Don't Feed Your Child Cheerios
By Dr. Mercola-December 13, 2016
General Mills' Cheerios are one of the first solid foods many parents feed to their children. They're small, convenient and easy to chew — and there's even a section on the Cheerios website for "new parents who have invited … original Cheerios to introduce their children to finger foods."1
The site states that toddlers age 9 months and older are typically ready for Cheerios, and even touts "the fact that 4 of 5 pediatricians recommend Cheerios as a finger food." You may further believe Cheerios to be a good choice because they don't contain genetically engineered (GE) ingredients.
Oats are the primary ingredient (there are no GE oats), and the corn starch and sugar they contain come from non-GMO corn and non-GMO cane sugar. So why the warning against this family favorite?
Cheerios and Other Popular Processed Foods Contain Glyphosate Residue
Despite their GMO-free status, testing completed at Anresco, a laboratory registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), found glyphosate residues in Cheerios as well as other popular foods.
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, has made headlines recently because it's the most used agricultural chemical in history and also because the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) determined it is a probable carcinogen.
Despite its prevalence, we don't know exactly how much glyphosate may be in your food because the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) does not test for it.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in February 2016 that it would begin testing some foods for glyphosate, but the testing was put on hold in November.2 In the meantime private organizations have been conducting tests on their own.
The latest tests, conducted by the nonprofit organizations Food Democracy Now and The Detox Project, were done via liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), which is considered the most reliable for analyzing glyphosate residues.3
Twenty-nine common foods were tested, with glyphosate residues found in a variety of products, including Doritos, Oreos, Stacy's Pita Chips and the following:4
- General Mills' Cheerios (1,125.3 parts per billion [ppb])
- Kashi soft-baked oatmeal dark chocolate cookies (275.57 ppb)
- Ritz Crackers (270.24 ppb)
According to the report, the findings should be a wake-up call for all Americans:5
"New scientific evidence shows that probable harm to human health could begin at ultra-low levels of glyphosate, e.g., 0.1 parts per billions (ppb). Popular foods tested for glyphosate measured between 289.47 ppb and at levels as high as 1,125.3 ppb.
… These groundbreaking new findings that one of the most iconic cereals in [the] U.S. contains levels as high as 1,125.3 ppb should be a wake-up call for all Americans regarding unacceptable levels of pesticide residues in our nation's food.
… It's important for individuals and parents to understand that glyphosate contamination cannot be removed by washing and is not broken down by cooking or baking. Glyphosate residues can remain stable in food for a year or more, even if the foods are frozen or processed."
Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for Glyphosate Is Far Too High
Adding insult to injury, U.S. regulators have set the ADI for glyphosate at 1.75 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight per day (mg/kg/bw/day) compared to 0.3 mg/kg/bw/day in the European Union.
The latest independent scientific evidence suggests the ADI should be set at 0.025 mg/kg/bw/day, according to the report, which is 12 times lower than the current ADI in Europe and 70 times lower than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently allows in the U.S. The Alliance for Natural Health USA (ANH) explained:
"The safety level was determined based on industry tests of high levels of glyphosate on adult laboratory animals.
Critics claim that the tests may not be accurate because glyphosate may be an endocrine disrupter, which would affect hormones in the body and thereby produce different effects at various stages of human development.
Furthermore, the tests were done on glyphosate in isolation and did not include the commercial pesticide formulations containing additional adjuvants that may themselves be toxic or intensify the toxicity of glyphosate."
Glyphosate Residues Revealed in Many Popular Breakfast Foods
Figuring out just how much glyphosate the average American may be exposed to in a day is proving to be an overwhelming task because it's showing up just about everywhere.
The herbicide was detected in a variety of instant oatmeal (including that meant for babies), including in strawberry, banana, cinnamon spice and maple brown sugar flavors, for instance.6 ANH previously detected glyphosate in a variety of additional foods as well, including bagels, bread and wheat cereal.
Ten out of 24 breakfast foods tested in ANH's analysis had detectable levels of glyphosate. This included oatmeal, bagels, coffee creamer, organic bread and even organic, cage-free and antibiotic-free eggs.
