Steven Druker's book: Not worth reading | Dr Terry Simpson

…Druker spends early chapters talking about the supplement L-tryptophan, which caused health problems with a disease called eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome (EMS). Druker is correct that a manufacturer that used bacteria that were molecularly engineered to make more L-tryptophan was the major source for EMS. Druker’s theorizes that the cause of EMS was from an unknown metabolite of this engineered bacteria. In spite of a search for some evidence that contaminants in the tryptophan caused EMS (including metabolites of tryptophan), none of the other agents in the supplement have been found to cause EMS. Science has shown that when some people take exogenous L-tryptophan, they metabolize the excess in a way that causes EMS. Druker is incorrect that EMS was not present before GMO, in fact, EMS was reported long before bacteria were genetically engineered.

That fact escaped Druker, but he uses the “mysterious metabolite” to be the theme for the book about GMO in general. That is, since crops are engineered to produce a new protein, or make more of a specific protein, we need to test them because look what happened with L-tryptophan. Druker’s tryptophan story is incorrect, and yet throughout the book he refers to this as the basis for the view he hammers into the reader….

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The Pundit’s Reaction:

It seems Mr Druker has got stuck in the distant past. On the tryptophan issue. for example, Smith and Garrett resolved  uncertainty about EMS  way back in 2005. At Academic’s Review, Chassy and Tribe, when setting Mr Druker’s colleague Jeffrey Smith right on this issue put this very straight:

Tryptophan overdosing leads to EMS. Whether GM is used or not used in making trytophan is irrelevant.

By the way, Terry Simpson’s review is well written and much to the point. Don’t waste your money on Steven Druker’s book. And sadly in writing the forward, Dame Jane Goodall has picked another loser…