Involves the laboratory process of artificially inserting genes into the DNA of food crops or animals. GMO's can be engineered with genes from bacteria, viruses, insects, animals, or even humans. You can avoid commonly genetically modified foods:
- corn flour, meal, oil, starch, gluten, and syrup
- sweeteners such as fructose, dextrose, and glucose
- modified food starch
- soy flour, lecithin, protein, isolate, and isoflavone
- vegetable oil and vegetable protein
- canola oil (also called rapeseed oil)
- cottonseed oil
- sugar beet sugar
Very few fresh fruits and vegetables for sale in the US are GMO. These are:
- zucchini (some not all)
- yellow crookneck squash (some not all)
- sweet corn (some not all)
- Papaya from Hawaii (about 50%)
No GMO fish, fowl, or livestock is approved (yet) for human consumption. However, many non-organic foods are produced from animals raised on GM feed such as grains (corn, soy). Look for wild caught fish and 100% grass fed animals or humanely raised animals. To avoid GMO's you can buy organic and look for Non-GMO labels. (Source)
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Comprises any of a group of corn syrups that has undergone enzymatic processing to convert some of its glucose into fructose to produce a desired sweetness. In the United States, consumer foods and products typically use high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. It has become very common in processed foods and beverages in the U.S., including breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments.
According to the USDA, HFCS consists of 24% water, and the rest sugars. The most widely used varieties of high-fructose corn syrup are: HFCS 55 (mostly used in soft drinks), approximately 55% fructose and 42% glucose; and HFCS 42 (used in beverages, processed foods, cereals and baked goods), approximately 42% fructose and 53% glucose. HFCS-90, approximately 90% fructose and 10% glucose, is used in small quantities for specialty applications, but primarily is used to blend with HFCS 42 to make HFCS 55.
In the U.S., HFCS is among the sweeteners that have primarily replaced sucrose (table sugar) in the food industry. Factors for this include governmental production quotas of domestic sugar, subsidies of U.S. corn, and an import tariff on foreign sugar; all of which combine to raise the price of sucrose to levels above those of the rest of the world, making HFCS less costly for many sweetener applications. Critics of the extensive use of HFCS in food sweetening argue that the highly processed substance is more harmful to humans than regular sugar, contributing to weight gain by affecting normal appetite functions, and that in some foods HFCS may be a source of mercury, a known neurotoxin. The Corn Refiners Association disputes these claims and maintains that HFCS is comparable to table sugar. Studies by the American Medical Association suggest "it appears unlikely that HFCS contributes more to obesity or other conditions than sucrose", but welcome further independent research on the subject. Further reviews in the clinical literature have disputed the links between HFCS and obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, and concluded that HFCS is no different from any other sugar in relationship to these diseases. HFCS has been classified generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since 1976. (source)
How is high fructose corn syrup made? (According to SweetSurprise.com)
The corn wet milling industry makes high fructose corn syrup from corn starch using a series of unit processes that include steeping corn to soften the hard kernel; physical separation of the kernel into its separate components—starch, corn hull, protein and oil; breakdown of the starch to glucose; use of enzymes to invert glucose to fructose; removal of impurities; and blending of glucose and fructose to make HFCS-42 and HFCS-55.2.
Clearly this was written by someone who didn't want anyone to actually understand the process.
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Comprises any of a group of corn syrups that has undergone enzymatic processing to convert some of its glucose into fructose to produce a desired sweetness. In the United States, consumer foods and products typically use high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. It has become very common in processed foods and beverages in the U.S., including breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments.
According to the USDA, HFCS consists of 24% water, and the rest sugars. The most widely used varieties of high-fructose corn syrup are: HFCS 55 (mostly used in soft drinks), approximately 55% fructose and 42% glucose; and HFCS 42 (used in beverages, processed foods, cereals and baked goods), approximately 42% fructose and 53% glucose. HFCS-90, approximately 90% fructose and 10% glucose, is used in small quantities for specialty applications, but primarily is used to blend with HFCS 42 to make HFCS 55.
In the U.S., HFCS is among the sweeteners that have primarily replaced sucrose (table sugar) in the food industry. Factors for this include governmental production quotas of domestic sugar, subsidies of U.S. corn, and an import tariff on foreign sugar; all of which combine to raise the price of sucrose to levels above those of the rest of the world, making HFCS less costly for many sweetener applications. Critics of the extensive use of HFCS in food sweetening argue that the highly processed substance is more harmful to humans than regular sugar, contributing to weight gain by affecting normal appetite functions, and that in some foods HFCS may be a source of mercury, a known neurotoxin. The Corn Refiners Association disputes these claims and maintains that HFCS is comparable to table sugar. Studies by the American Medical Association suggest "it appears unlikely that HFCS contributes more to obesity or other conditions than sucrose", but welcome further independent research on the subject. Further reviews in the clinical literature have disputed the links between HFCS and obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, and concluded that HFCS is no different from any other sugar in relationship to these diseases. HFCS has been classified generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since 1976. (source)
How is high fructose corn syrup made? (According to SweetSurprise.com)
The corn wet milling industry makes high fructose corn syrup from corn starch using a series of unit processes that include steeping corn to soften the hard kernel; physical separation of the kernel into its separate components—starch, corn hull, protein and oil; breakdown of the starch to glucose; use of enzymes to invert glucose to fructose; removal of impurities; and blending of glucose and fructose to make HFCS-42 and HFCS-55.2.
Clearly this was written by someone who didn't want anyone to actually understand the process.