In addition, advocacy group Moms Across America sent 10 wine samples to be tested for glyphosate. All of the samples tested positive for glyphosate — even organic wines, although their levels were significantly lower.7
A study of glyphosate residues by the Munich Environmental Institute also found glyphosate in 14 best-selling German beers.8
Glyphosate has even been detected in PediaSure Enteral Nutritional Drink, which is given to infants and children via feeding tubes. Thirty percent of the samples tested contained high levels of glyphosate over 75 ppb — far higher levels than have been found to destroy gut bacteria in chickens (0.1 ppb).9
Human blood and urine samples, perhaps not surprisingly, also contain glyphosate. U.S. women had maximum glyphosate levels that were more than eight times higher than levels found in urine of Europeans, according to Laboratory testing commissioned by the organizations Moms Across America and Sustainable Pulse.10
Glyphosate Is Sprayed on Some Crops Right Before Harvest
Eating non-organic GE foods (the prime candidates for Roundup spraying) is associated with higher glyphosate levels in your body.11However, even non-GE foods, like Cheerios, can contain high levels of glyphosate, which are likely the result of the common practice of using the herbicide as a desiccant shortly before harvest.
In northern, colder regions, farmers of wheat and barley must wait for their crops to dry out prior to harvest. Rather than wait an additional two weeks or so for this to happen naturally, farmers realized they could spray the plants with glyphosate, killing the crop and accelerating their drying (a process known as desiccating).
Desiccating wheat with glyphosate is particularly common in years with wet weather and has been increasing in North Dakota and Upper Midwestern states in the U.S., as well as in areas of Canada and Scotland (where the process first began).
In some cases, non-GE foods may be even more contaminated with glyphosate than GE crops, because they're being sprayed just weeks prior to being made into your cereal, bread, cookies and the like. No one is keeping track of how many crops are being desiccated with glyphosate; those in the industry have described it as a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Along with wheat and oats, other crops that are commonly desiccated with glyphosate include:
Lentils
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Peas
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Non-GMO soybeans
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Corn
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Flax
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Rye and Buckwheat
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Triticale
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Canola
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Millet
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Potatoes
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Sunflowers
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Why You Should Be Very Concerned About Glyphosate Residues in Your Food
Glyphosate's makers have long touted it as harmless to humans and the environment, and even claimed that it was rapidly biodegradable. Its safety was so widely accepted that neither the USDA nor the FDA monitored its use or residues in food.
However, since the IARC's classification of glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen (it's been linked to an increased risk of breast, thyroid, kidney, pancreas, liver and bladder cancers as well as myeloid leukemia), glyphosate's "safe" image has been tarnished.
Research published in Entropy,12 authored by Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D., a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Anthony Samsel, Ph.D., a food supply research scientist and consultant, and using Monsanto's own early studies on glyphosate, reveals some of the possible mechanisms by which glyphosate may cause disease.
Glyphosate causes extreme disruption of microbes' function and life cycle and preferentially affects beneficial bacteria, allowing pathogens to overgrow and take over. According to the Entropy report, glyphosate residues "enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne chemical residues and toxins in the environment to disrupt normal body functions and induce disease." This includes (but is not limited to) the following:
Autism
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Gastrointestinal diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, chronic diarrhea, colitis and Crohn's disease
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Allergies
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Cardiovascular disease
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Depression
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Cancer
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Infertility
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Alzheimer's disease
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Parkinson's disease
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Multiple sclerosis
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ALS and more
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Test Your Personal Glyphosate Levels
If you'd like to know your personal glyphosate levels, you can now find out, while also participating in a worldwide study on environmental glyphosate exposures. The Health Research Institute (HRI) in Iowa developed the glyphosate urine test kit, which will allow you to determine your own exposure to this toxic herbicide.
Ordering this kit automatically allows you to participate in the study and help HRI better understand the extent of glyphosate exposure and contamination. In a few weeks, you will receive your results, along with information on how your results compare with others and what to do to help reduce your exposure. We are providing these kits to you at no profit in order for you to participate in this environmental study.
In the meantime, eating organic as much as possible and investing in a good water filtration system for your home are among the best ways to lower your exposure to glyphosate and other pesticides.
If you know you have been exposed to pesticides, the lactic acid bacteria formed during the fermentation of kimchi may help your body to break them down, so it's a good idea to eat fermented foods like kimchi regularly. In the case of glyphosate, it's also wise to avoid desiccated crops like wheat and oats.
Biotech Companies Are Gaining Power by Taking Over the Government
There is no doubt in my mind that GMOs and the toxic chemicals used along with them pose a serious threat to the environment and our health, yet government agencies turn a blind eye and refuse to act — and the reason is very clear: They are furthering the interests of the biotech giants.
