A New Kind of Superfood

A NEW KIND OF SUPERFOOD 28 | NewScientist | 26 May 2018 COVER STORY From good-gluten bread to healthier oils, a new wave of healthier foods are on the way. The catch? They’re GM. Michael Le Page reports AUSE a moment the next time you are than a quarter of maize and oilseed rape, is munching on French fries in a restaurant. now GM. In some countries, such as the US, Fats with PHow would you feel if someone told you most processed foods contain at least one those fries are healthier than normal thanks to ingredient, for example corn syrup, derived benefits the oil they were cooked in? Now, what if the from GM crops. reason they are better for you is because this These crops typically have traits whose Soon, we are all likely to be eating oil comes from genetically modified plants? benefits, such as insect or herbicide resistance, a new kind of healthier, genetically GM foods have been around for decades, but are obvious only to farmers. But in the past modified oil. So what’s different there has been no reason for consumers to be few years this has started to change, with foods about it? keen on them. Virtually every GM crop on the arriving that offer added perks for consumers. For starters, high-oleic soya oil market is designed to help the farmer who contains none of the harmful trans grows it rather than the person who eats it. fats found in conventional Now that’s starting to change. Fresher for longer hydrogenated soya oil. There is no The next generation of GM foods comes The Innate potato, for instance, is less prone doubt that removing these from food with added health or flavour benefits. Some to bruising and resulting black spots, and is beneficial, says Marianne Jakobsen are already in the shops and on our plates, produces less of the potentially dangerous of Denmark’s National Food Institute. and others will be soon. On the menu are a chemical acrylamide when fried than High-oleic oils are also much less coeliac-friendly wheat that contains only conventional potatoes. It has been sold as likely to break down into aldehydes “good” gluten, potatoes that don’t produce White Russet in the US since 2015. when used for cooking – and these harmful acrylamides when fried, rapeseed oil Then there are apples that will appeal to are even more toxic than trans fats. rich in beneficial omega-3, higher fibre white those people – especially kids – who don’t like A third plus is that the oils contain bread and more. eating fruit that has gone brown after being less saturated fat, so should reduce It is healthier cooking oils that are already sliced. Arctic apples, which never discolour, the risk of heart disease, although being produced in the biggest quantities, went on sale in the US in November 2017. the idea that saturated fats are bad though. Millions will soon be eating them, So far, these products are being produced in for us has been questioned of late. including people in Europe, where GM foods relatively small quantities. But the next GM And a study last year found that are widely shunned. But what is really superfood to make its way on to our plates – or when mice were put on a very high extraordinary is that despite their benefits, into our takeaway boxes – is going to be huge. fat diet, those fed high-oleic soya no one plans to tell you about them. Soybean oil is incredibly popular, especially oil instead of normal soya oil were The first ever GM food to go on sale, the in the catering industry. Yet it’s not actually less likely to become obese or get Flavr Savr tomato – launched in 1994 – was ideal for cooking. The raw oil consists of diabetes – although it’s not yet clear designed to stay fresh for longer. This meant around 60 per cent polyunsaturated fats, why, nor if these findings are relevant it could be picked after ripening and thus which are unstable. These limit the oil’s shelf to people. tasted better than normal supermarket life and break down when used for frying to This does not mean that gorging on tomatoes, which are picked green and ripened form bad-tasting and harmful byproducts. fast food fried in high-oleic oils is good artificially at the expense of flavour. But it By contrast, monounsaturated fats like oleic for you, of course, just that it is less was discontinued after three years because acid, found in olive oil, are more stable and bad than stuffing your face with foods it wasn’t profitable. thus better for cooking. But olive oil, which fried in hydrogenated polyunsaturated Other GM crops have thrived, however. is up to 80 per cent oleic acid, is expensive. oils. “It always depends on what you SHUTTERSTOCK Most of the soya grown globally, and more So, back in the 1950s, producers started > compare with,” says Jakobsen. 