Children are more vulnerable to the effects of GMOs. Nutritional changes impact children more because their bodies convert more of the food they eat to build organs and tissues. However, adults convert more food to energy and store it as fat. Children should have more options for healthy non GMO and non-processed foods in schools. With this change in food options, it can help students focus, grow, and have better brain development. 

A study by Reinaldo Coriano and Saul Mangel, writers of Effects on the Organ Systems, Cells, and Organelles, stated eating GM foods has proven, to an extent, the possibility for devastating health effects. Studies done in rats have shown that eating GM foods is comparable to eating thalidomide. Thalidomide is a compound in medicine initially used as a sedative and an antiemetic until the discovery that it caused severe fetal malformations. Thalidomide was developed in West Germany in the mid-1950s and was found to induce drowsiness and sleep.

“The study showed that rats given even small amounts of GM food quickly gained tumors throughout their body,” writer Reinaldo Coriano said. “Specifically, the tumors were found to be growing in the mammary glands (breast resulting in breast tumors).  There was also severe damage to the tissues of the liver and kidneys of the rats.”

There have also been studies showing that GM and processed foods have been linked to autism, ADHD, cancer, tumors, and obesity. 

“High fructose corn syrup has also played a role in how these diseases spread in children’s bodies,” Coriano said. “Consumption of High Fructose Corn Syrup in the U.S. has grown to 60 Pounds per person per year. This is roughly 5.3 gallons of syrup per person. The worry behind this high amount is the link between high fructose corn syrup and obesity, abnormal increases in body fat, and rising blood levels of triglycerides.”

Since schools talk about how much they care about students’ health and development, schools should push for non-gmo, non-processed foods in schools, instead of the cheapest items they can get. This change in food choices in school could help students.