10 Healthy Foods You Had No Idea Were Filled With GMOs

When it comes to GMO, it looks like we all intend to stay away from it. Although it might seem like an easy thing to do, with all the different brands offering their products on the market, staying away from GMO is hard. There are a lot of products that we love which are sources of GMO. So we tend to eat healthy, with all the recommended nutrients, following a high fiber diet. But is that safe as well?

Can we entirely exclude GMO from our lives? Will you be surprised to find out that one of your favorite healthy food product is on our list of the other nine supposable healthy food products which are just hidden sources of GMO? Let’s find out!

What are GMOs and Why are they Dangerous To Us?

Before we go ahead with explaining everything else, let’s start with the basics – what is GMO and where it can be found? GMO – Genetically modified organism, is being created in the laboratory where the DNA from one species of plants or animals, has been extracted and afterward forced into the DNA of another species, again of plants or animals.

GMO food is a food group which includes all food products that have had certain changes introduced into their DNA. The most common GMO food products examples are crops and soy, corn, sugar beets, etc. Approximately 93% of the corn crops and nearly 96% of the soybeans in U.S have been genetically modified.

The GMO food products can withstand a lot of pesticides – e.g. the glyphosate, which is the most commonly used pesticide. Why are GMO dangerous to us, you ask? First of all, the safety of genetically modified foods was never thoroughly tested before being introduced into the market; regulation is also difficult and not transparent to the public. Furthermore, although there are no studies that would confirm this completely, there are researchers who have linked glyphosate to cancer. This chemical is a pesticide sprayed onto crops that have been modified to withstand the harsh chemicals… unfortunately, reside of this chemical ends up in our digestive system.

What Are 10 “Healthy” Secret GMO Foods?

We already mentioned the most common sources of GMO, but there are also a lot of food products that are hidden sources of GMO, and we are not yet aware of. We will share 10 examples of those food products that you would like to watch out for next time you go shopping at the market!

1. Dairy Products

Cows are often fed with a mixture of artificial hormones and soy which contain an enormous amount of GMOs. These synthetic hormones are used with the goal to increase the milk production of the cows.

2. Chocolate

It is not uncommon for chocolate to contain GMO corn or certain corn sweeteners which are extracted from GMO corn. Also chocolate often contains milk which is produced by cows fed with artificial hormones, as mentioned before.

3. Nutrition Bars

Nutrition bars may contain GMO soy and corn as well as GMO sugar.

4. Cereal

Although not the perfect decision for breakfast, cereals are a favorite food product by many individuals. But, cereal tends to contain GMO corn, GMO soy and GMO sugar. Also, the milk used to prepare the cereal, as we mentioned before, is often produced by cows injected with artificial hormones.

5. Oils

Corn and canola oil are just two examples of the most commonly used vegetable oils used for cooking. The bad news is that almost always the vegetable oils used for cooking are make out of GMO. In this case, you can easily avoid GMO by using olive oil.

6. Rice

Rice has been found to be genetically modified to contain larger amounts of Vitamin A. Unfortunately GMO rice has been found to increase the risk of allergies, and because of that, it is strongly recommended to be avoided as often as possible.

7. Papayas

Most of the Hawaiian papayas come GMO crops, and it should be avoided. If you want to include papayas as a part of your diet, you can always search for the red papayas which are typically grown in Mexico instead of Hawaii.

8. Bananas

In fact, most of our favorite fruit, bananas are genetically modified in the U.S. But that does not mean that you have to avoid bananas forever – it just means that you can choose the organic ones instead.

9. Tomatoes

Genetically modified tomatoes are banned in Europe, however, in U.S. they are still present. The goal of the process to genetically modify the tomatoes is for the tomatoes to stay fresh as long as possible, but at what price?

10. Meat

You should avoid meat that comes from animals that have been feed by using GMO corn. Cows, pigs, and chickens have been injected with growth hormones that cause additional problems for us. Avoid any products that come from animals fed on GMO products.

Conclusion

Do you tend to eat healthily? Do you tend to use the health benefits of omega 3 as much as you can? Do you rely on your fruits and vegetables and dairy products and fresh meat and what not? Are you concerned about GMO?

When it comes to GMO, the problem is not that we are not entirely informed about it. The problem is how to differ right from wrong. Being so commonly present in today’s market, it seems hard to make the difference between what you should include on your to-buy list and what you should avoid.

We though to help you through the process by sharing ten food products that are thought to be healthy by instead of they are just hidden sources of GMO. No worries, you should not avoid any of these products forever, instead of choosing the organic form available on the market next time you go shopping!