Question
By changing the DNA of the foods are the DNA of humans changed also by consumption?
Submitted by: erma
Answer
Expert response from GMOAnswers Admin_1
Wednesday, 06/01/2016 18:31
No, the DNA of humans is not changed by consuming any type of food. The DNA in food, GMO or not, is consumed by humans and broken down in the stomach and gut to its simple components, called nucleotides, which are then further broken down to even smaller molecules that are excreted or used to make new cells. The DNA produced by humans is either made from basic molecules like amino acids and CO2, or salvaged from simple components from what we eat. Either way, the new DNA made by humans is totally new and has no connection to the plant or meat that was eaten. This would be like demolishing old buildings and breaking them down to clay or small pieces of bricks and then using that material to produce new bricks for a new house. The bricks are all the same but the house is defined by the way you used the brick, not by where the brick came from.
We eat DNA from all kinds of living plants, animals, bacterial, and other sources, but it doesn’t change our DNA. Our DNA is copied from one cell to another, not from any foreign DNA that you might have eaten. Plant DNA is not absorbed into our DNA when we eat a plant so there is no connection between our DNA and plant DNA other than we use the same building blocks. But it is the order of the blocks that matters, and not the blocks themselves.
Answer
Expert response from GMOAnswers Admin_1
Wednesday, 06/01/2016 18:31
No, the DNA of humans is not changed by consuming any type of food. The DNA in food, GMO or not, is consumed by humans and broken down in the stomach and gut to its simple components, called nucleotides, which are then further broken down to even smaller molecules that are excreted or used to make new cells. The DNA produced by humans is either made from basic molecules like amino acids and CO2, or salvaged from simple components from what we eat. Either way, the new DNA made by humans is totally new and has no connection to the plant or meat that was eaten. This would be like demolishing old buildings and breaking them down to clay or small pieces of bricks and then using that material to produce new bricks for a new house. The bricks are all the same but the house is defined by the way you used the brick, not by where the brick came from.
We eat DNA from all kinds of living plants, animals, bacterial, and other sources, but it doesn’t change our DNA. Our DNA is copied from one cell to another, not from any foreign DNA that you might have eaten. Plant DNA is not absorbed into our DNA when we eat a plant so there is no connection between our DNA and plant DNA other than we use the same building blocks. But it is the order of the blocks that matters, and not the blocks themselves.
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