Is there a connection between Genetically Modified Food and Food Allergies?

What is genetically modified food? Genetically modified (GM) foods are foods derived from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or organisms whose genetic materials have been altered using genetic engineering techniques in order to create a new set of genes. Typically, genetically modified foods are soybean, corn, canola, and cotton seed oil which have been genetically modified by the insertion of a protein from a different organism to make them grow faster, bear more crop or create their own insecticide which otherwise would not occur naturally.

How does genetically modified food relate to food allergies? As many of you know by now, food allergies are an overreaction to a protein that the immune system reads as foreign and dangerous. With genetic engineering, the allergens form one food can be transferred to another through the transferring of proteins thus making an ordinarily safe food potentially lethal.

The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) doesn't mandate pre-market safety tests nor are  human trials required before the approval of these genetically modified foods for human consumption. Yet in 1992 the FDA declared that geneticakky-modified (GM) foods were essentially equivalent to regular foods. Then why is it that countries such as Ireland, Egypt, Japan, and France have all either banned and/or enforced labeling laws on GM products due to scientific studies showing possible health risks associated with human consumption?

I also find it ironic that peanut allergies had begun to rise by 20% each year starting in 1997, just after genetically modified foods found their way onto U.S. supermarket shelves in 1994. Soy itself became one of the top eight U.S. allergens just about the time genetically modified soy was introduced to the United States around 1996. Soy allergies jumped 50% in the U.K. in 1998. This was also the same year genetically modified soy was introduced in the United Kingdom. Could this also explain the sudden increase in corn allergies as well? After all 86% of the corn grown in the U.S. alone is genetically modified.

The dangers of genetically modified food is just one of the many theories behind the cause of food allergies. The more we learn about theses possible causes the closer we may come to a cure and at least have the opportunity to make informed decisions in regards to the health and well being of not only our children but for ourselves as well.

A few recommended reads: "Seeds of Deception" by Jeffrey M. Smith and "The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick - And What We Can Do About It" by Robyn O'Brien