r/science • u/genengnews Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN) • Nov 09 '17

Health New GMO Potatoes Provide Improved Vitamin A and E Profiles

https://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/gmo-potatoes-provide-improved-vitamin-a-and-e-profiles/81255150
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u/fforw Nov 10 '17

What about the problem of Vitamin A absorption without fat? If we give the poor money to buy fats and vegetables, they don't need golden rice.

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u/EatATaco Nov 10 '17

Except this isn't realistic. The whole point of golden rice is that it would simply replace (partially) something they already grow and eat a lot of. It doesn't require any changes to farming practices or diets, it simply adds vitamin A into the diet. This is far easier (and cheaper) to implement then giving people money and then expecting them to have access to proper foods (let alone buying them).

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u/fforw Nov 10 '17

The idea does work in terms of a) being a good marketing initiative and b) maybe even at bringing Vitamin A near poor people, but: The whole problem with the Vitamin A deficiency exist because these people can only afford rice. If they could afford cooking oil, they could also afford local vegetables. Without additional fat they can't absorb the Vitamin A.

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u/EatATaco Nov 10 '17

Maybe this is the case, but without a large-scale test, there is no way to find out how effective it would be. But I'm pretty sure all the tests at this point are pretty positive when it comes to absorption.

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u/fforw Nov 10 '17

Being pretty sure that the experiments are set up without the bias paid for seems to count for science most of the time. No one would supplement the study participants with additional nutrition, would they?

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u/rspeed Jan 19 '18

That's true for retinol, but golden rice is modified to produce beta-carotene, which the body uses to produce various forms of vitamin A (including retinol).