It is well known that there is a revolving door between government agencies and biotech companies such as Monsanto. Consider the hypocrisy of the FDA. On paper, the U.S. may have the strictest food safety laws in the world governing new food additives, but this agency has repeatedly allowed GMOs and their accompanying pesticides such as Roundup to evade these laws.
In fact, the only legal basis for allowing GE foods to be marketed in the U.S. is the FDA’s claim that these foods are inherently safe, a claim which is patently ridiculous. Documents released as a result of a lawsuit against the FDA reveal that the agency's own scientists warned their superiors about the detrimental risks of GE foods. But their warnings fell on deaf ears.
The influence of the biotech giants is not limited to the U.S. In a June 2017 article, GMWatch revealed that 26 of the 34 members of the National Advisory Committee on Agricultural Biotechnology of Argentina (CONABIA) are either employed by chemical technology companies or have major conflicts of interest.
You may be aware that Argentina is one of the countries where single-crop fields of GE cotton, corn and soy dominate the countryside. Argentina is also a country facing severe environmental destruction. Argentinians are plagued with health issues, including degenerative diseases and physical deformities. It would appear that the rapid expansion of GE crops and the subsequent decline in national health indicators are intrinsically linked.
Don’t Be Duped by Industry Shills!
Biotech companies’ outrageous attempts to push for their corporate interests extend far beyond the halls of government. In a further effort to hoodwink the public, Monsanto and its cohorts are now zealously spoon-feeding scientists, academics and journalists with questionable studies that depict them in a positive light.
By hiring “third-party experts,” biotech companies are able to take information of dubious validity and present it as independent and authoritative. It’s a shameful practice that is far more common than anyone would like to think. One notorious example of this is Henry Miller, who was thoroughly outed as a Monsanto shill during the 2012 Proposition 37 GMO labeling campaign in California.
Miller, falsely posing as a Stanford professor, promoted GE foods during this campaign. In 2015, he published a paper in Forbes Magazine attacking the findings of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a branch of the World Health Organization, after it classified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen. After it was revealed that Miller’s work was in fact ghostwritten by Monsanto, Forbes not only fired him, but also removed all of his work from its site.
Industry front groups also abound. The Genetic Literacy Project and the American Council for Science and Health are both Monsanto-funded. Even WebMD, a website that is often presented as a trustworthy source of "independent and objective" health information, is acting as a lackey for Monsanto by using its influence to promote corporate-backed health strategies and products, displaying advertisements and advertorials on Biotech’s behalf, furthering the biotech industry’s agenda — all for the sake of profit.
Monsanto has adopted underhanded tactics to peddle its toxic products, but the company is unable to hide the truth: Genetic engineering will, in no way, shape or form, make the world a better place. It will not solve world hunger. It will not increase farmers’ livelihoods. And it will most certainly not do any good for your health — and may in fact prove to be detrimental.
There’s No Better Time to Act Than NOW — Here’s What You Can Do
So now the question is: Will you continue supporting the corrupt, toxic and unsustainable food system that Monsanto and its industry shills and profit-hungry lackeys have painstakingly crafted? It is largely up to all of us, as consumers, to loosen and break Monsanto’s tight hold on our food supply. The good news is that the tide has been turned.
As consumers worldwide become increasingly aware of the problems linked to GE crops and the toxic chemicals and pesticides used on them, more and more people are proactively refusing to eat these foods. There’s also strong growth in the global organic and grass fed sectors. This just proves one thing: We can make a difference if we steadily work toward the same goal.
One of the best things you can do is to buy your foods from a local farmer who runs a small business and uses diverse methods that promote regenerative agriculture. You can also join a community supported agriculture (CSA) program, where you can buy a “share” of the vegetables produced by the farm, so that you get a regular supply of fresh food. I believe that joining a CSA is a powerful investment not only in your own health, but in that of your local community and economy as well.
In addition, you should also adopt preventive strategies that can help reduce the toxic chemical pollution that assaults your body. I recommend visiting these trustworthy sites for non-GMO food resources in your country:
Monsanto and its allies want you to think that they control everything, but they do not. It’s you, the masses, who hold the power in your hands. Let’s all work together to topple the biotech industry’s house of cards. Remember — it all starts with shopping smart and making the best food purchases for you and your family.
