Genetically modified food is healthy: Yes or no?

[gaskarthx]

Hello everyone!

 

First of all, I'm not sure if I need to open this topic at 'Science & Space', 'Technology' or 'Food and Drink', so this topic could be on the wrong section, sorry.

 

Tomorrow I have to do a debate. The topic is 'Genetically modified food is healthy', do you agree or disagree? I have to collect some good arguments and articles to form a good opinion about this topic. 

 

So, I want to ask you guys to give your opinion with good arguments and eventually an article to base your arguments on. That'd really help me. 

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Gaskarth c:

[CheepHeep]

I think Food and Drink would be the best section to post this in.

 

For me, processed or genetically modified food is bad. Organic food is always the best because it keeps all its nutrients and vitamins etc. Much healthier but also more expensive than processed food. Processed food like meat not only looks fake but tastes fake. Most of its goodness is gone and you won't have any health benefits from it imo.

 

I haven't done any solid research so this is just what i know...

[gaskarthx]

I think Food and Drink would be the best section to post this in.

 

For me, processed or genetically modified food is bad. Organic food is always the best because it keeps all its nutrients and vitamins etc. Much healthier but also more expensive than processed food. Processed food like meat not only looks fake but tastes fake. Most of its goodness is gone and you won't have any health benefits from it imo.

 

I haven't done any solid research so this is just what i know...

 

Ah, okay, sorry xD. Can I put it to the 'Food and Drink'-section somehow?

 

By the way, thanks for your reply! 

I agree with you, but sometimes they modify the food that way that the food has an higher concentration vitamins or proteins or stuff like that. Or vegetables or fruit get resistent from insects or diseases, so then it's maybe better to modify food. 

I really don't know! D:

[CheepHeep]

Ah, okay, sorry xD. Can I put it to the 'Food and Drink'-section somehow?

 

 

 

 

I don't think its that big a deal but if it is then someone will move it to the correct place. No need to worry about that.

 

 

By the way, thanks for your reply! 

I agree with you, but sometimes they modify the food that way that the food has an higher concentration vitamins or proteins or stuff like that. Or vegetables or fruit get resistent from insects or diseases, so then it's maybe better to modify food. 

I really don't know! D:

 

Well Fruits and vegetables that get attacked by insects are usually the best ones. They obviously contain a lot of goodness that attracts the insects. Thats why when choosing fruit, I go for the ones with ugly skin, they turn out to be the sweetest of the bunch. IMO modified food is usually done for those who can't afford to buy organic food which is obviously quite expensive depending which country you are in. When i was in England, the organic food was quite overpriced and then there was the processed food which was easily affordable.

 

Processed meat is the worst, they just make you fat and chubby. Just a BIG no no to them. Obviously taking them once in a while wont do that much but having it on a regular basis will just make you plump and worsen your appearance.

 

Organic food contains all the goodness you need and more! Growing your own food is the best, i did a lot of gardening when i was in England and the fruits and vegetables that i grew were delicious and fresh. You also feel like you've accomplished something when eating food that you've grown :)

 

Some say  'you are what you eat ' so the question is, do you want to be made of processed or natural products?

[gaskarthx]

I don't think its that big a deal but if it is then someone will move it to the correct place. No need to worry about that.

 

Well Fruits and vegetables that get attacked by insects are usually the best ones. They obviously contain a lot of goodness that attracts the insects. Thats why when choosing fruit, I go for the ones with ugly skin, they turn out to be the sweetest of the bunch. IMO modified food is usually done for those who can't afford to buy organic food which is obviously quite expensive depending which country you are in. When i was in England, the organic food was quite overpriced and then there was the processed food which was easily affordable.

 

Processed meat is the worst, they just make you fat and chubby. Just a BIG no no to them. Obviously taking them once in a while wont do that much but having it on a regular basis will just make you plump and worsen your appearance.

 

Organic food contains all the goodness you need and more! Growing your own food is the best, i did a lot of gardening when i was in England and the fruits and vegetables that i grew were delicious and fresh. You also feel like you've accomplished something when eating food that you've grown :)

 

Some say  'you are what you eat ' so the question is, do you want to be made of processed or natural products?

 

Hmmmm yeah, I see what you mean... I agree with you c: Thanks for your reply! (:

but when they genetically change an apple or something to get rid of the insects that likes to eat that apple, that insect will probably die, and maybe that organism who eat that insect will die too... I don't know if this is important to say haha I am so bad at this :/.

