It’s destroying your gut

Fun fact: Glyphosate is patented for 3 uses: a metal chelator/industrial cleaner, an herbicide, and as an antibiotic. It’s used to for its ability to kill bacteria by inhibiting what’s called the shikimate pathway - the process in which bacteria, plants, and fungi produce essential amino acids. The effects of consuming glyphosate include leaky gut, impaired organ function, and cancer. In 2018 Monsanto was ordered to pay $290 million dollars for glyphosates role in giving a man Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

It’s destroying our farmland.

WWII led to the boom of a new petroleum industry to fuel the war. When the war ended, a new use for the surplus of oil was discovered and is extensively used to this day - petro-based fertilizers. Scientists were able to extract nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium from oil and thus “NPK fertilizers” were born. The problem with these chemical fertilizers compared to organic options is that they ultimately produce a less nutritious, weaker crop that is less able to fend off pests and viruses on their own. This leads to a vicious cycle of depending on external herbicides like glyphosate, which destroys soil quality with it’s antimicrobial properties, which is treated with more NPK, and so on.

Parkinson’s & Proximity to Glyphosate Usage

A startling epidemiological study found individuals living within ~1–3 miles of golf courses—often treated heavily with glyphosate—have 126 % higher odds of Parkinson’s compared to those farther away, with increased risk via water supply contamination.

Prenatal-to-Adult Cancer Risk from Glyphosate Exposure

Widespread glyphosate exposure is linked to carcinogenic traits: genotoxicity, oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, endocrine disruption, and crucially, gut microbiome perturbation.

Vote with your dollar - Try your hardest to buy organic. Currently, organic food sales account for ~4% of all food sold in the USA. It’s estimated that if that number reaches 16%, the chemical farming business model falls apart. You can start with things like berries and produce where you consume the outer layer that is directly exposed to pesticides. Things like bananas and avocados are safer since the skin is discarded.

Supplement glycine - Our bodies mistake glyphosate for glycine since they are very similar in structure. This leads to leaky gut and other complications. Supplementing glycine can help repair and aid detox pathways. Here’s the one that I take daily.

Wash your food with baking soda - Glyphosate becomes unstable in alkaline environments. Soaking produce in a baking soda solution can be a good option if you don’t have access to organic options, but doing this regardless is probably a good idea.