Christine Cowan was looking forward to enjoying her risotto, but after taking one bite, she could not eat anymore of the meal she had prepared from the package she picked up at the supermarket.
The meal tasted unnatural and after scrutinising the ingredients, she realised it was. Her meal contained ingredients that were bioengineered. She was shocked, and quickly started scanning all the other products she had purchased at a supermarket in the US, only to realise that several of the items had ingredients that had been manufactured in a lab. The Holy Spirit instructed her to throw them out, and while her purchases were costly, she obeyed. Being a Christian, she initially thought about giving them away, but it made no sense giving food to others she could not consume herself.
Cowan then went to check the ingredients for the items she had purchased at one of the major supermarkets in Jamaica, and to her astonishment, even the parcel of fruits and nuts she loved to consume contained bioengineered ingredients. Since then, Cowan has started scrutinizing every item she purchases before heading to the cashier.
“They are in the chocolate bars, they are in the cornflakes, they are in so many things,” she said of the ingredients which health experts are increasingly blaming for a myriad of health problems.
“It’s not good. That’s why there is so much sickness in persons. It’s the foods that we eat,” Cowan said.
Naturopathic doctor and Medical Missionary, Dr. Debra Williams agrees. She said the creation of genetically modified organism (GMO) food, or bio-engineered ingredients are examples of “man playing God.”
“What they are doing is that they are taking the seeds of certain plants and they are changing the structure of it,” she told the Freedom Come Rain.
“They are creating what I call ‘Frankenstein food’ and when it gets into the stomach, the stomach does not recognise it as food and so people are getting stomach problems, it is causing colon cancers, it is causing all manner of [illnesses],” she said.
Dr. Williams see many of these patients who have been diagnosed with non-communicable diseases and cancers due to their high consumption of GMO foods among other factors. As a medical missionary, she guides them through the process of changing to a diet where focus is placed on eating natural foods and making other lifestyle choices. She is concerned that those being diagnosed with cancer are becoming far younger.
“It is no longer the 60’s and 70’s, it is now the 30’s, 40’s. So we are seeing younger persons coming in now with breast cancer and colon cancer in particular, and it is coming from their diet. It is coming from the food that they are eating, the highly processed food, the GMO foods, the lack of exercise, not being out in the sun to get the vitamin D. What you find is that the DNA in their cells is becoming damaged and that is how cancer starts.”
Dr Williams was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012. Realising that her unhealthy choices had contributed to this diagnosis, she immediately cut out meat, sugar and processed food and after nine months, she was declared cancer free. Many of the persons she now sees had tried the recommended treatments, such as chemotheraphy and radiation, but the cancer returned. They seek her as a last resort to help them restore their health.
“ Normally, somebody would have stage 1 and they would have it for a couple of years, and they would do their chemo and radiation. I’m finding now that it is not helping. By the time they find out that they have cancer, it is already stage 3, stage 4 and the chemotheraphy, radiation is not working,” she explained.
Most disheartening is the fact that many of those she is now seeing with cancer in Jamaica and other countries, are in their 20’s.
“They are the cereal generation. It is just a lot of junk food! It is pizza and (fast food) and biscuits. These young people are just not cooking anymore; the roast breadfruit and the yams, it’s just not in their kitchen anymore. You see it at church, you see it at school, you see it on the road, everywhere you go. In the mornings when I’m driving, I see young children going to school and you see the (soda) in their hands and biscuit at the bus stop,” Dr Williams lamented.
Dr. Williams shared that her mother had five children, and often prepared porridge for breakfast when they were growing up. Instead of feeding children with GMO products, she recommends parents give their children natural products such as plantain, sweet potato, homemade bread, cabbage, calaloo and pak choi, peas and beans, soups, natural fruit juices and a variety of porridge sweetened with coconut milk and blended ripe banana.
Several countries have banned GMO food, while many others require that these foods be labelled. This decision is not always welcomed, especially by exporters who make money from shipping these products to less developed countries. Mexico’s decision to bar the importation of GMO corn for human consumption has created a feud with exporters in the US and Canada. Both countries say Mexico’s decision could unnecessarily disrupt trade in the North American market.
Cowan doubts Jamaica will ever institute a ban, but she believes consumers have to protect their health by doing their own investigation and making wise choices.
“I have been checking now, because [for] most of the imported stuff, that is what you are getting,” she said.