[DFighter]

I said to post it here (A) geneticly sounded so science for me, sounded more like science then actually food

[CheepHeep]

I said to post it here (A) geneticly sounded so science for me, sounded more like science then actually food

 

Haha, It probably could go in both. No biggie. xD

 

Hmmmm yeah, I see what you mean... I agree with you c: Thanks for your reply! (:

but when they genetically change an apple or something to get rid of the insects that likes to eat that apple, that insect will probably die, and maybe that organism who eat that insect will die too... I don't know if this is important to say haha I am so bad at this :/.

Never heard of anyone trying to alter an apple. Closest thing is probably just preservation. Again i'm not sure. Hopefully someone else more knowledgeable than me can help you out on that one

Edited March 16, 2014 by CheepHeep

[gaskarthx]

Haha, It probably could go in both. No biggie. xD

 

Never heard of anyone trying to alter an apple. Closest thing is probably just preservation. Again i'm not sure. Hopefully someone else more knowledgeable than me can help you out on that one

 

It's doesn't have to do anything with an apple, it could be other fruit too, I just wanted to explain something about that animals could die if food gets genetically modified haha.

Thanks! I really home someone could help me haha. But thanks for your reply °▽°.

[ajnl]

I think Food and Drink would be the best section to post this in.

 

For me, processed or genetically modified food is bad. Organic food is always the best because it keeps all its nutrients and vitamins etc. Much healthier but also more expensive than processed food. Processed food like meat not only looks fake but tastes fake. Most of its goodness is gone and you won't have any health benefits from it imo.

 

I haven't done any solid research so this is just what i know...

 

I don't think it is processed. It is genetically changed to be more resistant and healthier. If they are more resistant, they can grow in more extreme conditions. This would help a lot of third world countries. 

 

From what I've heard about it (haven't done much research), I think it is a good thing. 

 

As far as having good arguments for or against, you should probably look up some research papers on google. 

Edited March 16, 2014 by ajnl

[Daniel Lee]

I think GMO is not a very healthy choice... The people who make it inject something in the plant or animals moms and dads if you want to call it that, to make the thing that comes out between them what the producers want it to look like.... I don't know if that^^^ made any sense but yeah.

[SunLight]

Eating 'real' food (i.e. organic or anyway not processed, and not genetically modified) is good because our bodies adapted to that after a long evolution, and if it was harmful in some way we would be already dead.

While if we process it or modify the dna, it could lead to some unwanted results we cannot predict (for us, or the whole environment). (But we must also think that humans selected food all the time, they didn't leave it to chance entirely. Even before we were able to change the dna, we were able to pick the qualities we wanted and select which seeds to plant, etc.)

 

That being said, all the matter inside food gets processed by our body and if you break it down to simple parts, I am not sure if it really matters if it's natural or not. I mean, if we made 'artificial' water from Oxygen and Hydrogen it would be still water, and it would be silly not to drink it because of that.

 

Of course the chemistry of food is much more complex and sometimes the interaction between many things counts, that's why all that junk food many people eat is bad for your health, since it lacks some components a natural and varied diet has, you cannot just take some sugars proteins, etc. put them together and call it 'food'. Even if it breaks down to that, interaction between several parts, even in small quantities, counts imho.

 

So I think it *could* be dangerous but labeling it as such just because it's artificial is wrong. It's not something I can tell myself, only researchers can.

 

As for me, I generally eat 'standard' food, I don't even eat meat (for ethical reasons, but I think it's also healthy) and I don't eat all that stuff with labels full of weird ingredients, like that fake bread with tons of things - when bread must be made only of flour water salt and yeast. Or food that lasts forever without going bad, etc.

 

That's just what I think, I don't have any particular source to quote, sorry

[gaskarthx]

@Sunlight: Thanks for your reply! I thought the same about it.

 

I had my debat today, I debated very bad hahaha okay but I guess my teacher thinks I am a good student and that's why I she gave me a sufficient grade haha. But so um... thanks for your help, guys! I really appreciate it, thanks ^o^.

[Ol Smoke]

I always get a kick out of people who wont eat GMF.  If you eat corn, wheat, beef, chicken, pork, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, etc.  you are eating GMF.

 

Corn, wheat and other produce have been genetically altered since the late 40's.  The first corn was a nasty tasting thing used by native americans.  Not the delicious stuff we have today.

Popcorn is a genetically altered corn.  It was made in a lab at a college. Wheat is the same thing.  Iceberg lettuce was developed in California so that it lasted longer, was easier to pick and ship.

