How Roundup Toxicity Can Sabotage a Healthy Diet, and What to Do About It
Could Roundup be lurking in your body? Even if you eat well, even if you exercise and drink enough water, you may have Roundup toxicity. This sneaky herbicide can find its way into even the most healthy lifestyle, causing bad gut health, hormonal imbalances, detox issues, and many other health problems.
So, before you take another bite of your oatmeal, salad, soup, or snack bar, join me as I share where Roundup is hiding, how you can avoid further exposure, and how to clear it from your body.
Why Use Roundup?
The active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup is glyphosate, which is a broad-spectrum pesticide and herbicide, as well as a crop desiccant. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in other common pesticides as well.(1)
As an herbicide, glyphosate is sprayed on crops that are “Roundup Ready®,” meaning the crops have been genetically modified by Monsanto to withstand being sprayed. This is convenient for farmers, who can spray an entire field and kill the weeds, leaving their crops alive. Unfortunately, this also means more glyphosate ends up on our food and in our bodies.
Roundup Ready® crops include:
Alfafa
Apples
Canola
Corn
Cotton
Papaya
Potatoes
Soy beans
Squash
Sugar beets
With more under development. (2)
As a crop desiccant, glyphosate is sprayed on crops like oats, wheat, barley and beans just before harvest. This kills the crop, which dries it out faster than letting it die naturally, so it can be sent to consumers more quickly. This means you can find glyphosate in even more products, even those that aren’t genetically modified to withstand spraying.
Additionally, RoundUp exposure occurs when people spray weeds as part of their landscaping efforts, both in residential and commercial areas. In fact, glyphosate is the most heavily-used herbicide in the United States, with its usage ever increasing. (3)
How Does Roundup Work?
Plants, bacteria, parasites and fungi use a metabolic route called the shikimate pathway to synthesize the amino acids they need. Roundup kills these garden pests by inhibiting the shikimate pathway. (4)
Since humans don’t have the shikimate pathway, Monsanto claims that Roundup is not harmful to humans. However, while your body may not have the shikimate pathway, the beneficial bacteria in your gut DO use this pathway, and are therefore susceptible to Roundup.
Is Glyphosate Harmful to Humans?
As noted above, Glyphosate is believed to negatively impact your gut health by killing your beneficial bacteria. Since gut health is key to avoiding many ailments, this is not something to take lightly.
As this article notes, “The bacteria in your body outnumber your cells by 10 to 1. For every cell in your body, you have 10 microbes of various kinds, and all of them have the shikimate pathway, so they will all respond to the presence of glyphosate!” In fact, glyphosate appears to target the good bacteria in your gut, leaving you with more pathogens and toxins to deal with as the bad bacteria take over. This can quickly lead to major health problems.
But it gets worse.
Various studies have connected glyphosate exposure to a host of issues, including:
Autism
PCOS (5)
Autoimmunity
Depression
Deformities, learning disabilities
Infertility
Hormonal Imbalances
Damaged mitochondria
Thyroid issues
Heart Disease
Impaired liver function
Inhibited production of methionine and other aromatic amino acids your body needs
Affected muscle and collagen formation, causing pain
Acting as an antibiotic (glyphosate was patented as an antibiotic)
Chelating important minerals (iron, cobalt, manganese; glyphosate was patented as a mineral chelator)
Impairing methylation pathways
Impacting neurotransmitter production
Obviously, glyphosate toxicity is bad news for your health! (7, 8, 9)
But, maybe you eat healthy. Maybe you don’t spray glyphosate in your yard. Maybe you’re thinking you’re safe.
But glyphosate is lurking in unusual places.
Is Glyphosate Toxicity in Your Food?
One concerning study found that, due to the large amount of glyphosate that is used each year, it “was detected in more than 50 percent of soil and sediment samples, and water samples from ditches and drains, precipitation, large rivers, and streams.” This means that, since glyphosate toxicity is prevalent in the environment, it can also end up in organic crops that have never been sprayed directly. (10)
Of course, if you’re buying anything that contains a GMO crop, you can expect to find glyphosate in your food, as explained earlier. Current GMO crops include alfalfa, apples, canola, corn, cotton, papaya, potatoes, soybeans, squash and sugar beets, with more under development. (11) It’s important to read the labels on your packages, as some of these heavily-sprayed GMO crops, such as soy, corn, and canola are cheap fillers and are included in many products (salad dressings, chips, breads, soups, etc.).
