GMO’s Cause Cancer, Part I: The Curious Case of Séralini’s Rats

Gilles-Éric Séralini had some rats. He fed them some GMO corn and some Roundup herbicide and they got cancer and died. Therefore, GMO’s cause cancer.

I think you'll find it’s a bit more complicated than that.

What follows is an attempt to thoroughly dissect the Séralini paper and subsequent republication. This will be a gloriously meticulous exercise in demonstrating how bad science can muddy the public’s scientific understanding.

Background

Séralini is professor of molecular biology at the University of Caen, France, and president of the scientific board of CRIIGEN (Committee of Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering). He published a study in 2012 in the journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT) that was supposed to be a replication of a 2004 study conducted by Monsanto looking into the safety of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready resistant corn (NK603 R-tolerant maize) [1,2]. Séralini’s study has since been retracted by FCT and republished in another journal but before we dive into the meat of the paper let’s take a brief look at Séralini’s history and potential conflicts of interest.

Science Checkup: Does Sugar Kill Your Sex Drive?

Do you remember your English classes back in high school? The teacher would assign you some droll book to read and warn you of an impending test on said book. The night before the exam, you would sit down and Google as hard as you could to try and find the Cliffs Notes. Upon finding one, you would read through the summaries and hope it was enough to pass the test. This strategy would usually yield mediocre results. A passing grade but nothing too fancy. Sometimes, this strategy would earn you a big old F. 

Some science writers never grew out of the Cliffs Notes phase and employ this strategy when reporting on journal articles. They will read through the abstract, the summary of a paper, and base their article on that single paragraph. Just like your high school English tests, these articles end up misinterpreting and misrepresenting the full context of the study. 

Enter Dr. Mark Hyman and his latest article, Killing Your Sex Drive One Bite at a Time: 5 Surprising Ways Sugar Lowers Libido [1]. In the opening salvoes of his article he makes the following claim:

“The biggest culprit that continually knocks sex hormones out of balance is sugar in all its many forms (including all flour products), which raises insulin and creates a hormonal domino effect. Once you understand how insulin can impact other hormones, you begin to connect the dots about how excessive sugar can wreck your sex life.”

He then gives 5 reasons for how sugar kills your sex drive. Let’s review them to see if he was able to make it past the abstracts, shall we?