CSIRO Produces DHA
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.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed! September 6th, 2006Topic: Body & Mind, Health Tags: algae, Body & Mind, food, Health
September 7th, 2006 at 12:14 am
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September 7th, 2006 at 12:57 am
>> “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.
September 7th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Thanks for making sense of all that Omega 3 stuff Joanne!
September 8th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
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.
September 15th, 2006 at 12:55 am
Now if we could just get Omega-3 acids into beer, things would really start moving!
September 15th, 2006 at 11:25 am
Oh my gosh Joanne, that’s ingenious!
Then we really can “drink to good health” (I couldn’t resist).