Hot off the press: Anaphylactic food reactions shot up a shocking 377 percent in just the ten years from 2007 to 2016, according to stats drawn from a database of 23 billion privately billed healthcare procedures.1
If you’re not familiar with anaphylactic reactions, they are severe, potentially life-threatening reactions that can happen within mere seconds or minutes of being exposed to an allergen – most commonly, peanuts or a bee sting.
Anaphylactic reactions to peanuts rose 445 percent, and reactions to tree nuts (i.e. most nuts – walnuts, cashews, almonds, etc.) soared more than six times over. And there are others substances that set off these deadly health disasters.
You might wonder what’s going on. I sure do. When I was a kid, peanuts weren’t objects of terror. You never heard of a child being rushed to the hospital after coming within three feet of a peanut.
And now there is a new concern – a possible secret connection to cancer. Read on as we explore this possibility…
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The new research, published mere days ago on August 21, 2017, brought some major surprises. For example, everyone assumes food allergies are a childhood problem. But a full one-third of anaphylactic reactions happen in adults.
What’s more, food allergies are widely perceived as an urban problem. Yet the percentage rise in anaphylactic shock cases was far steeper in rural areas.
The study also revealed reactions to peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, shrimp/lobster, and dairy… as well as ‘other’ non-specified foods, which probably include wheat.
When trying to find a cause, most medical research looks for the devil within. But what if the trigger for all these problems was instead a devil outside our bodies?
Is your body’s internal immune
director being silenced?
It’s widely known that different people respond differently to various stimuli they encounter, whether it’s food, infectious agents, or environmental poisons.
It boils down to more than genes. Your immune system largely determines your genetic expression. Every stimulus either activates or represses hundreds of genes. Thus, your immune system plays a central role in all inflammatory diseases, cancer, metabolism, and aging.
But what controls your immune system?
Your gut microbiome is a major factor in your immune functions. And that includes food allergies, which result from an immune system misfire.
So if we’re seeing meteoric rises in disease and allergies, what could be disrupting your gut’s microbiome to make it go haywire like this?
Could some rogue demon seize control of your immune system and become the agent of destruction linked to a cascade of negative outcomes – including anaphylactic reactions, cancer, and a host of other conditions?
Some researchers think so – though we’re still in the early stages of understanding how and why. But here’s one theory on what’s the culprit…
The possible secret agent of destruction
Glyphosate is an herbicide, a chemical intended to kill plants. Its common name is Roundup. Though marketed as a weed killer, it actually kills all plants. That’s what made genetically modified plants (GMOs) popular in the first place. They are genetically engineered to survive being doused with glyphosate. The idea is to just kill the weeds and leave the “good” plants.
A farmer could spray a field, and all the weeds magically disappeared while the corn or soy lived on. Well, at least that was the promise, before the arrival of super weeds, which ‘forced’ farmers to use even more chemicals, or more powerful ones.
You’ve also been assured all of this is safe for humans and the environment – both the modified plants and the chemical residues they contain -- so there’s nothing to worry about. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that such assurances aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
A gut feeling that something’s wrong
Glyphosate works by disrupting the shikimate pathway in plants. When this path is interrupted, plants die.
People don’t have a shikimate pathway. That’s why the manufacturers and regulators assure us there was no problem.
The trouble is that the good bacteria in our guts do have a shikimate pathway…and you want an abundance of those good bacteria. They keep you healthy. They control your immune system.
When glyphosate gets into your system, it can wreak havoc on your gut and your immune system by disrupting the shikimate pathway of your good gut bacteria.
Those bacteria help prevent allergic reactions to food. One study showed that a bacterium called Clostridia specifically helps prevent food allergies.2 There are probably others that do the same thing. But if they’re being destroyed, all bets are off. And glyphosate does exactly that.
Glyphosate’s other mode of destruction
Glyphosate is also an antibiotic. And you probably know by now that your beneficial bacteria can’t co-exist with an anti-bacterial substance.
Likewise, many other pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides are anti-bacterials. On top of that, conventional animals are fed antibiotics, and you consume these drugs in your meat, dairy, and eggs – unless you’re careful to buy organic food.
