Hybrids tend to be vigorous growers, uniformity of shape and earlier more sustained flowering, larger flowers or vegetables, or larger fruits.
Heirloom or Open Pollinated (OP) plants are simply varieties that are capable of producing seeds that will produce seedlings just like the parent plant. Not all plants do this.
Plant breeders cross breed compatible types of plants in an effort to create a plant with the best features of both parents. These are called hybrids and many of our modern plants are the results of these crosses.
While plants can cross-pollinate in nature and hybrids repeatedly selected and grown may eventually stabilize, many hybrid seeds are relatively new crosses and seed from these hybrids will not produce plants with identical qualities.
Anyone can select and eventually stabilize their own seed or even hybridize new plants, but plant and seed companies have recently begun patenting their crosses so that only have the right to reproduce the hybrids they’ve developed. Monsanto is at the forefront in this capacity.
Hybrid Foods
Today we are inundated with hybrid foods, whether we are aware of this fact or not. Hybridized foods also fall under the category “products for convenience”.
Now ask yourself, “Is the majority of what you’re eating being shipped (to a market)?” If so, there’s a great chance the food or product contains hybridized ingredients.
Characteristics
Have you ever seen a watermelon that is shaped more like a basketball rather than a traditional oblong shaped watermelon? Well, this kind of watermelon-like creation is a hybrid. It’s not an actual watermelon. It’s watermelon-like!
Real or actual watermelon has seeds in it, black seeds at that! It is oblong in shape, and not oval-shaped like a basketball. Believe it or not, you will even find this kind of watermelon-like product at so-called health food stores.
Hybrid foods are created by cross breeding multiple foods within the same species. By breeding two parent samples of a particular food, a superior food can be made. Hybrid food has become increasingly popular because it provides food supply increase and hardiness and increased nutrition. The most common hybrid foods include vegetables, fruits, and rice.
Some common hybrid fruits are:
- Grapefruit
- Boysenberries
- Lemon
- Orange
- Pineapple
- Apple
- Nectarine, and
- Cantaloupe
Common hybrid vegetables include:
- Beets
- Carrots
- Corn, and
- Potatoes
Common hybrid nuts and seeds include:
- Cashews
- Oats
- Rice, and
- Wheat
Brown, white, and “wild” rice are hybrids. Commercial “soft” wheat is a hybrid. Alfalfa sprouts and most commercially available legumes are hybrids.
Genetically Engineered Foods
Using the latest molecular biology techniques, plants have been modified to enhance desired traits. In comparison to breeding, genetic engineering can create desirable looking plants in a shorter time with more accuracy. A specific gene can be isolated and transferred from one plant to another.
Many herbs (plants) are genetically engineered, as well as grafted. Some are also sprayed with harmful toxic chemicals allegedly to protect them.
Common hybrid herbs include:
- Peppermint
- Queen Anne’s Lace
- Peach Leaf, and
- Spearmint
Disadvantages
Many herbs are no longer natural and because there is a heavy demand for these particular herbs, these herbs are man engineered and harvested, herbs such as Echinacea, Goldenseal, Comfrey, and St. John’s Wort to name a few. Their original strains may have been natural, but today, many of them are unnaturally grown.
Seaweeds like chlorella, spirulina, and blue green algae, as nutritious as they are, are harvested in man-made lakes and ponds and cannot be found in the wild. Harvested foods are far safer than genetically engineered and grafted foods.
We need to be aware of genetically engineered foods.Our state of optimal health and wellbeing depends on it. Nothing we eat or could eat is safe or spared from possibly containing genetically engineered ingredients. Consider the following:
Eating genetically engineered (GE) foods may cause defects (imbalances) within the human body. Because the molecules of hybrid and GE plants are altered, it stands to reason that the molecules of the human makeup also become altered and this altering manifests in human behavior, actions, and thoughts in the form of defective or faulty behavior, actions, and thoughts. After all, you are what you eat.
Addiction
Genetically engineered foods also help the business of addiction. The greatest addiction on our planet is sugar addiction so it’s no wonder why hybridized fruits are real sweet, sweeter than what Nature intended.
