For those of us who love cheese and want to eat what's clean and natural, it isn't just about checking to see if the milk cheese is made from comes from cows that are grass-fed, start to finish. There's a new hidden concern. There's a bioengineered (GMO) element in the process of turning milk into cheese. An outstanding book for those interested in cheese (making it themselves and/or understanding the different kinds) is called The Art of Natural Cheesemaking: Using Traditional, Non-Industrial Methods and Raw Ingredients to Make the World's Best Cheeses. The author mentions in this book something about bioengineering (GMOs) that I had never heard.

There are several steps and ingredients to change milk into cheese. One of the key ingredients is called rennet (pronounced reh-nut). Rennet is the enzyme used to cause the separation of milk proteins into solid curds and whey. It is essential for making different types of cheese such as cheddar, mozzarella, aged cheeses, as well as hard cheese like Parmesan, Gorgonzola, and Gruyere. There are four types of rennet used in cheesemaking.

In the National Academy of Science October 2012 publication, scientists quote a study which said, "Unlike nucleic acids and proteins, the structures of glycans are not 'hard-wired' in the genome. Because of the multiple linkages that sugars can engage in that produce isomers and branching patterns, glycan structures cannot accurately be described as simple linear sequences of building blocks. Rather, a glycan's most basic structure must be described in three dimensions. Because glycan structures are not template encoded, they are plastic, reflecting myriad factors determined by cellular metabolism, cell type, developmental stage, nutrient availability, other cues from the cell's environment and stochastic events." Let me unpack this incredible statement in the next paragraph. I think you will be as completely awestruck as I was the first time I read it and comprehended what scientists were actually admitting.

Altered glycosylation is a universal feature of cancer and contributes to pathogenesis (creation) and progression including metastasis. Metastasis is the process by which cancer cells spread from their original location to other parts of the body. The spread of cancer cells from the place where they first formed to another part of the body makes treatment virtually impossible. In metastasis, cancer cells break away from the original (primary) tumor, travel through the blood or lymph system, and form a new tumor in other organs or tissues of the body. Cancer cells always exhibit altered (not normal) sugar patterns on their glycocalyx. 

Glycobiology involves the study of biological sugars (glycans) which the body uses to create receptors on the surface of each cell. Missing glycans affect not only every disease, but nearly every biological process going on in the body. This means that basic functions within the cell can be disrupted when miscommunication takes place. Five functions common to all cells include nutrient uptake, reproduction, growth, waste removal and reacting to external changes. All living things are made up of cells, which serve as the basic building blocks of life, and all cells have a purpose in a living organism. Apoptosis or programmed cell death is also a function of the cell on its journey from life to death.