Do you think that genetically modified soy could be causing a lot of problems in humans?

Question

Like precocius puberty and stunted growth? They say it's because of certain phytoestogens in soy, but that doesn't make sense since soy has been used in baby formulas and the American diet for centuries (since the 1700s). Yet now even babies are going through puberty and supposedly Americans are getting shorter compared to people in other countries (see stunted growth in rats)!

http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=297

http://www.lehigh.edu/~inbios/schneider/soy.htm

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3293191

http://thegate.nationaljournal.com/2007/08/americans_getting_shorter_dead.php

The reason why I have this in the global warming section is because many AGW advocates are claiming that GM crops will save people from the mass starvation that global warming will cause.

Answer 1

The GM crops will be the REASON for the mass starvation.  Global warming is something that we need to learn to work WITH not against, since it is nothing more than normal earth cycles.

That is a thought though about all of these things that are coming about harming people.  One point that I haven't thought of....you wont get this kind of information from the corp. media either.

Answer 2

Not likely.

We've been "genetically modifying" crops for forever.  The corn that grows in the Midwest today bears absolutely no resemblance to the corn the Native Americans grew.  It's been heavily "genetically modified".

Scientists understand this, which is why there is no labeling requirement for genetically modified food.  Our methods have improved, but the results are the same.

Blaming GM food for health problems is silly.  There's absolutely no data to support it.

It does hurt people to create false concern about this.  GM foods have kept India from starving.  But some African countries refuse to use them because of false statements.  Even though they have massive food shortages.

Answer 3

What do you think the cause is? GM soy or the trillions of other things that make our life different than in the 1700's? Think about this, how much plastic does a young child encounter? Plastics can contain bisphenol A, which is an endocrine disruptor (it upsets the way certain hormones affect the body). It is present in 93 percent of urine samples from Americans aged 6 to 85.

Answer 4

GM foods as a group are not a cause for  concern.  Plant breeders have been doing the same thing for millenia.  I doubt that you will find any major food crop that has not been modified by humans.  For the specific case of soy, yes there may be reasons for concern.  Although the plant itself may be OK, its resistance to disease is modified.  That does not mean that the plant is disease free, it just means that the plant is attacked by different fungi, bacteria, viruses and insects.  One of the fungi in my research lab produces toxins that are also an estrogen emulator.  We are currently working on a method to ensure the complete destruction of that toxin prior to release into the environment. I think that a good working hypothesis is that the soy is contaminated by a parasite.  

GM crops will not save the world from mass starvation with higher yields. At best GM crops may delay the food crunch by a decade in which time there will be more people to starve.  The greater risk is that GM crops lack the biodiversity found in traditional seed stock and are thus more vulnerable to environmental changes.

Answer 5

Bottom Line: NO, it won't.

Answer 6

Are you sure it just isn't part of the massive conspiracy between the scientists, liberals, conservation groups, Tony Blair, all the signers of the Kyoto Protocol, Al Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio, the state of California, and virtually all scientific societies in the world? Maybe they're only intending the SKEPTICS to eat the GMO soy! That would be just like them, to try and ruin our precious bodily fluids...

EDIT: dumdum, I assume you meant to say WARN people, not WARM people--good Freudian slip though!.  Anyway you are constantly saying things without attribution. Tell us exactly who these "AGW advocates" you are talking about are. I've never heard anyone on here say that, and it doesn't sound like anything the IPCC would have come up with either.

Answer 7

A plant hormone, is unlikely to have any effect on the human body. Genetic sequences and proteins that interact could. It's not likely to be understood anytime soon. Then there's always homeostasis and the pituitary gland. Which is even more difficult to ascertain with interactions. Let's not forget the human gene pool as a whole. "Still the correlations stated in the study is interesting."...and could lead to overreaction.

Answer 8

There's no evidence of it.    Also, my kids have had a lot of soy products and they're big and strong.

As for "Americans getting shorter" - it's not a closed population.     The median and average height are down a bit for the same reason that our poverty rates haven't decreased despite good growth over the last quarter century - because of the massive influx of Latino immigrants who are both short and poor.

Don't get me wrong - I'm glad they're here.    I love Latino culture and I'm glad that I can get a pickup game of soccer going.    But we should analyze an open system in a way that accounts for external changes.