But it doesn’t just have to be sugar to cause an addiction. Anything hybridized can lead to addiction of the hybridized product.
Dherbs has warned people for years that tobacco used in cigarettes and other tobacco-based products contain GE tobacco. The modern day tobacco strains are ten times more addictive than the tobacco used in earlier times.
Soy
Health conscious individuals who are vegan and vegetarian need to be very conscious about consuming soy products.
There is no other food (or crop) that is more genetically engineered than soy, well, perhaps with the exception of corn.
The less soy one consumes, the better. However, the only soy that should be consumed today is one that has a label on the product with the word “non-GMO” written on it. This means the product contains no genetically modified food organism, at least to the knowledge of the manufacturer. So, the product may contain non-GMO soy, but it may contain ingredients that are GE simply because these ingredients were sourced from some other company who may have used GE ingredients.
This is why food-labeling laws for notice of GMO ingredients are necessary and very important. All companies should take responsibility and inform customers and consumers of what they are eating. If GE and GMO foods are so safe as is claimed by GE and GMO proponents, why not give the people notice of these kinds of foods and/or food ingredients in certain products.
Pesticides
Whether the pesticide is sprayed on the crop or genetically engineered into the crop, it will eventually end up in the bloodstream. Consider the following:
“In 2003, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) looked at pesticides in the blood of ordinary citizens. Of the thirty-four pesticides tested, the average person had thirteen in his/her bloodstream, and blood levels of chlorpyrifos (an organophosphate pesticide banned for residential use in 2001 because of its negative effects) were found to be twice as high in children as in adults. The CDC report showed that children and women of child-bearing age carried the heaviest pesticide burdens – which is alarming, because pesticide exposure in the womb and during the first three years of postnatal life has been found to lower birth weight, increase the incidence of birth defects, and hinder normal neurological development and reproduction.”
Source: Lipski, Elizabeth. “Digestive Wellness For Children.” California: Basic Health Publications, Inc. (2006), p. 22
Heirloom Open Pollinated Plant vs. Hybrid Plants
The difference between an heirloom open pollinated plant and a hybrid plant is that an open pollinated plant has one parent and a hybrid plant has two parents.
Hybrid seeds are seeds that result from the cross pollination of two inbred pollination plants.
Many health conscious individuals who decide to grow their own crops by purchasing seeds may not know that many seeds sold in packets, sold from nurseries and even sold from mail order are F1 hybrids.
You can always tell a hybrid fruit or vegetable because they are usually very large. The tomatoes you see nowadays are much larger than what you saw back in the 1970s. Tomatoes in supermarkets are much larger than the tomatoes you will find in your natural garden and that’s because they are hybrids.
Hybrids vs. Genetically Modified Organisms
Hybrids should not be confused with Genetically Modified Organisms or (GMOs) which can be any plant, animal or microorganism that has been genetically altered using molecular genetics techniques such as gene cloning and protein engineering. Plants like corn that has the pesticide Bt engineered into its genetic makeup to make it resistant to certain pests are GMO crops. Bt is a natural pesticide, but it would never naturally find its way into corn seed.
If you’re thinking about starting your own organic garden, make sure you get informed about the seeds you will use to start and maintain your garden.
Recommendations
Hybrid foods are everywhere so if you eat you’ve got to be eating some hybrids.
If you want to make eating hybrids work for you, David Wolfe recommends that you eat small amounts of fruits and vegetables. Mix bananas with fat (avocados, nuts, olives) and it will lessen the hybrid effect on the system.
If you eat more green-leafed vegetables and avocados, nuts, or olives with hybrid sweet fruits or vegetables it will decrease their effect on the blood sugar and increase the utility of elements in the food.
Hybrid grains, and legumes should be soaked and sprouted, and absolutely never cooked.
As long as they are raw, the body can draw nutrients from them and can deal with them.
Vincent Stevens is the senior content writer at Dherbs. As a fitness and health and wellness enthusiast, he enjoys covering a variety of topics, including the latest health, fitness, beauty, and lifestyle trends. His goal is to inform people of different ways they can improve their overall health, which aligns with Dherbs’ core values. He received his bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of Redlands, graduating summa cum laude. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
