Is Monsanto's Roundup Making The World Fat?

It is not without reason that Monsanto is one of the most hated companies in the world.

Until 1977, Monsanto made 99% of the polychlorinated biphenyl compounds (PCBs) used in the United States. These became a nearly ubiquitous source of cancer-causing environmental toxins that persist in water and land even today.

Until 2008, Monsanto made recombinant bovine Somatotropin (also known as rBST or rBGH), an artifical hormone injected into milk cows to force them to produce more milk, believed to have similar effects in humans, including male humans.

It did research in designer genes for hogs, and became famous for suing family farmers who saved their seeds, causing hundreds of families to go into bankruptcy, to protect its patents on genetically modified corn.

And now Massachusetts Institute of Technology electrical engineering professor Dr. Stephanie Seneff alleges that the Monsanto herbicide Roundup, which contains the active ingredient glyphosate, is a likely culprit in the worldwide epidemic of obesity.

Dr. Seneff's Case Against Roundup

Monsanto introduced the world to the herbicide Roundup in 1975. As hard as it may be to believe now, in 1975 obesity was a relatively rare condition. In 1975, fewer than 3% of people in the United Kingdom were obese. By 1999, 27.5% of Britons were obese, and in 2013, 2/3 of Britons are overweight or obese.

In the United States in 1975, about 11% of men and 16% of women were obese. In 2013, the percentages were 36% for men and 37% for women. And in South Africa, the nation in Africa that uses the most Roundup, obesity was essentially unknown in 1975 but by 2011 fully one-third of black South African women were obese.

Dr. Seneff says that the growth in girth in every country that uses Monsanto Roundup over the last 40 years has a scientific explanation. Seneff blames Roundup for deficiencies in the amino acid trytophan. the brain uses tryptophan to make the feel-good chemical serotonin.

Tryptophan is not easily absorbed into the brain. When trytophan levels in food are low, or the bloodstream concentrations of competing amino acids are high, the brain attempts to make it easier for trytophan to enter the brain by raising blood sugar levels. And to raise blood sugar levels, our brains give us the munchies. A shortage of tryptophan is the reason people eat more when they are depressed, and people eat more to keep from getting depressed.

Roundup's Double Whammy On Brain Health

Seneff says that the glyphosate ingredient in Roundup causes plants to make less tryptophan, so the plant foods we eat contain less trytophan. Glyphosate also causes the friendly, probiotic bacteria in the intestines to release less tryptophan. The net result is greater depression, greater appetite, and greater obesity. Since the introduction of Roundup, Seneff says, since the chemical is pervasive in soil, food, and water, people simply have to eat more to feel right.

Is Roundup Really the Culprit in the Worldwide Obesity Epidemic?

Roundup's fat-enhancing effects are not limited to the brain, Seneff says. Changes in the kinds and numbers of bacteria in the colon caused by the glyphosate in Roundup increase inflammation. When inflammation increases, a specialized kind of white cell known as a macrophage becomes more active. Macrophages patrol the bloodstream looking for bacteria, parasites, and dead cells, fueling themselves by burning cholesterol.

When inflammation in belly fat increases, however, these white blood cells migrate en masse to fat tissue and become "stuck" in the bends and corners of blood vessels. They live our their life cycles in fat, increasing fat mass, and die. Then other macrophages come along to clear them out, but also get stuck, the cycle going on and on so that these white blood cells can constitute to 30% of the bulk of fat around the waist and on the hips.

Even worse, Seneff believes, the glyphosate in Roundup changes the fat in food into a carrier for toxins. Other toxins from food are attached to particles of dietary fat called chylomicrons, and are absorbed into the body through the liver. The liver in turn has to use so many of its detoxifying enzymes neutralizing Roundup that it cannot detoxify other harmful substances from food and the environment.

Not Just Obesity

Seneff sees similar patterns in human metabolism that are altered by Roundup that could be responsible for the worldwide epidemic of autism. She eloquently explains a chemical pathway through which Rounup could intiate or aggravate Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, atherosclerosis, depression, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), anorexia, liver failure, and Alzheimer's disease. However, Dr. Seneff describes her work as a "novel hypothesis," not as proven science.

Is Dr. Seneff Right?

I personally am no fan on Monsanto. If I were investing, I would not own stock in Monsanto. I don't buy their products. I am in favor of labeling their products.

But I recognize that Dr. Seneff's work is exactly what she says it is, a novel hypothesis. Dr. Seneff is criticized for publishing outside her field (in an interdisciplinary journal called Entropy), but I don't see that as a reason to ignore her. The simple fact is that right now, what Dr. Seneff is describing simply is something that very well could be happening. We don't know for a scientific certainty in cause and effect terms that it is.

But should we be taking the chance?