The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) reportedly found traces of glyphosate, the active ingredient commonly used in herbicide products like Roundup, in a variety of foods, including crackers and granola, according to internal emails obtained by The Guardian through a Freedom of Information Act request. Glyphosate, which kills off weeds without killing crops, presents numerous health risks to consumers[], including celiac disease[], hormone disruption[], and even cancer[]. Learn what the Guardian reported on the FDA findings, as well as how to protect yourself from glyphosate and detox from it.
Internal emails reveal glyphosate is in a variety of common foods
The FDA has been testing glyphosate in food samples for the past two years but hasn’t released any official reports, according to The Guardian.
In an internal email dated January 2017, FDA chemist Richard Thompson wrote to colleagues: “I have brought wheat crackers, granola cereal, and cornmeal from home and there’s a fair amount in all of them.” Broccoli was the only food he found to be free of glyphosate.
Another FDA chemist, Narong Chamkasem, found “over-the-tolerance” (6.5 parts per million) levels of glyphosate in corn — the legal limit is 5.0 ppm. Normally, illegal levels are reported to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). However, in a separate email from an FDA supervisor to an EPA official, it was noted the corn was not considered an “official sample.”
An FDA spokesman told The Guardian that the agency did not find any illegal glyphosate levels in corn, soy, milk or eggs — the four foods of their “special assignment.” He didn’t speak to the unofficial findings contained in the emails.
The FDA will release its official findings later this year or in early 2019, since reports are typically released at least two years after the data is collected, according to the Guardian.
Glyphosate in the US and Europe
In this Bulletproof Radio (iTunes) podcast episode, Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Stephanie Seneff, PhD, said glyphosate is hard to avoid since it’s everywhere. In fact, annual use of glyphosate in the US exceeds 200 million pounds, according to the nonprofit U.S. Right to Know[]. “There’s glyphosate in the air, in the rain, on the fields next door. [You] can’t avoid it, so you’re not going to be glyphosate-free in this country, unless you’re in some wilderness area and living off of local animals, remote from any civilization.” Meanwhile, despite a petition from more than 1 million EU citizens, Europe voted last year to reauthorize the pesticide for another five years.
How to limit glyphosate exposure
Although it’s hard to avoid glyphosate completely, there are steps you can take to minimize your exposure and flush the controversial herbicide from your system.
Eat organic
The foundation of a Bulletproof Diet is organic food, which helps you steer clear of environmental toxins like glyphosate. An organic diet rooted in sustainable farming practices doesn’t allow for chemicals in soil and water. For a vibrant body and mind, do your best to keep glyphosate out of your food, away from your skin, and clear of your soil.
5 steps to glyphosate detoxification
Since it’s nearly impossible to avoid glyphosate entirely these days – even if you do eat organic most of the time — knowing how to detox from it is key. These steps not only help you to detox from glyphosate, but they also help repair gut lining damage from the chemical.
- Take activated charcoal. After eating a meal with questionable ingredients, take one to two charcoal pills to help your body bind and excrete any possible toxins.
- Drink water. Your liver, kidneys, and skin will thank you if you keep them hydrated. Water helps them do their job to excrete chemicals from your body, so drink up.
- Eat a high-fat diet of undamaged fats. Glyphosate irritates your gut and causes unnatural gut permeability. A high-fat, low-carb, low-sugar diet is key to gut health, so learn more about how to restore your gut with diet.
- Support bile flow and heal your gut. Try Restore, a soil-derived supplement designed to support the health of your intestinal walls that are damaged by glyphosate exposure.
- Buy organic as much as possible, though get to know which conventional produce carries the highest toxic loads. Review EWG’s 2018 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce.
Related Link: The Sneaky Place Glyphosate Is Hiding in Your Food
