Herself's Recipes

When genetically modified cells are injected into a plant it is difficult to say whether or not they have taken. So genetic engineers early on used antibiotic resistant genes as markers. These genes give antibiotic resistance to kanamycin and neomycin, another is resistant to ampicillin. These markers would be attached to the genes being inserted and used as a way to check to see if the insertion was successful. These markers should have no effect on the plant. These genes can be found in most genetically engineered food today.

Antibiotic resistant markers are turned off when added to the plant however, Genes that are transfered to plants might be turned off and on in the plant and the plant’s future generations.

It is possible that eating these foods could reduce antibiotic effectiveness in people. DNA is not fragmented in the intestine as had been previously thought. It can be excreted or passed into the blood of the person eating the food. The rise of antibiotic resistance coincides with the rise of this genetic marker being released into the food supply. But these tests were done in a lab, not a human and what happens in the labs does not always work the same way in the real world.

In Europe the use of npt11 in commercial products is being phased out. I could not find information on US phase out of these markers.

Bottled water consumption has doubled since 2000.

It takes 1.5 million barrels of oil each year to create the bottles to hold all our bottled water. This is enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars for one year. Only 20% of water bottles are recycled in the U.S. The plastic containers are made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) which has been determined safe by FDA for use as food containers. Bottled water contains more antimony than tap water. The longer the water sits in a bottle the more antimony it contains. It has to do with a reaction from the container. Still it is well below safe levels.

Tap water is just as good for you as bottled water. 40% of bottled waters are just tap water with some added ingredients.If you must buy bottled water be sure to read the label.

Bottled water label items:

Artesian, ground, spring, well water: These may or may not be treated, spring is collected as it comes to the surface, the rest of these comes from wells except ground water which may be collected either way.

Distilled water: Steam from boiling water is recondensed then bottled. This kills microbes and removes minerals, but ruins the flavor of the water.

Mineral water: Ground water containing 250 ppm of dissolved solids.

Purified: Water that is free of chemicals, no more than 10 ppm of dissolved solids.

Sterile water: Free of all microbes.

Glacier water, mountain water: This has no meaning, these are just marketing terms.

Micron filtration: Water filtered through screens with small holes to filter out microbes and chemicals.

Ozonation: Water is distilled using ozone to kill microbes.

Reverse osmosis: Water is forced under pressure through membrane removing all microbes, minerals, and chemicals.

Ultraviolet light: Water is passed through uv light killing most microbes.