You’ve seen the commercials. All American Dad, pump sprayer in hand, attacking those pesky weeds growing in the cracks of his family’s driveway with a vengeance. He chooses Roundup, of course.
Why? Â Because Roundup kills weeds to the root so they won’t come back making you the laughingstock of your suburban neighborhood.
Roundup, Roundup everywhere. Most homeowners use it without a second thought. Many schools even use it, blithely spraying around planting beds and sidewalks where children walk and play, tracking its residues into classrooms, cars, homes and little bodies.
Roundup is indisputably the King of Herbicides and one of Monsanto’s most lucrative crown jewels. Not only is it widely used by consumers, it is also heavily used by industrial agriculture – more popular than any other herbicide worldwide. Its residues are found on the staple crops of the Western diet – sugar, corn, soy and wheat – and in the plethora of processed foods made with these foods as well. Â In particular, GMO corn and soy are heavily doused in Roundup as these crops are genetically engineered to be immune to its withering effects.
The trouble is, while Roundup is highly effective at killing weeds, it’s also proving highly effective at killing us too – slowly but surely and insidiously – via Roundup’s deadly active ingredient – glyphosate.
While the pesticide industry maintains that glyphosate is minimally toxic to humans, new research published in the Journal Entropy strongly argues otherwise by shedding light on exactly how glyphosate disrupts mammalian physiology.
Authored by Anthony Samsel and Stephanie Seneff of MIT, the paper investigates glyphosate’s inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, an overlooked component of lethal toxicity to mammals.
In the in-depth video interview below on her groundbreaking research, Dr. Seneff describes the mechanism by which the glyphosate in Roundup disrupts human biological processes.
The currently accepted view is that glyphosate is not harmful to humans or any mammals because the shikimate pathway found in plants is absent in animals. Â The shikimate pathway is involved with the plant’s synthesis of certain amino acids and is lethally disrupted by glyphosate.
What has been completely overlooked until now is that the shikimate pathway is present in beneficial gut bacteria, which play a critical role in human health. Gut bacteria aid digestion, prevent permeability of the gastrointestinal tract, synthesize vitamins and provide the foundation for robust immunity.
Glyphosate Disrupts the Functioning of Beneficial Gut Bacteria
In synergy with disruption of the biosynthesis of important amino acids via the shikimate pathway, glyphosate inhibits the cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes produced by the gut microbiome. CYP enzymes are critical to human biology because they detoxify the multitude of foreign chemical compounds, xenobiotics, that we are exposed to in our modern environment today.
As a result, humans exposed to glyphosate through the use of Roundup in their community or through the ingestion of its residues on industrialized food products become even more vulnerable to the damaging effects of other chemicals and environmental toxins they encounter!
What’s worse is that the negative impact of glyphosate exposure is slow and insidious over months and years as inflammation gradually gains a foothold in the cellular systems of the body.
The consequences of this systemic inflammation are most of the diseases and conditions associated with the Western lifestyle:
- Gastrointestinal disorders
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Heart Disease
- Depression
- Autism
- Infertility
- Cancer
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Alzheimer’s disease
- And the list goes on and on and on …
In summary, Dr. Seneff’s study of Roundup’s ghastly glyphosate uncovers the manner in which this lethal environmental toxin gradually and inevitably disrupts homeostasis in the human body with the tragic end result of disease, degeneration, and widespread suffering.
Still want to “shoot” those weeds this weekend with some Roundup and buy those unlabeled, GMO laced processed foods in the pretty packages at the supermarket?
In addition, Roundup residue in organic hydroponics is possible as there is no transition period from conventional farming. Stick with soil based organics!
References
Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases
Institute of Responsible Technology: Monsanto’s Herbicide–Featuring the Darth Vader Chemical
More Toxic Than Declared
More Information
Toxic Wheat
Glyphosate used on DOZENS of Food CropsÂ
Dutch Ban Glyphosate, France and Brazil Likely to Soon Follow
I watched the interview with Dr Seneff the other day. Fascinating stuff and worrying too.
A good reason to go organic as much as possible in my view.
It all depends on whether the weed is an annual weed or a weed that is comes back year after year. Kitchen vinegar doesn’t work. I even tried my steamer and that didn’t work.
Burn-out is a commercial vinegar spray that you can use. It browns the weeds.You need to follow the instructions and spray when the temperature is above a certain degrees. Wear gloves. I wrote about my experience using the product on my blog. )
Sarah, you can remove the link if I wasn’t suppose to put it in the comments.
Since I have a lot of weeds, I have started using the flame weeder. It seems to be working.
I’m glad I’ve never used it and never even thought of having something so toxic in our house anywhere near the kids. If we ever had a home of our own (we’re in a condo/town home now), I don’t even see why we need to be so obsessed with removing every single weed. A lot of weeds have healing qualities actually and I think a variety of vegetation in the yard looks much better than a green, artificial looking, ‘perfect’ lawn.
It is watered down Agent Orange.. and the best part… it is in the GMO seed and transferred to the plant…. so if you eat GMO… you are eating it anyway… and thus… is it a wonder why so many people have digestive problems…
Glyphosate also harms us in another very important way. It kills honeybees.
And since one out of every three bites of food we eat is due to pollination by the honeybee, the loss of the bees can seriously affect our food supply. Honeybees not only pollinate fruit and nut trees, and vegetables, but they also pollinate the clovers and alfalfas that our livestock eat. Yes, there are wild or native bees and other insects that do pollination, but no other insect is as dedicated and as thorough at pollination as the honeybee. The success of the agricultural industry in American is due greatly to the introduction of the honeybee from Europe in the 19th century. Do whatever you can to protect them when they visit your yard.
Cathleen
Good point! So, let’s add that to the list:
Gastrointestinal disorders
Obesity
Diabetes
Heart Disease
Depression
Autism
Infertility
Cancer
Multiple Sclerosis
Alzheimer’s disease
KILLS HONEYBEES – – – no more food
I tried the straight white vinegar this week. It isn’t the great indiscriminate weed killer that the website I got it from says it is.
It is killing some weeds, not all of them, but it takes time.. I am on the 3rd day of spraying on the weeds & they are still alive, browning, but still alive.
So if you have time & lots of vinegar, I guess it will safely kill most weeds.
I think I’ve read to use salt and a small amount of dish soap mixed in with the vinegar.
The vinegar works best on a sunny day.
Keith Gillie, are you being facetious? Round up ready corn and soybeans are genetically modified and hence not really that edible. I wouldn t exactly be bragging that I was that foolish if I were you, at least not on this site!
Has anybody had success with vinegar and white top?? Great info!!
Thank you for your bravery in posting this, Healthy Home Economist! The USA needs to follow the example of Ontario, Canada, and put the health of citizens ahead of the need of pesticide manufacturers to make money. Pesticides (including weed killer) used to make lawns look “pretty” should be banned. http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/environment/en/category/pesticides/index.htm
I believe it is spelled glyphosate