Believe it or not, when it comes to the concentration of glyphosate in our food, some of the healthiest sounding snacks can contain significantly more of this nasty chemical than something like Cheez-It crackers. I am not suggesting you run out and get them as your new goto snack, merely showing how our common sense of what is likely a healthier option can be VERY wrong.
Roundup is used on food crops in increasing amounts across the United States, and that glyphosate (Roundup’s key ingredient) is known to cause liver and kidney damage to rats in amounts as small as .1 parts per billion. It has also been proven to be an endocrine disruptor in humans at as little as .05 ppm, and if that’s not bad enough, the World Health Organization considers glyphosate a probable carcinogen.
You probably already know that GMO crops are drenched with Roundup, because they are created to be resistant to the herbicide. You may not know, however, that the chemical is also used on other crops—for example, glyphosate is often used in large amounts on wheat to dry it before harvest. Roundup on crops is one thing, but how much of it actually makes its way into our food?
A 2016 study brings to light the alarming fact that not only does Roundup travel from farm to supermarket to table, it does so in large amounts. In fact, many of the most popular American foods contain much more than enough Roundup to cause damage. Among the offenders are foods that are marketed to children, snack and breakfast foods whose names are practically iconic, and even some that are marketed under “healthy” labels.
The biggest offender in the study is a cereal that babies are often given as a finger-food when they are learning to feed themselves: Cheerios.
That’s right—those innocent little O’s actually contain glyphosate at the rate of 1125.3 parts per billion! And there are other offenders that you wouldn’t guess would be harboring high levels of glyphosate. Below is a sample of some of the study’s results:
Below is a sample of some of the study’s results:
Click here to see which common foods have the highest concentration of this highest concentration of glyphosate.
It’s noteworthy that many of the products listed above carry healthy-sounding labels that suggest a product that’s good for you—such as Simply Naked, Back to Nature, Whole Grain or Gluten Free. Organic products even made the list, proving that even when crops are specifically grown organically they can be contaminated by glyphosate. In fact, the organic round crackers had more glyphosate than Cheez-it crackers (which had a comparatively low level of 24.6 ppb).
What does this mean for you, the consumer?