General Mills’ Cheerios are known to be one of the first solid foods that a lot of parents give to their children. They’re small, convenient and easy to chew — and there’s even a section on the Cheerios website for “new parents who have invited … original Cheerios to introduce their children to finger foods.”
The site states that toddlers age 9 months and older are typically ready for Cheerios, and even touts “the fact that 4 of 5 pediatricians recommend Cheerios as a finger food.” You may further believe Cheerios to be a good choice because they don’t contain genetically engineered (GE) ingredients.
General Mills’ Cheerios are one of the first solid foods many parents feed to their children. They’re small, convenient and easy to chew — and there’s even a section on the Cheerios website for “new parents who have invited … original Cheerios to introduce their children to finger foods.”
The site states that toddlers age 9 months and older are typically ready for Cheerios, and even touts “the fact that 4 of 5 pediatricians recommend Cheerios as a finger food.” You may further believe Cheerios to be a good choice because they don’t contain genetically engineered (GE) ingredients.
Oats are the primary ingredient (there are no GE oats), and the corn starch and sugar they contain come from non-GMO corn and non-GMO cane sugar. So why the warning against this family favorite?
Cheerios and Other Popular Processed Foods Contain Glyphosate Residue
Despite their GMO-free status, testing completed at Anresco, a laboratory registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), found glyphosate residues in Cheerios as well as other popular foods.
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, has made headlines recently because it’s the most used agricultural chemical in history and also because the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) determined it is a probable carcinogen.
Despite its prevalence, we don’t know exactly how much glyphosate may be in your food because the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) does not test for it.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in February 2016 that it would begin testing some foods for glyphosate, but the testing was put on hold in November. In the meantime private organizations have been conducting tests on their own.
The latest tests, conducted by the nonprofit organizations Food Democracy Now and The Detox Project, were done via liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), which is considered the most reliable for analyzing glyphosate residues.
Twenty-nine common foods were tested, with glyphosate residues found in a variety of products, including Doritos, Oreos, Stacy’s Pita Chips and the following:
- General Mills’ Cheerios (1,125.3 parts per billion [ppb])
- Kashi soft-baked oatmeal dark chocolate cookies (275.57 ppb)
- Ritz Crackers (270.24 ppb)
According to the report, the findings should be a wake-up call for all Americans:
“New scientific evidence shows that probable harm to human health could begin at ultra-low levels of glyphosate, e.g., 0.1 parts per billions (ppb). Popular foods tested for glyphosate measured between 289.47 ppb and at levels as high as 1,125.3 ppb.
… These groundbreaking new findings that one of the most iconic cereals in [the] U.S. contains levels as high as 1,125.3 ppb should be a wake-up call for all Americans regarding unacceptable levels of pesticide residues in our nation’s food.
… It’s important for individuals and parents to understand that glyphosate contamination cannot be removed by washing and is not broken down by cooking or baking. Glyphosate residues can remain stable in food for a year or more, even if the foods are frozen or processed.”
Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for Glyphosate Is Far Too High
Adding insult to injury, U.S. regulators have set the ADI for glyphosate at 1.75 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight per day (mg/kg/bw/day) compared to 0.3 mg/kg/bw/day in the European Union.
The latest independent scientific evidence suggests the ADI should be set at 0.025 mg/kg/bw/day, according to the report, which is 12 times lower than the current ADI in Europe and 70 times lower than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently allows in the U.S. The Alliance for Natural Health USA (ANH) explained:
“The safety level was determined based on industry tests of high levels of glyphosate on adult laboratory animals.
Critics claim that the tests may not be accurate because glyphosate may be an endocrine disrupter, which would affect hormones in the body and thereby produce different effects at various stages of human development.
Furthermore, the tests were done on glyphosate in isolation and did not include the commercial pesticide formulations containing additional adjuvants that may themselves be toxic or intensify the toxicity of glyphosate.”
