My oldest daughter has a very unique talent. She has a built in GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) detector. More precisely she is allergic to corn. Since corn is one of the top 5 GM crops keeping her safe naturally keeps us away from a lot of GM food and products. What’s scary is the weird and unexpected places that have corn.
7 Unexpected GMO Products
- Iodized Salt – Iodine doesn’t like to stick to salt crystals so it needs a little “glue” in the form of corn starch. And the manufacturer doesn’t even have to list it on the label. Isn’t that nice for them.
- Fresh Fruit & Vegetables - Have you heard that most fruit and vegetables aren’t GMO? They might not be when they come off the tree but many are by the time they get to the store. Apples, cucumbers and many others are coated with a layer of wax or oil mostly derived from cheap GM corn.
- Canned Goods – Nice, cheap citric acid no longer just comes from citrus. Take a look at your canned tomatoes, fruit juice, etc. If they aren’t organic and they say citric acid or absorbic acid you may be looking at code for GM corn.
- Natural Cleaning Products - Have you switched to cleaning your house with white vinegar or any of the other environmentally friendly cleaning products that are not listed as organic? Guess what? GM corn.
- Gas – Take a good look at the gas pump the next time you fill up. If it’s like near me you will see a label that says at least 10% ethanol. This is one of my big pet peaves. We take petroleum and turn it into pesticides and fertilizers. Then it is poured all over GM corn to force high yields. Then the corn is turned into gas and gets a nice environmentally friendly badge stamped on it. (I would LOVE a good analysis of how much petruleum is used to create ethanol.)
- Medicine – Read the inactive ingredients the next time you need medicine. Do you see any of these 100+ corn derivatives? If you want an alternative you can get your medicine specially made at a compounding pharmacy. My daughter’s bottle of tylenol cost ~$35.
- Baking Powder – Once again check the ingredients. Most baking powder has corn starch. Specialty stores may have baking powder with potato starch or wheat starch. (Or you can make your own using baking soda and cream of tartar.)
If you are curious about even more products that may have GMO corn check out this post on avoiding corn from my Find Safe Food blog. It will give you the nitty gritty of the hoops you would need to go through to totally flush GM corn out of your life. And trust me… even then as we see about once a month there will still be oops. It is everywhere!
For more information on GMO’s check out this weeks NO GMO blog carnival.
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Wow! I’m shocked by #4. And guilty of using non-organic white vinegar for cleaning.
I know! I hadn’t even thought of white vinegar until about 2 years ago when my daughter was still getting sick. I finally figured out it was the white vinegar I was using as a fabric softener. She was sucking on the wash clothes in her bath!
Wow what a great post! Thank you – I had no idea about most of these.
I stumbled it and will tweet on Twitter!
Shocking! I knew about most of those, but you surprised me on the cleaning products and the wax on the fruits and veggies.
~Wardeh
I also have corn allergies. It is quite interesting in realizing that EVERYTHING has corn in it. I make everything from scratch. Great article!!!
@CHEESESLAVE – Thank you
@Wardeh – Yes, the wax drives me nuts. Even organic stuff can be waxed. I’m unsure if it has to be organic wax or not. 95% of my produce comes from local farms now to avoid it.
@organicbeautygirl – same here! We are a from scratch household. I think the silvery lining of the allergy is it makes you eat healthier!
Rose — I’m glad you mentioned that about the organic fruits and veggies. So the wax doesn’t count for organic certification? We mostly buy local, too. So I’m not worried, just mad.
~Wardeh
Wardeh – I’m not sure if it does or not. I’ll ask on twitter if anyone knows if the wax has to be organic
Thank you for this list. However, I would STONGLY advise that idodized salt not be avoided. If a pregnant woman does not have iodine her child has the very alarming potential of being born with Congenital Hypothyroidism, which can cause severe mental retardation to mild learning disabilities if not treated. I learned this the hard way when my daughter was born with CH and no thyroid. Salt became iodized about the time when the cause of CH was discovered and the rates of mental retardation were higher. CH is treatable, but nothing I would wish on anyone.
Fantastic post – both disturbing and enlightening at the same time!
Wild. I never would have guessed most of these. It makes it doubtful to be able to get away from GMO.
Erin – Thank you for the warning and sorry you learned it the hard way! (HUGS) I knew iodine was important but not that side effect. What we do is use a natural sea salt that contains iodine naturally. I am unsure if all sea salt does but the brand I buy has it listed on the package. What I am unsure of is if it is at the same level. I’ve also been trying to serve fish once a week.
Jenny – Thank you!
Walter – Think of it as a matter of reducing exposure as much as possible. It is nearly impossible to do 100% but even if a large enough group manage 95% it can make a huge difference.
Another great way to make sure you get enough iodine is to eat sea veggies regularly. Sea salt has iodine, but let’s face it, you don’t eat that much. A daily or weekly dose of delicious sea veggies gives you a non-GMO, wild food that is super concentrated in minerals, including iodine.
Thanks for exposing lots of other souces of GMO’s–plenty of food for thought, and righteous indignation!
EXCELLENT post! Thank you! Baking powder – that is a tough one, I searched high and low for an organic one and found Mary Jane USE to make it but no longer does. I’ll have to research it with cream of tartar and give that a go, right now we do with little baked goods/baking powder but that would be nice to have.
It’s truly ridiculous how we have killed our food – our very own survival – and I love that we are taking it back from the big companies and making good decisions and helping spread the word. Thank you so much for your great blog!
Nishanga – Thank you for the sea vegi suggestion. I’ve been playing a little with cooking with seaweed ever since I heard one kind can reduce the um, umph, of beans. I’ll have to look into it some more.
Annie – Look for Hains Featherweight baking powder which uses potato starch. (I had to stop using it since my 8m old is allergic to potato!) Alternatively it’s 1/4 t baking soda + 1/2 t cream of tartar = 1 t baking powder. Also if you use 1c of any lightly acidic ingredient like orange juice or yogurt you don’t need the cream of tartar.
So many of these additives seem to be simply to make things look pretty, or are used as cheap substitutes. I know what you mean about a good analysis – I find it hard to believe some of these shortcuts are genuinely beneficial.
We try to avoid GMO in our house as much as possible,but derivatives we worry less about,because they are usually present in far lower amounts.Its really up to the individual to determine how far they want to go in avoiding GMOs in all forms.
Another thing nobody has noticed that has GMOs in it are cigarettes. On at least two cartons of cigarettes (Grand Prix) and some other one, it’s clearly labeled as containing high fructose corn syrup. Why would it need to be in cigarettes?