I want to stress that this is all still speculative. But it could explain why foods that don’t normally cause a reaction – or didn’t give anyone a reaction years ago – are all of sudden deadly allergens.
A good question to ask is, “What changed in the past couple of generations that makes once-harmless foods into deadly killers?” Roundup/glyphosphate, introduced in 1974, is a logical suspect. Antibiotics in meat (and elsewhere) are another. A few years ago, a 10-year-old girl suffered an anaphylactic reaction to blueberry pie. Turned out to be a streptomycin-containing pesticide that the blueberries had been treated with.3
Unfortunately, you never know what’s been applied to any particular food that could cause a reaction, even a life-threatening one. And that could be the secret link to your mysterious or inconsistent allergic reactions.
The hidden source of glyphosate
no one’s telling you about
Unbeknownst to many, glyphosate is routinely sprayed on many non-GMO crops just before harvest. Which is why even consuming only GMO-free foods won’t completely protect you.
As a reminder, non-GMO crops are conventional crops grown with non-GMO seeds. If the thing you’re eating is not certified organic, it probably contains an herbicide or other chemical.
Monsanto recommends ‘pre-harvest’ Roundup spraying three days before harvest – ‘to allow for uniform crop maturity’ and a quick harvest.
This is not limited to GMO crops. And it may mean you’re consuming food drenched in Roundup.
Monsanto recommends Roundup be used for:
- Wheat
- Oats
- Corn
- Non-GMO canola
- Flax
- Peas
- Lentils
- Non-GMO soybeans
- Dry beans (various varieties)
- Sugar cane, sugar beets
- Potatoes
- Sunflowers
- Millet
Just about every food item you can think of could contain glyphosate, since nearly everything these days contains wheat, corn, soy, and/or sugar. Plus, the GMO crops are sprayed throughout the rest of the growing season, not just at the end.
Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because you have a non-GMO product, it’s free of glyphosate. Because it’s most likely not.
Your vexing, erratic symptoms may be linked to glyphosate, even if you’re diligently avoiding GMO products.
Labeled a carcinogen
Glyphosate wreaks havoc on your immune system, which plays a pivotal role in both allergic reactions AND cancer.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) calls this pesticide a carcinogen. That designation has been highly controversial, but there’s evidence that the “controversy” is mostly due to industry insiders pushing back hard in an effort to defend their own interests.
The first lifetime feeding studies from the early 1980s found that it was carcinogenic. Several independent lab studies have shown that it causes genetic damage.4
According to the National Toxicology Program, glyphosate-containing products (such as Roundup) are more toxic than glyphosate alone… presumably because of the synergistic effects of the other, supposedly inert ingredients.5
Even if it turns out there is no connection between glyphosate and the meteoric rise in deadly food sensitivities, the cancer connection is enough to keep me away from these foods.
Best ways to protect yourself
First of all, consider avoiding Roundup in your own yard, farm, or garden, where you have direct control.
Then, if you or someone you love suffers from food allergies, avoid known allergens.
Even better, shun processed foods and choose organically grown fruits, vegetables, and grass-fed meat, and traditionally cultured or fermented foods lovingly prepared and eaten at home. And preferably sourced from small local farms where you can talk to the farmer about how they grow the food.
When eating out, try to avoid the riskiest options, challenging as that may be.
You’ll also want to avoid substances known to compromise the balance of gut microbes, including:
- Grains
- Sugar
- Processed/pasteurized foods
- Conventionally raised meat, eggs, and dairy – nearly all are raised with antibiotics and GMO livestock feed
- Medical antibiotics (except when absolutely necessary for a medical problem)
- Antibacterial soap
You could also consider the GAPS diet6, developed especially to ‘heal and seal’ your gut lining to prevent allergic reactions. A leaky gut lets food particles slip through the lesions in the gut lining and enter your bloodstream, causing allergic responses.
Some of the pesticides and herbicides you consume may get stored in your fat tissue, if you’re carrying a few extra pounds. Fat tissue is a notorious storehouse for toxins. It’s also a source of chronic inflammation – and cancer. Our last issue talked about. If you missed it, you can catch it just below. . .
Best regards,
Lee Euler,
Publisher
