Watching The World According to Monsanto, I was struck by the section of the film about Árpád Pusztai’s research that showed that rats fed GMO potatoes developed gut problems and an immune response. The section is as follows:
Árpád Pusztai, world renowned scientist lost his job when he warned about GE (genetically engineered or genetically modified) foods.
1998 Aberdeen, Scotland
Árpád Pusztai worked for the Rowett Institute in Scotland. At the Ministry of Agriculture’s request, he lead a study on genetically modified potatoes with a budget of over two million Euros and a staff of 30 researchers, to prepare the arrival of GMOs in Great Britain.
"We were all enthusiastic about it… I was enthusiastic about it… The ministry thought that if we did this study, looking at all aspects, then it would be an endorsement of GM and when they introduce it, they will say that the foremost laboratory in Europe… nutritional laboratory… had looked at them and found them all right."
Árpád Pusztai specializes in lectins, these proteins function as an insecticide protecting plants against aphids. Rowett scientists had created potatoes that were resistant to aphids, and into which they introduced a snowdrop gene which produces the lectin in question. Beforehand they verified that in their naturally occurring state, lectins themselves do not pose a health risk.
The genetically modified potatoes were tested on rats.
"It had a twofold effect. First it started to increase a proliferative response in the gut… and that you don’t like… because this is possibly… I am not saying it is cancerous… but what it does… it can have an adjuvant effect on any chemical… any chemically induced tumor.
The other thing is that the immune system was certainly… got into high gear. And that was… we don’t know whether that is good or bad. But it certainly did recognize the GM potatoes as alien. And we were convinced that this insertion is causing the problem and not the trans gene. As I said, the trans gene when we did it in isolation, even at 800 fold concentration, didn’t do any harm.
It was a very important point because the American FDA is going on by mutual Technology. And what we did say and what we did publish actually corroborated and confirmed that it was not the trans gene that was the problem, but it was the technology."
When Pusztai was interviewed by the BBC, with permission from his bosses, he stated:
"As a scientist actively working on the field, I find that it is very, very unfair to use our fellow citizens as guinea pigs."
The day after the statement was broadcast, Pusztai was fired and the team was dismantled.
While watching this, I put together a few things:
1. Dr. Pusztai’s finding, that GM potatoes triggered gut problems and an immune response.
2. The additional section of the documentary which discussed the migration of trans genes (genes that have been genetically modified and inserted into cells that then become a part of the DNA) from GM corn sold in the US to native corn grown in rural southern Mexico.
3. A comment that David Kirby made in his column that discussed the March 11th CDC conference call that discussed the Hanna Poling mitochondrial disorder and its link to autism.
Kirby wrote:
"Some researchers believe that the modern American diet is largely to blame for an increase in the number of children whose underlying mitochondrial dysfunction is "triggered" into autism by febrile infections.
The answer, they hypothesize, is corn.
The American diet has become extraordinarily dependent on corn oil and corn syrup used in processing, these experts contend. They say that corn oil and syrup are inflammatory, whereas fish oil is anti-inflammatory. Could our diet be a factor in making this mutated gene become more pathogenic?"
In an email conversation with Mr. Kirby while he was researching that conference call, he wrote to me that:
"One of the top scientists I spoke with today said the increase in autism in America was due to consumption of corn"
His comments in the article about the theoretical corn/inflammation link to autism were straight from a high level scientist involved with the CDC and on that conference call.
Putting all these together, my questions are these:
||Could not just over exposure to corn be the problem, but exposure to genetically modified corn, presumably that used the same problematic technology as Dr. Pusztai’s believed was to blame for the gut and inflammation in his rats that were eating genetically modified potatoes?||
||And what exactly does the CDC believe to be the relationship between the American diet, overconsumption of corn products, inflammation and autism?||
||And if they believe, or even suspect, that inflammation is at play in the bodies of children with autism, why have they not stated this publicly and encouraged research and treatment along these lines?||
||And if they believe there might be a link, then why are they not investigating and promoting the Specific Carbohydrate Diet that removes corn products?||
Corn is a problem for many of our kids, because genetically modified food products are not labeled, we have no way of figuring out if our kids are having problems with corn, or GM corn. Or if one causes a bigger problem than the other. In fact we have no way of knowing at all what GM foods might be doing to our children. Chandler drank milk by the truck load before he regressed, it was probably Bovine Growth Hormone milk, which is found to have inflammatory effects on the cows and because of the illness of the cows puss is in the milk, as well as the antibiotics that were given to the cows to counter the infections. To say nothing of the hormone itself which also may be in the milk.
But bottom line for me, the biggest question I have is:
||WHAT THE HELL HAVE I BEEN FEEDING MY CHILDREN FOR THE LAST SEVEN YEARS???||
And is the very good response that my own son had to the SCD Diet, which removes processed foods and encourages eating only organic foods, due in part to the fact that he is no longer eating pro-inflammatory genetically modified foods?
There has not been any discussion that I know of surrounding the potential role of GM foods and autism in our community. It is certainly an important discussion to be had as many of our kids on GFCF diets will continue to eat processed foods with genetically modified ingredients.