Total Health Breakthroughs: Free Natural Health Newsletter and Alternative Health Articles

Bio-engineers have created a purple tomato that has the food community buzzing. By inserting genes from a purple snapdragon flower into the tomatoes, they grow with a deep purple hue. The purple pigment is rich in powerful anti-inflammatory antioxidants known as anthocyanins. Anthocyanins from other foods that contain them naturally have been shown to slow the growth of colon cancer cells, protect against cardiovascular disease, boost eyesight, and stave off obesity and diabetes.

The development of the new tomato was announced in the October 2008 issue of Nature Biotechnology Journal, along with a pilot study in which the genetically modified purple tomatoes were fed as a powder in the diets of tumor-growing mice. Their lifespan was lengthened compared to other mice feeding on a standard diet or a diet supplemented with red tomato powder — so it seems purple tomatoes enhanced the ability of the mice to fight the disease.

Purple tomatoes seeds are not yet approved to be sold, planted, or harvested, but their anti-inflammatory disease-fighting benefits can be found right now at your neighborhood grocery store or farmers market in another fruit — berries! In fact, the shiny new purple tomatoes were developed to have anthocyanin levels comparable to blackberries and blueberries.¹

It seems unusual that companies would invest their time and the roughly ten to twenty million dollars that it takes to produce a genetically modified crop for a tomato with very similar health benefits to foods that already exist.

Besides blackberries and blueberries, high anthocyanin concentrations are found in elderberries, cranberries, chokeberries, grapes, and blue corn. The team of genetic scientists who created the tomatoes stated they were investigating ways to raise levels of anthocyanins in more commonly eaten fruits and vegetables.¹ Granted, not many people are regularly consuming chokeberries, but blackberries, blueberries and grapes aren’t exactly exotic foods.

My first thought was that it might be nice to get the anthocyanins in a lower carb form. Tomatoes are much lower in carbohydrates than berries, and anyone with insulin resistance issues must moderate their intake according to their individual tolerance levels. Instead of a diet full of higher sugar, higher carb foods such as berries, people could eat more purple tomatoes and better control their insulin resista — with the same health benefits. But as tempting a thought as that is, we have to remember that there is a natural balance and synergy that occurs in nature. Whenever an organism is genetically modified, it alters this harmony.

Some experts recommend using extreme caution before plunging into genetically modifying foods. They cite reasons such as the inability to prevent cross-pollination of genetically modified foods with genetically pure foods and the inability to foresee all the changes a modified food may cause in nature.² These experts also warn that we don’t know how inserting the genes of different plants or substances into a natural food will affect the food’s allergenicity.³

We can all enjoy the benefits of health-promoting plant compounds by eating lots of brightly colored organic fruits and vegetables. If you are eager to try a purple tomato, go to a specialty foods store or farm and ask to see their heirloom tomatoes. Mother Nature has already made a purple one.

References

1. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health.
2. actionbioscience.org/biotech/sakko.
3. Taylor SL. Env Toxic and Pharm. 4(1-2); Nov 1997: 121-126.

[Ed. Note: Laura B. LaValle, RD, LD is presently the director of dietetics nutrition at LaValle Metabolic Institute (formerly part of Living Longer Institute). She offers personal nutritional counseling at LMI for clients who need help with their diet in relation to illness or disease. Laura also provides educational services in the areas of health promotion, wellness, and disease prevention. To learn more click here.]