As a Vaidya trained in Ayurveda — the oldest continuous system of medicine on this earth, more than five thousand years in the lineage — I hold a foundational truth the ancient rishis understood long before modern food science existed: anna is brahman. Food is the first medicine.
What we put in the mouth becomes the seven dhatus (tissues), the ojas (vital essence), the shukra and artava (reproductive tissues), and ultimately the sattva of the mind itself.
The Case for Clear Labeling
So yes, clearly and unequivocally, bioengineered ingredients must be displayed on every label in language a tired mother shopping at 6 p.m. with a child on her hip can read without scanning a QR code.
The current National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard hides behind unfamiliar terminology and digital barriers, which is the opposite of informed consent. In my fertility practice, couples come to me already depleted, having walked through years of IVF cycles and unexplained infertility. They deserve to know, without barriers, whether the food on their plate may be contributing to the endocrine disruption, oxidative stress, and gut dysbiosis we are seeing in modern reproductive health.
Transparency is not anti-science. It is respect for the intelligence of the body and the autonomy of the person making choices for themselves and their lineage.
My Own Plate — and What I Tell My Fertility Patients
I will be honest, because honesty is medicine.
I do my very best not to buy bioengineered food — this is a daily, conscious practice, not a casual preference. I eat about 90% plant-based. The only animal foods on my plate are wild-caught salmon and eggs — no chicken, no other meat, no imitation or plant-based meat products either, because most of those are built on bioengineered soy and pea protein isolates.
I have been incorporating wild-caught salmon recently for a particular season of change my body is moving through — with age and for fertility support.
I stay completely away from all soy-based foods — no soy milk, no tofu, no soy protein isolates, no edamame — because the overwhelming majority of soy in the United States is genetically engineered, and the phytoestrogen load on hormonal terrain is something I do not take lightly, especially for reproductive health.
I search for organic, non-GMO corn, which — as anyone who has tried knows — is almost impossible to find in this country. Corn has been so deeply altered by bioengineering that even the kernels of our most ancestral grain are no longer what they once were.
My kitchen is built around fresh vegetables, legumes, whole grains, seasonal fruits, eggs, and wild salmon, which I cook myself with intention and with spices aligned to my dosha and the season. This is rasayana — the daily practice of nourishment.
When Life Is Human
And yet there are evenings when I am tired and order delivery. I choose the restaurant as carefully as I can, but I cannot guarantee what oils they cook in or what soy and corn derivatives are hiding in the sauce.
So in those moments I do what every wise tradition has done before us: I place my hands over the food, bless it, and ask that whatever is not in alignment with my body’s highest good be transmuted before it enters my dhatus. This is the ancient understanding that intention shapes biochemistry.
Eat as clean as you can, as organic as you can, as whole as you can — and when life is human and you cannot, bless your food, eat slowly, and let your agni do the rest.
Worth reading
Stone, A. M., Camp, O. G., Biernat, M. M., Bai, D., Awonuga, A. O., & Abu-Soud, H. M. (2025). Re-evaluating the use of glyphosate-based herbicides: Implications on fertility. Reproductive Sciences, 32, 950–964. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43032-025-01834-6
Ignácio, A. d. C., Guerra, A. M. d. R., de Souza-Silva, T. G., do Carmo, M. A. V., & Paula, H. A. d. A. (2024). Effects of glyphosate exposure on intestinal microbiota, metabolism and microstructure: A systematic review. Food & Function, 15(15), 7757–7781. https://doi.org/10.1039/d4fo00660g
Dr. Ajah-Christine Fambo is a Vaidya (Ayurvedic Physician), Ph.D., M.S., R.A.A.P., and founder of Jupiter Fertility — an integrative fertility and wellness practice in Valencia, CA. She sees clients in person, throughout Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura Counties for in-home visits, and worldwide via Telehealth.