Beef, chickens and pork have been extremely altered here since the Spanish first brought them to south America.  The black angus and the white face are all hybrids and altered to make better

meat.  The skinny chickens from the old farms have been altered to produce bigger muscles and a tastier dark meat.  Tomatoes have been the most altered since they were first picked in the

jungles of south America.  Potatoes also.  The beautiful great tasting Gold potatoes we have today are a product of lab geneticists. None of these foods are harmful to you. 

 

What most people are afraid of is  Growth Hormone therapy.  It makes race horses huge and fast.  But we don't eat race horses. But someone got the big idea to use GHT on cows.  That is not

a good idea.  The hormones stay in the meat of the offspring of those meat animals.  No one really knows the effect it will have on our offspring, that is what the real deal is here.

 

I buy local beef raised by local ranchers without GHT.  I buy chicken from sources that don't use it.  I don't eat much pork.  The main thing that I watch for is where the product comes from that I am

buying.  I don't buy produce from Mexico.  Ever.  They wont follow the rules about pesticides and cleanliness.  But neither does a few plants here in the USA.  So I am just a smart shopper and watch

the things I know.  We can a lot of our own vegetables every fall.  As far as lettuce and some other things we don't grow,  I use a black light to kill the topical germs and ecoli that could be there.

Don't be fooled by "natural" organic products.  Three of the last four outbreaks have been from organic plants or growers.  Over 75% of "Organic" growers are not true organic farms.  The law is so

useless that only 15% of your crop has to be actually true organic, the rest you can fudge the numbers on.  Oregon is cracking down on those so called organic farms we have here.  It was so bad,

that last year a farm here was shut down because it wasn't even organic at all.  The previous owner of the land had an Organic farm, so the new buyer just used that to sell his stuff.  None of it was

even close to being organic.  So buyer beware.

[krAzy :)]

I always get a kick out of people who wont eat GMF.  If you eat corn, wheat, beef, chicken, pork, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, etc.  you are eating GMF.

 

Corn, wheat and other produce have been genetically altered since the late 40's.  The first corn was a nasty tasting thing used by native americans.  Not the delicious stuff we have today.

Popcorn is a genetically altered corn.  It was made in a lab at a college. Wheat is the same thing.  Iceberg lettuce was developed in California so that it lasted longer, was easier to pick and ship.

Beef, chickens and pork have been extremely altered here since the Spanish first brought them to south America.  The black angus and the white face are all hybrids and altered to make better

meat.  The skinny chickens from the old farms have been altered to produce bigger muscles and a tastier dark meat.  Tomatoes have been the most altered since they were first picked in the

jungles of south America.  Potatoes also.  The beautiful great tasting Gold potatoes we have today are a product of lab geneticists. None of these foods are harmful to you. 

 

What most people are afraid of is  Growth Hormone therapy.  It makes race horses huge and fast.  But we don't eat race horses. But someone got the big idea to use GHT on cows.  That is not

a good idea.  The hormones stay in the meat of the offspring of those meat animals.  No one really knows the effect it will have on our offspring, that is what the real deal is here.

 

I buy local beef raised by local ranchers without GHT.  I buy chicken from sources that don't use it.  I don't eat much pork.  The main thing that I watch for is where the product comes from that I am

buying.  I don't buy produce from Mexico.  Ever.  They wont follow the rules about pesticides and cleanliness.  But neither does a few plants here in the USA.  So I am just a smart shopper and watch

the things I know.  We can a lot of our own vegetables every fall.  As far as lettuce and some other things we don't grow,  I use a black light to kill the topical germs and ecoli that could be there.

Don't be fooled by "natural" organic products.  Three of the last four outbreaks have been from organic plants or growers.  Over 75% of "Organic" growers are not true organic farms.  The law is so

useless that only 15% of your crop has to be actually true organic, the rest you can fudge the numbers on.  Oregon is cracking down on those so called organic farms we have here.  It was so bad,

that last year a farm here was shut down because it wasn't even organic at all.  The previous owner of the land had an Organic farm, so the new buyer just used that to sell his stuff.  None of it was

even close to being organic.  So buyer beware.

 

I think you'r confusing hybrid seeds with GMO

Combing two seeds which will create a new form of plant -> hybrid seed

GMO is the "in lab" modification of a plants DNA creating a new form of plant which could never be formed in nature

 

Anyways there are huge differences in USA and Europe policies, where the European Union is more strict about genetic modified food

[Kat0n]

Depends on the food? Couldn't give you an example right now, but some food are genetically modified to be healthier whereas some food are genetically modified to be cheaper (for example) and aren't necessiraly healthy...