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Asked by rivergirl to Louise, Michaela, Sian, Steve, Yvette on 14 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
Question: Can Genetically Modified foods cure diseases? I was informed that some GM food have an "ingredient" that can help stop some cancers. Is that statment true?
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Michaela Livingstone answered on 14 Jun 2010:
Well I don’t personally know of a GM food that can cure a Human disease, I suppose anything is possible, but what I think they were getting at is that you can genetically modiffy a plant so that the plant is resistant to a disease or a pest that eats it.
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Louise Johnson answered on 14 Jun 2010:
Not that I’m aware of. Mostly, food plants are genetically modified so that the plants themselves are resistant to disease, not the people eating them! There’s also a GM rice variety that’s high in vitamin A which protects people against deficiency diseases like blindness.
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Steven Kiddle answered on 14 Jun 2010:
Yes and no. Yes genetically modified foods can cure diseases if they produce a chemical that treats the disease. An example, but not of food, is that we use GM bacteria to produce human insulin to treat diabetes. However we usually don’t know what chemicals to produce to cure diseases, and i don’t think theres any known that have a strong effect on cancer.
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Yvette Wilson answered on 14 Jun 2010:
I have just had to ‘re-remember’ this – ie look it up:-) There have been some tomatoes that have been engineered to produce either more beta-caratene (Vitamin A) or anthocyanins (a purple pigment!). Vitamin A has many health benefits including fighting cancer (but I’m not sure how). Anthocyanins are known as antioxidants and prevent damage to cells. I think the scientists showed that cancer susceptible mice had a longer life span after eating the anthocyanin producing tomatoes. I don’t know if there is any proof that these tomotos will do the same for humans and improve our nutrition.
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