Many people who begin eating gluten-free replace wheat products with corn products and are completely unaware that corn has several dark sides. Not only is corn a high-carbohydrate, high-glycemic food that packs on the pounds and elevates blood sugar and insulin levels, but most corn grown and eaten in the United States is genetically modified (GM), also called genetically engineered, which carries with it many potential health risks.

GM corn is not labeled, so we simply don’t know for sure whether it is genetically modified or not. But close to three-quarters of U.S. corn is genetically engineered. That makes the chances quite high that when we eat corn products in restaurants and commercial corn products bought in grocery stores, we are getting a little bit of pesticide in every bite.

So, just what are the health hazards of eating GM corn? I briefly covered this topic in Going Against the Grain but many gluten-free eaters still aren’t aware of the potential risks to their health. To cover the topic in more depth, I went straight to a recognized expert on the subject, Jeffrey M. Smith, author of Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette, and asked him to fill us in. Studies suggest all of the following health dangers: allergies; liver lesions; less healthy, smaller offspring; reduced fertility; and higher rate of death. Smith, who is not related to me, graciously agreed to write a guest post on the research so you can become better informed about this seriously underreported subject.

Besides corn, the other most commonly genetically modified foods to beware of are soy, cottonseed, canola, and sugar beets (used in sugar).

As Smith explained in his guest post to come: “Many health problems have gotten worse since GMOs entered the US food supply. For example, when GMOs were widely introduced in 1996, 7 percent of US citizens had three or more chronic illnesses. Within nine years, that percentage nearly doubled to 13 percent. Without any human clinical trials or post-marketing surveillance, we can’t tell which declining health statistic may be due to GMOs. But we also can’t afford to wait to find out.”

Don’t take gluten out of your diet to improve your health and then play Russian roulette with your health or deteriorate your health further by eating lots of commercial corn. I encourage you to learn more about how to protect yourself from GM foods by both reading the next post and by downloading a free Non-GMO Shopping Guide at www.ResponsibleTechnology.org.

Copyright © 2009 Melissa Diane Smith