It’s alarming enough that crops are
genetically modified to resist hefty doses of the pesticide Roundup, applied
several times during the growing season. What’s worse, conventional wheat
farmers are misusing the weed killer in a manner never intended, presenting another
grave health risk to consumers.
Farmers are drenching their wheat fields
with glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, just days before harvest. This
practice, called desiccation, is increasingly being used to speed up the drying
process and thereby increase profits. What’s
more, desiccation from Roundup is not an approved use of the product by food
regulatory agencies. In fact, it’s banned in some countries.
When the pesticide is misused in this manner,
it is particularly toxic to consumers because large amounts of the chemical
remain on the wheat seed after harvest. As a result, high levels of glyphosate residue
end up in wheat products. The harmful effects on consumers’ health are numerous
and widespread. This leads scientists to doubt that gluten in wheat is causing
the recent rise in wheat allergies and gluten intolerance. Instead, they say it
may be the powerful weed killer glyphosate.
According to new research, wheat products
contaminated with glyphosate can trigger gluten allergies. A study conducted by
MIT scientist Dr. Stephanie Seneff and Anthony Samsel explains that the
pesticide works by disrupting the shikimate pathway in plants, preventing them
from creating essential amino acids. As a result the plants die.
Similarly, beneficial bacteria in the human
gut have a shikimate pathway. So the weed killer interrupts the critical role normal
gut bacteria play in the digestive process and consequently, the immune system.
Specifically, glyphosate is a chelator. In other words, it acts as a binding
agent that immobilizes nutrients and minerals, so the body is unable to use
them. Over time this causes nutritional deficiencies.
The pesticide also causes systemic toxicity. For example, glyphosate sprayed on plants
just prior to harvest has been known to cause kidney damage. Sri Lanka and El
Salvador recently banned the practice because agriculture
workers who harvested sugarcane were getting ill and dying from kidney failure. Glyphosate is now being linked to gluten
intolerance, leaky gut and other gastrointestinal disorders, as well as Alzheimer’s,
Crohn’s, autism other diseases that are associated with the health of the gut.
It is now more important than ever to avoid
conventional wheat, which has become toxic wheat.
References
Dr. Don Huber: GMOs and Glyphosate and
Their Threat to Humanity – Food Integrity Now – Carol Grieve, April 8, 2014
Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases II:
Celiac sprue and gluten intolerance – Interdiscip Toxicol. 2013; Vol. 6 (4):
159–184. Anthony Samsel and Stephanie Seneff, 12 November 2013
Mysterious Kidney Disease Slays Farmworkers
In Central America – National Public Radio – Jason Beaubien, April 30, 2014
Glyphosate Herbicide Sales Boom Powers
Global Biotech Industry – Sustainable Pulse –
Aug 21 2014
See
more at: HealthImpactNews.com
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