While we have been destroying our inner ecosystems by abusing oral antibiotics, we have also been spraying them on our food. Literally. Glyphosate, the herbicide in the weed killer Roundup, was patented as an antibiotic. It works by disrupting the pathway that plants use to produce amino acids, called the shikimate pathway. Plants but not animals use the shikimate pathway. That led scientists to assume that glyphosate would kill weeds while remaining safe for humans and other animals. Makes sense, right?
Well, not so fast. Guess who else uses the shikimate pathway? Your gut buddies, of course. Glyphosate is lethal for them, which means that it’s big trouble for you. I’ve written about glyphosate in some of my previous books, but there is now new information about and evidence of exactly how damaging it is to the microbiome and therefore to us. Glyphosate was first introduced to the market in 1974. Immediately, plants, in all of their wisdom, found a way to evolve and become resistant to glyphosate, just as bacteria have with antibiotics. By the early 1990s, glyphosate-resistant crops led to a massive increase in glyphosate use. Hey, this stuff isn’t working. Let’s use more of it! Not the smartest idea on the part of humans.
In the years since then, we’ve seen evidence that glyphosate is dangerous and carcinogenic, but we didn’t know exactly how it affected the gut. Then, in 2021, scientists at King College London [doi] [interview] conducted a groundbreaking study that looked at the effects of glyphosate on the infant microbiome. They found that although maintaining pH levels is key to gut homeostasis, glyphosate creates an acidic environment that is deadly for some of our gut buddies and allows others to overgrow. Not only does glyphosate destroy the state of homeostasis, but unfortunately, some of the bacteria that are the most naturally resistant to glyphosate are also the most harmful. They have the potential to increase the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and reactive oxygen species (ROSs). Compounding this problem, even low-dose glyphosate exposure reduces the key enzymes that we need to reduce ROSs, particularly superoxide dismutase and glutathione reductase. That’s a double whammy in the fight against cellular damage.
Even worse, some of our gut buddies that are most susceptible to glyphosate are also the most essential. These include :
So why are we still using it? Back in 2017, leaked documents from Monsanto (the company, now owned by Bayer, that sells and profits from Roundup) showed that it had created its own research to "prove" that its product was safe while covering up internal disagreements about its safety. Yet it still has not been banned in the United States. Two years later, in 2019, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found glyphosate in all twenty-one popular breakfast cereals that it tested, including several organic varieties!!
source Gut Check (2024)
ref - Τοξικό Κρασί
Well, not so fast. Guess who else uses the shikimate pathway? Your gut buddies, of course. Glyphosate is lethal for them, which means that it’s big trouble for you. I’ve written about glyphosate in some of my previous books, but there is now new information about and evidence of exactly how damaging it is to the microbiome and therefore to us. Glyphosate was first introduced to the market in 1974. Immediately, plants, in all of their wisdom, found a way to evolve and become resistant to glyphosate, just as bacteria have with antibiotics. By the early 1990s, glyphosate-resistant crops led to a massive increase in glyphosate use. Hey, this stuff isn’t working. Let’s use more of it! Not the smartest idea on the part of humans.
In the years since then, we’ve seen evidence that glyphosate is dangerous and carcinogenic, but we didn’t know exactly how it affected the gut. Then, in 2021, scientists at King College London [doi] [interview] conducted a groundbreaking study that looked at the effects of glyphosate on the infant microbiome. They found that although maintaining pH levels is key to gut homeostasis, glyphosate creates an acidic environment that is deadly for some of our gut buddies and allows others to overgrow. Not only does glyphosate destroy the state of homeostasis, but unfortunately, some of the bacteria that are the most naturally resistant to glyphosate are also the most harmful. They have the potential to increase the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and reactive oxygen species (ROSs). Compounding this problem, even low-dose glyphosate exposure reduces the key enzymes that we need to reduce ROSs, particularly superoxide dismutase and glutathione reductase. That’s a double whammy in the fight against cellular damage.
Even worse, some of our gut buddies that are most susceptible to glyphosate are also the most essential. These include :
- Lactobacillus
- Ruminococcaceae
- Butyricicoccus
- serotonin
- dopamine
- gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)
- epinephrine
So why are we still using it? Back in 2017, leaked documents from Monsanto (the company, now owned by Bayer, that sells and profits from Roundup) showed that it had created its own research to "prove" that its product was safe while covering up internal disagreements about its safety. Yet it still has not been banned in the United States. Two years later, in 2019, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found glyphosate in all twenty-one popular breakfast cereals that it tested, including several organic varieties!!
source Gut Check (2024)
ref - Τοξικό Κρασί