We Are What We Eat. And That Can Be a Scary Thought!

By Nick Jacobs

I am not a geneticist nor a scientist. (For the record and according to Wikipedia, a geneticist is a biologist who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms.)

Yet despite my disclaimer, I have learned a little bit about genetics—just enough to be dangerous as they say! —from my time as CEO of two different research institutes. As such, I have spent hundreds of hours listening to genetics professors and scientists discuss their work. Through that exposure and additional research, what I’ve learned about genetic and chemical alterations in our food chain is enough to make me really wonder.

The actual process of genetically modifying food has been occurring for thousands of years, not through absolute, irrefutable scientific knowledge but, rather, by trial and error. If we ever had the opportunity to taste tomatoes as they first existed on this earth, we would probably spit them out which might have possibly forever doomed us to a world without Italian food or Heinz ketchup.

Yet over the years, because farmers have cross-pollinated and mixed various fruits and vegetables, we now have many delicious items to choose for our tables. Just think, for example, of the many varieties of apples now available to us. That is a form of genetic modification.

Sounds great, right? But this is meant to be a cautionary tale. Think, for example, about Einstein’s E=MC2 formula. It began with a basic concept. It took either men of evil intent or those of preservationist leanings to turn it into the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. One theory I’ve heard is that some believed that by creating something so deadly, humanity could discourage all future warfare. By demonstrating the destructiveness of the Bomb on one (or two) cities, all fighting would cease.

Yet the world has engaged in almost continuous conflict ever since. (That should come as no real surprise.) A scientist friend of mine explored a cave with some colleagues. Deep inside they found microbes that lived off the nutrition from the stones that existed in the cave —their only source of food. Here’s the real interesting part: these bacteria produced anti-bacterial compounds to attack each other to keep them from getting access to those stones. (So maybe all living creatures simply are designed to antagonize each other.) 

Back to our fruits and veggies. We now have genetically altered seeds that are both drought and bug resistant. Sounds good. Except when we realize that any physical impact these plants might have on us is yet to be determined. Similar to the effects of hydrogenated fats, if these “advancements” negatively impact our health, will we humans again simply be seen as collateral damage?

For most of us, the pesticides we ingest are typically minute, although farm workers are much more at risk. They can be exposed to 1000 times or more higher concentrations for long periods of time and a handful of pesticides have been definitively linked to higher incidences of cancer.

Our biggest danger from fruits and vegetables comes from bacterial and viral contamination, an ongoing challenge. Science already is finding some links between such afflictions as autism, lactose or gluten intolerance, peanut allergies and the like emanating somehow from these alterations that affected microbes in our digestive tract, our microbiota (the organisms in a particular site, in this case, our bodies.)

Scientific articles I’ve read describe Aboriginal tribesmen who have microbiomes that are many times more sophisticated than ours. (Microbiomes by definition are a community of microorganisms—such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses—that inhabit a particular environment and especially the collection of microorganisms living in or on the human body, is home to about 100 trillion bacteria and other microbes, collectively known as your microbiome.)

Anyway, these tribesmen have these more-sophisticated microbiomes primarily because they consume many unaltered types of foods by foraging and hunting to sustain themselves.

In our more “civilized” world, we know that industrial food manufacturers have made literally thousands of additives—some tested, some not—to our foods. In fact, this activity has caused other countries to deny the sale of many U.S. food items within their boundaries. We also know that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not tested every additive nor the potential interactions between them. (As an aside, we don’t even know how various medications interact with each other, but if a person is on five or more prescriptions, there is a100 percent chance they will interact at some level.)

Our bodies are now learning to digest oil-related products from all the plastics we consume. I am sure that our microbiota represents the future of science and the alterations of our microbes via antibiotics, altered foods, additives, and other environmental sources may be contributing in some significant manner to the causes of inflammatory disease and be the source of many of our cancers and heart disease.

So what’s the good news? We can take some steps to change our habits and practices. If we seek out fresh vegetables and fruits, avoid those that are overly sprayed with chemicals, the dirty dozen, try not to eat too much junk food and exercise, we just might live to a ripe old age.