This story about genetically modified tomatoes rang all kinds of alarm bells for me. English scientists modified tomatoes by adding two snapdragon genes that make them able to express anthocyanin, the pigment that makes blackberries and cranberries -- and now these tomatoes -- purple.
Anthocyanins are also believed to help protect against all kinds of ailments, like cancer and heart disease, and it may reduce inflammation, obesity and diabetes.
Wow, sounds like a naturally occurring wonder drug, and the scientists recommend that we should all eat lots of blackberries and cranberries, right? Wrong.
Rather than get people to change their eating habits, the researchers are trying to enhance the foods that people already eat. Like tomatoes.
The part that really creeped me out is that they tested the efficacy of the genetically modified tomatoes on genetically modified mice. Sure, the mice lived longer, but what does that actually prove? It's all Frankenstein data!
Am I over reacting? Are genetically modfied foods just good science, or a dangerously over-engineered solution to our lazy diets?
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