26 May 2018 | NewScientist | 29 Superfoods à la GM Non-browning apples converting it into yellow beta-carotene Some people dislike eating fruit with as normal pineapples do. The US gave flesh that has become discoloured. the green light for this variety to be This never happens to Arctic apples. eaten in December 2016, but it is yet They went on sale in the US in to go on sale. November 2017. Lycopene is thought to have various health benefits. The pink pineapples Potatoes that are also said to be sweeter – and add don’t bruise a twist to a pina colada. The Innate potato is less prone to bruising and consequent black spots. Omega-3 rapeseed When fried, it also produces less (canola) acrylamide, a substance suspected This seed from the rape plant is rich in of causing cancer, than conventional the beneficial omega-3 oil DHA. The spuds do. plan is to market it first as fish feed and then for human consumption. Last Wheat with year, 1200 hectares were grown and “good” gluten harvested in the US. People with coeliac disease could soon have their cake and eat it. At least two High-fibre groups worldwide are editing out the white bread genes for the gluten proteins that Gene-edited wheat yields white flour damage the guts of people with this with three times as much dietary fibre digestive disorder. One GM wheat is as standard white flour. undergoing clinical trials in Spain. Bloodier oranges Pink pineapples Blood oranges are regarded as They are pink because they beneficial because they are rich in accumulate lycopene, the pigment antioxidants called anthocyanins. that makes tomatoes red, instead of Normal blood oranges only turn red if ARTIST’S IMPRESSION; SHUTTERSTOCK taking cheap-as-chips soya oil and Administration ruled that trans fats had to hydrogenating it, a chemical process that Unhealthy be phased out of all foods by June this year. makes it more stable. By the mid-1960s, more “We realised that this trans-fat ban was than half the cooking oil sold in the US was attitude going to make big changes in the food hydrogenated soybean oil. Today, it is the Few people in the US believe GM foods industry,” says Federico Tripodi, head of second most widely used vegetable oil in the can be better for their health than Minnesota-based company Calyxt, which world after palm oil. non-GM foods has developed a high-oleic soybean using Hydrogenation solved the cooking problem, gene editing. but it has a serious health downside: it causes As well as being boosted by the ban, trans-fatty acids, or trans fats, to form. By the production of high-oleic soya is expected 1990s, it was becoming clear that these greatly Healthier % to soar because Plenish and Vistive Gold got increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. 10 full approval in the past year in all major In 2003, Denmark became the first country to export markets, including China, Australia, ban them. Unhealthy attitude New Zealand and the European Union. So for decades companies have been “The soybean industry estimate the long- working to produce cheap, trans-fat-free FNeitherew people better in the US believe GM foods can be term market potential for high-oleic soybeans better for their health than% non-GM foods oils by altering crops so their oil contains nor worse 48 is 15 million to 20 million acres,” says David more oleic acid. Two US firms have created Tegeder of DuPont Pioneer. That would make genetically engineered strains of soya that are Healthier 10% them one of most widely grown crops in the high in oleic acid: Monsanto with one called US – and would mean that many millions of Vistive Gold and DuPont Pioneer with Plenish. Neither better people around the world will be consuming nor worse 48% Their oils are more than 70 per cent oleic acid – Less healthy % their oils. similar to the amount in olive oil. Less healthy 39 39% And that’s good news. Swapping Still, these oils remained a niche product conventional hydrogenated soya oil for the “How will new GM foods aect your health quality” until 2015, when the US Food and Drug SOURCE: PEW RESEARCH CENTER (2016) high-oleic form will improve people’s health in 30 | NewScientist | 26 May 2018 COPY SUB PAGE SUB G_GM_Superfoods OK for press they experience cold nights while likely to embrace them. As well as complying growing. The GM strain is full of with the trans-fats ban in the US, high-oleic Why the worry anthocyanins regardless of the soya oils have an extended shelf life compared with GM? weather.

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