GMOs are everywhere, and it takes some real planning to avoid them. The most common GMO (Franken-food) crops you need to look out for are:

• Soy
• Corn
• Cotton
• Canola
• Sugar beets
• Alfalfa
• Zucchini
• Yellow squash
• Papaya (from Hawaii and China)

When a product contains any of these ingredients, put it down and keep shopping, or be sure to purchase them organic (this ensures that no GM ingredients were used in harvesting them).

You have to realize, that when a label simply says SUGAR, CORN, CANOLA OIL or SOY on their ingredient list, that is right off the bat a genetically modified food. Most restaurants will use cheap vegetables oils (that are either canola or soy-based), and will rarely serve organic produce so they’re littered with genetically modified ingredients. Alcohol, wine and beer are no exceptions, GM ingredients lurk hard in these products! Remember that while companies are doing what they can to get the Non-GMO Project certification (kudos to those who have!) on their packaged foods, those ingredients are still NOT healthy for us to be consuming. So shop/eat out wisely my friends!

It’s not about avoiding GMOs completely (in fact, it’s impossible to, sadly), it’s about eating less of them wherever you can.