4 ms·

What happens when you eat this BT corn?

by lolive 10y ago

XorNot 10y ago
The extremely acidic and enzyme rich system in your stomach demolishes the chemical structure, DNA, and proteins into constituant amino acids.
- tomp 10y ago
  You say this as if there was no organic poison that could kill you if you eat it...
  - Dylan16807 10y ago
    You didn't ask about poisons. You asked about the corn. It does what corn does.
    - tomp 10y ago
      If the corn produces pesticides, which are poisons, it's a reasonable question to ask "what happens when you eat the corn" - are the ears/kernels covered with it as well, or could they even contain it?
      - XorNot 10y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_maize#Insecticide-producing_corn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_maize#Ins... Short answer: it's not a pesticide which affects humans. Discussions about poisons fundamentally have to include a discussion about mechanism of action, because plenty of poisonous things to one species are completely harmless to another - i.e. chocolate is toxic to dogs, but harmless to humans in fairly massive quantities. Debate over GMOs is in no way helped by attempts to broad-brush, and in fact reveals some rather startling and unfounded biases - i.e. the idea that "natural" is healthy is completely absurd - the vast majority of plants, and animal meats, are toxic for humans to eat. If you ever go ocean fishing, you'd be incredibly stupid to eat a fish you couldn't identify.
        deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
      - ptaipale 10y ago
        Very many things are poisons, but not all poisons are equally harmful to different organisms. A substance that is extremely harmful to insects, for instance (pyrethrin), is not very harmful to mammals, particularly humans. Even within mammals, there are differences: chocolate is toxic to dogs and cats, but considered a delicacy by humans and the main adverse effect is excess energy content.
- yjftsjthsd-h 10y ago
  Amusing, but the real question is why it's safe for humans to eat corn laced with pesticides when (I assume?) we use essentially the same digestive process as the targeted bugs. Or, "why is it safe to eat food that is literally designed to have poison in it?" I would speculate that the answer is that the pesticide in question doesn't affect humans, but it's a legitimate concern.
  - ptaipale 10y ago
    The poison is in the dose. Of course all pesticides can be harmful, at least if the dose is a 200 litre barrel that is dropped on your head. Even pure water is harmful, and the dose for this is that drinking 5 to 10 litres will kill you.
    - loup-vaillant 10y ago
      > The poison is in the dose. Not always. Endocrine disruptors work at very, very low dosages. Some pesticides have such an effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocrine_disruptor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocrine_disruptor
  - jcranmer 10y ago
    Many bitter flavors and flavors of spicy foods actually arise from chemical compounds that are lethal to large classes of animals. The human metabolic process is very good at handling things that are poisonous to most animals, and the process of cooking is also a very effective way to combat most poisons. Just because something is poisonous to an insect doesn't mean it's poisonous to humans, especially at the same concentrations. This is even more the case for synthetic pesticides, since companies optimize the design of synthetic pesticides for "healthy for humans, poison for pests."
- majkinetor 10y ago
  Macromolecules can actually pass the acid barrier. There are regular reasons such as leaky gut, HCL deficiencies, helicobacter etc.. but there also seem to be aditional processes that we do not yet understand completelly about human digestion.

What happens when you eat this BT corn?

by lolive 10y ago

What happens when you eat this BT corn?

The extremely acidic and enzyme rich system in your stomach demolishes the chemical structure, DNA, and proteins into constituant amino acids.

tomp 10y ago
You say this as if there was no organic poison that could kill you if you eat it...
- Dylan16807 10y ago
  You didn't ask about poisons. You asked about the corn. It does what corn does.
  - tomp 10y ago
    If the corn produces pesticides, which are poisons, it's a reasonable question to ask "what happens when you eat the corn" - are the ears/kernels covered with it as well, or could they even contain it?
    - XorNot 10y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_maize#Insecticide-producing_corn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_maize#Ins... Short answer: it's not a pesticide which affects humans. Discussions about poisons fundamentally have to include a discussion about mechanism of action, because plenty of poisonous things to one species are completely harmless to another - i.e. chocolate is toxic to dogs, but harmless to humans in fairly massive quantities. Debate over GMOs is in no way helped by attempts to broad-brush, and in fact reveals some rather startling and unfounded biases - i.e. the idea that "natural" is healthy is completely absurd - the vast majority of plants, and animal meats, are toxic for humans to eat. If you ever go ocean fishing, you'd be incredibly stupid to eat a fish you couldn't identify.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
    - ptaipale 10y ago
      Very many things are poisons, but not all poisons are equally harmful to different organisms. A substance that is extremely harmful to insects, for instance (pyrethrin), is not very harmful to mammals, particularly humans. Even within mammals, there are differences: chocolate is toxic to dogs and cats, but considered a delicacy by humans and the main adverse effect is excess energy content.
yjftsjthsd-h 10y ago
Amusing, but the real question is why it's safe for humans to eat corn laced with pesticides when (I assume?) we use essentially the same digestive process as the targeted bugs. Or, "why is it safe to eat food that is literally designed to have poison in it?" I would speculate that the answer is that the pesticide in question doesn't affect humans, but it's a legitimate concern.
- ptaipale 10y ago
  The poison is in the dose. Of course all pesticides can be harmful, at least if the dose is a 200 litre barrel that is dropped on your head. Even pure water is harmful, and the dose for this is that drinking 5 to 10 litres will kill you.
  - loup-vaillant 10y ago
    > The poison is in the dose. Not always. Endocrine disruptors work at very, very low dosages. Some pesticides have such an effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocrine_disruptor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocrine_disruptor
- jcranmer 10y ago
  Many bitter flavors and flavors of spicy foods actually arise from chemical compounds that are lethal to large classes of animals. The human metabolic process is very good at handling things that are poisonous to most animals, and the process of cooking is also a very effective way to combat most poisons. Just because something is poisonous to an insect doesn't mean it's poisonous to humans, especially at the same concentrations. This is even more the case for synthetic pesticides, since companies optimize the design of synthetic pesticides for "healthy for humans, poison for pests."
majkinetor 10y ago
Macromolecules can actually pass the acid barrier. There are regular reasons such as leaky gut, HCL deficiencies, helicobacter etc.. but there also seem to be aditional processes that we do not yet understand completelly about human digestion.