Just as the genes in a banana don’t alter your DNA when you eat a banana, the genes in GMOs do not alter your DNA when you consume them either. Our digestive system breaks down DNA without any effect on our genetic make-up. Our own genes are made by our bodies from the building blocks that we acquire from digesting any food, whether it is considered to be a GMO or not. In fact, many foods that are considered to be “GMO” are refined to the point where no genetic material is even present. This is true for ingredients such as sugar, syrups, and refined oils. In addition, it is an international scientific consensus that GMOs are just as safe and at least as nutritious as their non-GMO counterparts.
Another thing to understand is that DNA is DNA. DNA is a code. There is no such thing as a tomato gene or a fish gene. DNA is made of the same four bases A, T, C, and G in all organisms. The arrangement of the bases determines which proteins an organism will make and how those proteins will be arranged. There’s nothing inherently tomato-like about a tomato gene or fish-like about a fish gene. In fact, humans share about 50 percent of our genes with bananas!