Autism and Lyme Disease Patients Prescribed Diets Free of Genetically Modified Foods

            Because patients dealing with Lyme disease and autism share complex struggles with gastro-intestinal functioning, food allergies and sensitivities, eating food that has been genetically modified shows to intensify symptoms and even trigger regression. GM crops’ seeds are genetically designed to either withstand large amounts of herbicides/pesticides that normally would kill the plant or, in the case of Bt corn, are spliced with DNA to make the plant secrete a poison to kill off pests. While humanitarian motives–to grow cheaper larger crops to feed the world more cheaply–make many very loyal to the technology to manipulate plant DNA, this infant science is causing the consumers health consequences. People with Lyme, autism and other chronic illnesses seem most sensitive to them.

People diagnosed on the autism spectrum are commonly allergic to soy, corn and dairy. The consumption of these foods leads to severe digestive issues in many cases. It has been noted that these foods all share the common feature of being produced with genetic modification. Eight-five percent of corn and soy produced in the Unites States is now produced from genetically modified seeds, and milk is from cows fed that GM corn, and some cows are even injected with genetically modified hormones to get them to produce more milk. 

       In the general population, GM soy and corn have revealed themselves to produce more allergens. Allergies to soy increased by 50% in the UK directly after GM soy introduction. GM varieties boasted seven times the amount of a known soy allergen; patients undergoing a skin-prick test reacted to GM soy, though not natural soy. While the World Wide Heath organization recommends testing for allergens, GM corn and soy cannot pass—GM corn and soy have properties of both known allergens as well as a minimum of one new allergen not present in natural corn and soy. Now, the allergy to GM corn and soy is showing to later make individuals allergic to even non-GM corn and soy.

            Medical doctors who specialize in the treatment of Lyme disease and autism are now prescribing their patients non-GM diets. (Follow these titles’ links to read The Lyme-Induced-Autism “Position on GM Foods” or the American Academy of Environmental Medicine’s “Genetically Modified Foods.”) While concerned scientists, doctors and consumer advocates plead for more studies, and specifically human studies (which have never been performed, as the FDA states that GM foods are so safe, human studies were skipped, deemed unnecessary), doctors’ groups such as the Academy of Environmental Medicine and the Lyme-Induced-Autism foundation say Lyme and autism patients cannot wait for studies to confirm exactly how GM products are damaging to them; they urge a diet excluding them—now. The proof from animal studies is enough for them.