons to eat organic as much as is possibly available. Note, I didn’t say “affordable.” It’s not too expensive to eat healthy and organic, it’s just cheap to eat food-like substances. Start adapting to the cost of real food – you can’t put a price on your health.

Additionally, millions of dollars in subsidies are given to conventional farmers each year in order to keep them running. Therefore, organic agriculture can save taxpayers’ money as well.
Yes, your hard-earned tax dollars and mine are going directly from our pocket to the government to support toxic food growing that is literally killing us. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense now does it?

Those that are in more sensitive populations (pregnant women and babies, people with chronic illness, etc.) will find it even more important to eat organically since they are at a higher risk for the negative consequences of pesticides.
Make food your medicine – organic, real food that is.

But just because something is organic or contains organic ingredients doesn’t automatically mean it’s “healthy.” Technically, what is “healthy” can vary from person to person anyway. A product can be organic and still be filled with sugar, which in too high of quantities can lead to things like diabetes, IBS, and general inflammation. A product can be organic and still contain things like wheat, dairy, and oils that can cause problems for some people.
I address this exact point in my book “Are You Being Deceived About True Wellness.” We are so addicted to food, and especially sugary foods and foods that turn to sugar like empty carb snacks etc. that we justify eating “healthy” when we buy organic and/or non-GMO foods. We need to avoid packaged and processed foods, of all kinds, as much as possible – organic, non-GMO or otherwise.

See this link from The Filtery website for more info on USDA Organic

To book Dr. Jackie for speaking engagements go to:
https://jackiemckool.com/schedule-jackie/

Gluten Free

First, What is Gluten?

Gluten is a protein that is found in the hull of certain grains – wheat, barley and rye, in particular. It’s this part of the plant that seems to cause the problems for those who are sensitive to it. It also contains a rich source of “B” vitamins as well as valuable fiber. Unfortunately, when the hull, that carries the gluten is stripped away, to make the grain “gluten free”, so are the B vitamins, fiber and other nutritional components stripped away, leaving a sticky carbohydrate grain.

My personal theory is that when the GMO process came on the scene back in the 70’s, it wasn’t just parts of the crop itself that grew bigger, but it grew the entire crop bigger – including the hull of these grains. Another words, it tremendously multiplied the adverse effects of gluten on the body causing it to be too much for the body to handle and therefore the trend “gluten intolerant” began. As did even more severe health conditions like celiac disease and even Crohn’s disease as well as other auto-immune conditions. I truly believe if these grains had never been altered, we wouldn’t be seeing the abundance of folks who have a gluten sensitivity today.

What Does “Gluten Free” Mean?

According to the Gluten Intolerance Group website, the term “gluten-free” describes the elimination of gluten-containing grains – wheat, barley, and rye – in food, drinks, and other products that could be ingested or enter the body in some other manner. People living gluten-free have either been diagnosed with celiac disease or experience reactions to consuming gluten due to a non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) or have made the choice to eliminate gluten from their diets. The FDA dictates that any FDA-regulated food product labeled “gluten-free” should contain less than 20 ppm (parts per million) of gluten. The GFCO’s (Gluten-Free Certification Organization) is the organization that helps businesses establish certification for gluten-free products and has a specific gluten free symbol. Their criteria for “gluten-free” certification is twice as strict as the FDAs, at 10 ppm of gluten or less.

Gluten Consumption Concerns

Gluten has become one of the most prominent hidden food sensitivities as well as allergens. When gluten is consumed by someone who has an intolerance to it, it starts poking holes in the lining of the small intestines causing inflammation. Once it gets through it then starts circulating in the blood stream as a protein molecule. The body starts reacting to it as something foreign to the body leading to a whole host of other health problems over time. The key is: inflammation.

It brings us right back to another reason we should be eating real foods that are organic, non-GMO and for most people gluten-free.

I highly recommend Karen Masterson Koch’s book “Beyond Gluten Intolerance” to learn more about gluten and gluten free products.

To learn more go to The Gluten Intolerance Group and to learn more about labeling requirements, go to The Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO)

In Summary

As we continue our journey through “The Reality of our Food and the Demise of our Health” it’s important to remember the tremendous adverse effects things like genetically modified organisms, conventionally raised and grown food, as well as gluten can have on our health.

I encourage you to start becoming wiser shoppers and consumers. Become diligent with reading food labels, and even ingredients in the meals you order out. If foods are not indicated that they are “non-GMO,” “Organic,” and/or “Gluten Free” – they are not.

Be knowledgeable, be wise in your food choices and be responsible with the consequences of your choices – good or bad. Following these few simple practices can go a long way towards maintaining and restoring your health. The truth has been spoken here.

 

Do you like to get a jump on your Christmas shopping? How about gifting that special someone who wants to learn more about their health with a copy of “Are You Being Deceived About Truth Wellness?” “Are You Being Deceived About Truth Wellness?”

Did you miss the first two blogs in this series? Visit them now…
“The Reality of Our Food and the Demise of Our Health”
“Genetics or Lifestyle?”
“How Did We Get Here? The History of Processed Foods”
“Ingredients Over Nutrition Facts”

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