Remember when I told you glyphosate is also used to dry crops so they can be harvested faster? This means glyphosate residue has been found in innocent-sounding grain-based foods, even some that are marketed as being more healthy. (12, 13) This includes:
Cold cereal
Granola
Energy bars
Oats/oatmeal/instant oats
Snack bars
Crackers
Chips
Cookies
And more!
This is especially shocking when you realize that children, who tend to be more susceptible to toxins, are being exposed to potentially dangerous levels of glyphosate in many of their crackers, cheerios, and other snacks. Some researchers connect rising glyphosate levels with the rising rate of autism and other issues in children, which is a sobering thought. (14)
Fortunately, there are ways to find out your current level of glyphosate, avoid major exposure to it, and clear it from your body.
How to Detoxify Glyphosate from Your Body
Get Tested
A great first step to clearing glyphosate toxicity is to determine your current levels. My favorite glyphosate test is from Great Plains Laboratory. We can help you run and interpret an Envirotox + mold panel.
This incredible test covers so many types of toxins! Includes:
Plastics exposure, including styrene, phthalates and vinyl chloride
Detox ability and glutathione status
Petrochemical load
Herbicide exposure
Exhaust and fumes exposure
Toxic mold
Glyphosate (i.e., RoundUp, the most common pesticide)
Candida
Clostridia infections
Oxalate build-up
B vitamin status
Mitochondrial damage
You will be surprised how many toxins your body is storing, even when you are avoiding them and eating organic!
This test can be run for most cases and includes a private review and protocol with one of our coaches. To include the glyphosate testing, be sure to choose option 3. Learn more here!
Drink Clean Water
As mentioned previously, your water supply may be contaminated with glyphosate toxicity. Make sure you’re drinking enough properly filtered water. (To test your water, check out MyTapScore.com.)
Watch What You Eat
Since many crops have been genetically modified (GMO) to withstand being sprayed, they are often inundated with glyphosate. By definition, organic food can’t be GMO, so eat organic as much as possible. If you can’t afford to buy all your produce organic, refer to the Dirty Dozen list to see which foods are the most important to buy organic.
Also, factor in that most restaurants, even expensive ones, have very low food quality.
Take Steps to Detox Glyphosate
Of course, the best plan is to avoid glyphosate in the first place. However, with glyphosate toxicity all around you, it’s hard to avoid it 100%.
There are various ways to detoxify glyphosate that we teach in our Detox Your Hormones course. Today I’ll focus on one effective method: consuming raw apple cider vinegar. It’s important to get it raw (this is the same as “with the mother”). My favorite quality brand is Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar.
Apple cider vinegar contains a bacteria that can metabolize (break down) glyphosate.
Here are three easy recipes:
ACV Limeade:
2 drops doTERRA lime oil
2 teaspoons raw apple cider vinegar
7 drops liquid stevia
12 oz. cold water
1 lime, squeezed
ACV Grape Drink:
2 oz. organic grape juice
10 oz. cold water
2 teaspoons raw apple cider vinegar
Magnesium Super Drink:
6 oz. cold water
1 teas. Magnesium Chelate powder
1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar
Enhance Your Efforts: Support Your Gut Health
As mentioned earlier, poor gut health and glyphosate toxicity go hand-in-hand. MegaSporeBiotic is hands down my favorite probiotic, and is a great way to maintain a healthy variety and balance of beneficial bacteria.
As we are all exposed to high amounts of glyphosate in North America, I consider this supplementation essential, no matter how well you try to eat!
MegaSporeBiotic is the first all-spore, pharmaceutical grade probiotic that survives the gastric environment naturally. To learn more, visit my page on Megaspore here.
Enjoy free shipping in the US on your order over $97. We also offer a bulk discount on Megaspore when you buy in three or more!
Please leave your comments or questions below!
Bridgit Danner, LAc, FDNP, is trained in functional health coaching and has worked with thousands of women over her career since 2004. She is the founder of Women’s Wellness Collaborative llc and HormoneDetoxShop.com.