The Hoopla About GMO!

This article has been researched and written by Arelang Naturals^® in-house writers.

Genetically Modified Organisms Or GMO, a much-disputed topic. Some say they are bad for you, some say they are good for you. Some say they are generally safe to eat while others talk about how eating them will have some long-term effects on our bodies. So what is true and why do more and more brands want to go the non-GMO route? So let’s deep dive into what GMOs are and why there is such hoopla about it!

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), also called Genetically Engineered (GE) or just Genetically Modified (GM) ingredients, describe ingredients that have been altered at the gene level. Changes in genes is a natural process and happens over time (evolution as we know it!) Nothing that was found a thousand years ago will look like anything we see in our stores today.

You know how we are all made up of this thing called DNA right? This is what affects our genes and our very core. Genes are responsible for all sorts of characteristics and traits in every living thing. Genes get passed along until they become inherent.

So how does this really work? We have evolution that restructured the basic genes of organisms over a period of time, this is the most natural method of gene tinkering, played by none other than mother nature. Then we had our ancestors that would pick the seeds from their ace crops and use them to plant the next lot of crops and the next. They then sped up the process further by cross-breeding plants to develop better versions - taking the best genes of one and the best genes of another and making a whole new third! So far so good and changes to genes are not necessarily a bad thing, they happen in nature and man helped speed it up a little. If you think about it, everything you get in your stores today has been genetically modified at some point in history, whether naturally or through cross-breeding. - So far in the story, we are still rooting in favour of GM.

Now the modern genetic modification of food is a whole new ball game! Modern scientists created genetic changes by altering the DNA of seeds with radiation and chemicals. Pumping animals with growth hormones to make them larger for more meat, or hormones that would make the cow produce more milk, or into plants to make them more fruit-bearing, into fruit to make them ripen quicker or even have longer shelf lives. These harmful and redundant hormones are finally consumed by us, generating a plethora of health issues that we have received from seemingly harmless everyday foods.

Of course, there are a few honest biotech companies that are genetically modifying our foods by adding more nutrition to them, making meats better by boosting more fatty acids into them. But these ethical GM companies are few and far between.

The sad truth is that as the population grows, it will get harder to feed everyone. In fact, in some parts of the world, food production will need to be doubled in order to meet basic sustenance. GMOs seem to be one way to go ahead and possibly the most viable option to be able to produce double the amount of food on the same resources.

There is this constant debate about organic farming vs GMO, but both are starkly different and both inevitable to the rising demands of the population as well as the organic reachers. But sustaining organic farming in the long run is neither commercially viable, nor within reach for most of the population. So we will eventually have to come to terms with commercial GM farming operations with the hope that regulations around the ethics becomes more stringent and distinctions within the regulations are made to differentiate between the good kind of GMO from the harmful ones.

From our previous blog, you already know that 90% of the food we eat today has been a victim of some sort of genetic modification, artificial or natural, and does not pack the same nutrition that it once did. At Caim by årelang, we researched these GMO and organic foods and realized, the best way to feed people the right nutrients is to dive right into the bioactives of the foods. By this we mean, we isolated the most potent and nutrition heavy compounds from the plants and veggies to give you the quantity and quality of nutrients that your body can absorb. So, it doesn't matter whether the plant is organically grown or GMO enhanced since all we are looking for is the bioactive from them so we can derive the best nutritive values for you.

So read those labels, understand where your products' bioactives are coming from, how they were extracted and how the quantities and quality affect your body. Other than that, GMO or non-GMO should really not be a debate at all. Just eat away, you are safe!