Joanne Bush has written us to let us know about DHA producing plants that can make us healthier.
“I can’t find a date on this page, so I don’t know how new this news is, but CSIRO, our national scientific research organisation here in Australia, has developed plants that produce DHA. Traditionally, this long-chain omega 3 fatty acid was only available from “lower plant forms” like microalgae (and more famously from the fish that feed on them).
The benefits include:
– Yet another reason why vegan doesn’t equal compromised health, &
– Reduced pressure on declining fish resources worldwide.”
I had no idea what DHA is, but wikipedia tells us all about DHA.
>> “I had no idea what DHA is”
Aw c’mon, I’m not that much of a nutrition geek, am I?
If you’re overwhlemed by all that science-type jargon on the linked wiki page (like me!), basically the importance of this development is that almost all of the messages seen in the media imply that eating fish or taking fish oil capsules is the only way to get your omega-3. This was never true, as omega-3 acids are also found in many nuts & seeds, especially flax (linseed) and chia (that’s right, like the chia pet!). And now here’s another source.
Thanks for making sense of all that Omega 3 stuff Joanne!
Over in the UK a lot of research is being done into producing omega-3 and -6 fatty acids like these in plants. It’s successfully been done in the model plant Arabidopsis over in Bristol, and I spent my summer vacation working on research to produce them in transgenic leafy vegetables.
Now if we could just get Omega-3 acids into beer, things would really start moving!
Oh my gosh Joanne, that’s ingenious!
Then we really can “drink to good health” (I couldn’t resist).