(NaturalNews) If you are eating genetically modified foods – including essentially any product containing corn or soy that has not been certified organic or free from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) – the modified genes in those GMOs might be negatively influencing your body's own DNA.

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine has warned that studies have linked consumption of GMOs with health problems, including reproductive dysfunction (including infertility), organ damage, immune dysfunction, insulin disorders and accelerated aging. The mechanisms by which such harms occur remain unclear, but at least some of them might come from changes that GMOs cause to the DNA of organisms other than those deliberately "modified" by genetic engineers.
 

GMO DNA passes into your blood

The biggest question is this: Does eating GMOs modify your DNA? The short answer is: Possibly. No one really knows.

GMOs are produced through horizontal gene transfer, which involves splicing genes from an external source (either another organism, or a synthetic gene engineered in a lab) into the genome of a living creature. This process is so new that it remains unclear if this horizontally transferred DNA might behave in ways different from traditional, "vertically transferred" DNA (that is, inherited from one's ancestors).

Some bacteria have been shown to horizontally transfer DNA between species; it is unclear if this can occur among more complex organisms, as well. If so, there could be biological pathways in place allowing engineered DNA from GMOs to move into the human genome.

This concern remains mostly theoretical, but at least one study showed that DNA from GMOs can indeed leave your food and enter your bloodstream. Could it be taken up from there by some of your cells and incorporated into your genome?

A 2014 paper in PLOS One analyzed the results of four prior independent studies on more than 1,000 human participants who had eaten GMO foods, including derivatives such as high-fructose corn syrup, soy protein, or meat from animals fed GMOs. The researchers found that DNA fragments derived from GMO plants were indeed found in the bloodstream, rather than being broken down as GMO companies claim.