I’m Switching Baby Formulas to Avoid GMO’s

I am not hopping on any soapbox here.

Also, I do not, contrary to popular belief, have any, or many dietary restrictions. When people walk into the studio and see a donut, they react like I broke a pact that they thought I had with the universe.

I've never claimed, or even tried to have a perfect diet, save the nearly 70 days in the 90's that I attempted to go vegan. Sometime during each week, I try to eat things that are close to their natural source. So, I have a lot of meats, vegetables, eggs and grains. I attempt to limit the amount of wheat and sweets that I eat. I believe that the more something is processed, the more nutrition it loses.

The debate over GMO's has not gone unnoticed by me. I voted to have the genetically modified label on the packaging (the measure that didn't pass), and if I can avoid foods that I know are being overly genetically engineered, I do. I just don't think humans need to meddle too much in the way plants grow. All farming is essentially engineering food, but there are limits to what I want done to the food I'm consuming.

Now that I am choosing the food for another human, my son Huck, and because he is subsisting on a diet of one thing and one thing only, I wanted to find a good source.

I didn't do a study to see if the standard brands we started feeding him after breastfeeding contained GMO's. I just assumed they did. Some simple searching confirmed that all of the big baby formulas use GMO products in some or most of their lines.

Among these are the ones that were handed to me by my pediatrician when we asked what we should feed our kids. I like my pediatrician, but still consider it my responsibility to know what I am feeding my boy.

With anything that has good old standard corn syrup in it, I just assume the base vegetable ingredient has probably been genetically modified in some way or another to maximize a profit, not the benefit of the consumer. I'm that kind of consipracy theorist. I believe that shadowy shit goes down behind closed doors of big companies, and that the simple decisions that are made there could be affecting the general, unknowing population negatively.

Corn syrup could be at the same time the most amazing and most dangerous thing to happen to this world since before we confirmed that smoking was addictive and bad for our health.

Corn syrup can be made to look and taste like absolutely anything. Very cool and often very delicious (the American candy industry creates some of my favorite tastes with corn syrup), but when it becomes the staple of our diets, might be a major culprit in the poor health of our country.

With what I'm choosing to feed my boy, I am simply going with my own, simple nutrition philosophy. Limit corn syrup, limit sweets; try to eat things close to their natural state on a regular basis. Limit red meat, and as many vegetables as I can make myself.

I'm not a victim conspiracy theorist, though. A little curiosity, a little digging, a little shopping and a better choice is out there.

So, we switched to Good Earth. Thankfully, Huck seemed to like it from the start, though we could tell he noticed a difference in what we were giving him.

I'm sure you're wondering, "Isn't that much more expensive?" At first it seemed like it would be, but with some diligent online shopping, I found a deal that makes it cost just about the same as any formula.