Genetically Modified Foods: Are They Safe?

Posted on November 12, 2008 in Diet-Health, Diet-Trends

In recent past genetically engineered or genetically modified food had created a buzz in the food industry. Genetic engineering can be defined as manipulating genetic makeup of an organism using modern molecular biology techniques for desired traits. Ever since genetically modified foods came into existence, they were the most controversial subject.

Various environmental and public interest groups all over the world are concerned about the environmental and health effects of genetically modified foods. Some of the expected environmental and health benefits of genetically engineered foods are listed below:

Benefits of Genetically Modified Food:

• Pest Resistance: With the increasing awareness regarding health hazards of pesticides, growing foods which are naturally pest resistant is good option. Besides reducing various health hazards, genetically modified food also reduces the environmental harm caused by chemical pesticides.
• Herbicide Tolerance: To get rid of unwanted plants or weeds, farmers use herbicides which even harm the crop plant. Genetically engineered crop plants are herbicide resistant hence cutting down the excessive use of herbicides. Besides being environmental friendly it is also cost effective and also reduces the dangers of agricultural run-off.
• Disease Resistance: Every year, extensive damage is caused to crop plants due to bacterial, fungal and viral infection. With the help of genetic engineering disease resistant plants can be produced.
• Cold Tolerance: In cold regions unexpected frost can damage sensitive seedlings. Genetically modified plants can easily survive cold temperatures as compared to unmodified plants.
• Drought or Salinity Tolerance: With the ever growing population and food demand it is important to save crops with the impact of droughts and soil and water salinity. A genetically modified crop provides an added advantage over unmodified plants.
• Nutrition: Scientists believe that genetically modified foods can provide added nutritional benefits. With some changes in genetic makeup might increase the antioxidant levels, protein content, vitamins and reduce the levels of natural toxins, unwanted fat content, saturated fats, etc. It is also expected that genetically modified food can reduce or eliminate proteins leading to various allergic reactions.

Besides the above mentioned benefits, it is expected that genetically modified foods would be tastier and nutritional. Foods which are already genetically modified are corn, tomatoes, squash, soybeans, potatoes, rice, honey, cotton, sugar cane, rapeseed, flax, papaya, canola, peas, etc. For further details please check the official website of Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Comments

Categories

• Diet for Diseases (62)
• Diet-Health (80)
• Diet-Trends (53)
• Diet-Types (33)
• Diet-You (39)
• Latest News (53)
• Pregnancy Diet (16)

Latest Additions

• Diet for Hypothyroidism
• Diet for Hyperthyroidism
• Thrive Diet
• Low Sodium Diet for Children
• Healthy Diet for a Swimmer