If you have ever watched the documentary Food Inc., you will probably agree that Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's) in our food supply are harmful. For those who are not familiar with Food, Inc., it is basically a documentary that exposes numerous problems with the food industry today, such as unnatural and modified food being sold, as well as horrible animal abuse that occurs every day (which is an entire subject I will probably post about later).
Many people I've talked to are aware of the existence of GMO's, which I think is a good thing. I feel that the information is becoming mainstream slowly but surely due to the hard work of journalists out there.
While I feel that GMO's, for the most part, aren't the best idea, there are certain things I've come across lately that have changed my mind a bit. For example, I understand that many modern fruits and vegetables would not exist without genetic tampering by humans. For example, seedless grapes and watermelons are man-made creations. But does that mean that they are necessarily harmful? I don't think so; in fact I would speculate that almost all of the fruits and vegetables we see today are the result of some modification somewhere throughout the years.
I came across a pretty interesting article dealing with the subject of GMO's vs. hybrids, and from what I gather, the main difference between GMO's and hybrids is that GMO's are made on a microscopic (DNA) level, while hybrids are made by cross-pollinating similar species. While this is a significant difference, they both accomplish the same overall purpose, which is to alter the genetic structure of plants.
My personal opinion is that it should be determined on a case-by-case basis whether modified food is harmful or not. Unfortunately, it can be tricky to determine what is healthy and what isn't. What I do personally is try to look for information and see what makes sense, and also just try a variety of things to see what works. I don't think there's one specific diet that works for everyone, so I would recommend trying out a variety of fruits and vegetables to see which kinds you enjoy the most and make you feel the best.
Another big time tip on how to shop for produce would be to look at the Price Look Up (PLU) code, which tells you how the produce was grown. I generally try to buy organic when possible, and try to avoid produce that has been sprayed with pesticides. (In case you're curious, here is a list of some of the ingredients of pesticides, which include many toxic chemicals. After all, pesticides are designed to kill insects, so they're probably not healthy for humans either.)
