R. Brown
Psychology 498
Health Issues Paper

Know What You Eat

The evolution of the human race as evolved substantially which created new technology to meet our increasing needs. When humans needed to stay warm they found fire, when they needed to move faster they connected a horse to a buggy which obviously lead to the invention of motor vehicles. So the natural progression of everything created severe disparities in the world that forced for a sudden greater food supply distribution and with not much long term research. In the early 1990’s several major biotech companies introduced Genetically Modified crops. (Several terms are seen throughout the media, GE, or Genetically Modified Organism (GMO), but mean the relatively the same thing so the purpose of this issue they all mean the same. Genetically engineered plants create a genetically modified organism so for the sake of this paper we will use the term GMO.) These companies will argue that these plants could help save the world from starvation. The Council for Biotechnology Information (CBI) reveals in a June article that they are more willing to answer all questions pertaining to their products while admitting to their lack of communication on this growing debatable topic (CBI, 2013). Ironically this article was delivered from the United States headquarters (Washington D.C.) leaving for some degree of partiality. There has been little to no research on the long term health effects on humans, which has left many to be wary of their consumption. This article utilizes the quasi-experimental approach in that they’ve stated from data that GMO products don’t produce harmful effects which could also be considered a correlation study. It’s obvious that they’re several pieces to the GMO puzzle and health. First they’re the general health concerns which underlines the GMO debate and secondly the pesticides that are used in conjunction with these altered plants. Our bodies are not used to having to break down foreign DNA and protein that hasn’t ever been required to digest, this in turn can cause serious health implications if a person eats a diet high in GMOs. A research study conducted in the United States and Australia over a five year period found that pigs fed a GMO based diet were 2.6 times more likely to suffer from stomach inflammation for females and 4 times more likely to suffer from stomach inflammation for the males. Similarly, it was found in the female pig’s uterine walls that they were 25% heavier than the non GMO fed pigs. (Carman, Vlieger, Ver Steeg, Sneller, Robinson, Clinch-Jones, Haynes, Edwards, 2013) While the researchers were not completely sure why the inflammation occurred they hypothesized that it was most likely from a protein that the pigs stomach and intestines were not able to break down. (Research in mice had shown similar findings) These proteins are engineered in the corn (pig’s diet) to attack the gut of the grubs that feed on the corn. Ironically it was also noted that these pigs weren’t able to break down these proteins. The results from these studies are very alarming/scary considering pig’s digestive tracks are similar to those of humans and process food in very similar ways (p. 52). If this is an effect of GMO seeds fed to pigs one can only wonder how they are acting on our own digestive systems. This study reflects the correlation examination as one variable changes so does another variable. It’s understandable that the correlation studies typically produce projecting information about health risk factors considering this health issue. Secondly in regards to our own body’s ability to process the GMO laced food is the correlation of the increase in allergies in the United States in the last 15 years. In the last 10 years the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has reported an increase of 256% for the number of hospitalizations related to severe food allergic reactions. (O’Brian, 2013) A research study also