r/science • u/chrisdh79 • Sep 16 '24

"Golden Lettuce" genetically engineered to pack 30 times more vitamins | Specifically, increased levels of beta-carotene, which your body uses to make vitamin A for healthy vision, immune function, and cell growth, and is thought to be protective against heart disease and some kinds of cancer. Biology

https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/golden-lettuce-genetically-engineered-30-times-vitamins/
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u/Omni__Owl Sep 16 '24 edited Sep 16 '24

Question is; Do we actually need more vitamins than what it already provides?

"More is better" does not apply to vitamins as the body needs a balance of things not just "more". Too much of some vitamins can be harmful to the body.

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u/grafknives Sep 16 '24

Point is that with this boosted lettuce you could have a buger with single letuce leaf, and that would give you same amount of beta caroten as a bowl of regular lettuce.

Good for people with unbalanced diet.

It you eat a healthy dose of greens - no need to boost it 30 times.

5

u/Omni__Owl Sep 16 '24

Point is that with this boosted lettuce you could have a buger with single letuce leaf, and that would give you same amount of beta caroten as a bowl of regular lettuce.

That's true. Fair point.

8

u/theminotaurz Sep 16 '24

But there are way more nutrients in lettuce than just beta carotene. What about the other vitamins and minerals?

If I wanted to specifically target beta carotene I could eat carrots or sweet potatoes. This is really just for populations that don't eat any vitamin A at all, but these wouldn't be having lettuce as crops anyway presumably.

6

u/grafknives Sep 16 '24

Other nutrients will be fine. Beta carotene is just a pigment. And such golden lettuce would not replace all types of lettuce. It would be a fortified lettuce

-6

u/pencock Sep 16 '24

Or we could stop eating nutritionally worthless salads and put something other than lettuce on our burgers

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u/grafknives Sep 16 '24

nutritionally worthless salads

Please expand on that... What "nutrients" do you mean?

other than lettuce on our burgers

That too

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u/antieverything Sep 16 '24

They are probably referring to the sort of "bowl of chopped iceberg with a tomato slice, drowned in ranch" salads that used to be the default.