Day 54 – The Scientific Benefits Of (Food) Torture

“If life gives you a lemon, make lemonade. However — if life gives you a pickle, you might as well give up because pickle-ade is disgusting.”

~ Clifton J. Gray

199.2 lbs.

Once again I seem to be circling a particular weight like I’m in a holding pattern. I blame Eyjafjallajokull. But the petite prandial plunge will begin anew soon enough.

Those of you who enjoy stabbing and slashing with steely knives, take note: when your skills are put to proper use, they can be highly productive.Yes, torture can serve a good purpose.

I’m not referring to quasi-legal interrogation processes,or even ‘scientific studies’ of a questionable nature (such as making prisoners eat 10,000 kCals a day to study obesity), but to a new method of preparing food for maximum health benefits.

Some food researchers splice genes of this and that together, making food that is touted by some as better for you than their natural counterparts, but blasted as being “frankenfood” by others. This is a complex debate since most of the foods we eat were bio engineered through plant husbandry over the past few hundred or even thousands of years. Apples were originally tiny, sour, all but inedible things, for example, but now (other than the shiny coat of pesticide and wax) they’re very good for you, and usually sweet.

Rather than step into the bioengineering quagmire via splicing, Luis Cisneros-Zevallos, an Associate Professor at the Department of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A&M University, experimented with making veggies boost their antioxidant levels without using genetic modification. Were others take teeny blades to genes, Luis assaults veggies directly with knives, cutting and shredding them. He also overexposes them to oxygen and UV lights and to hormones form other plants.

Instead of growing feet and running home to their carrot mommies, these battered veggies (ha ha) instead have a surprising response to this abuse; they turn into bio-factories capable of producing five times more antioxidants than normal.

I like the odd kinky thing as much as the next guy, but I can’t say “I feel like torturing a carrot” was near the top of that list. What was Luis thinking?

“What we were thinking”, says Luis, “is that if we’re able to manipulate their environment, with these plants – either in the field or after they’re harvested – it is possible to make them synthesize compounds that would be of higher value for other types of markets of higher value as well.”

So you attach veggies and make them produce more of a certain kind of compound, sort of like wetting themselves, but with a byproduct that’s either good for you directly, or in demand by other industries. Like?” the dietary supplement market, functional foods, cosmetics and even pharmaceuticals” replies the very helpful Luis.

“What we saw was that different types of plants will respond to this challenge of stressing them.” Luis used “We used carrots as a model system because its a known crop and it does respond to these stresses.”

He also sees applications beyond just making food. Perhaps food Abu Graibs could prep ingredients to be used in meals for… astronauts?  The low-oxygen experiments have an intriguing spinoff. “If one thinks that plants can be grown –obviously for food purposes –on Mars, they’d have to be done under conditions very different  that those found on Earth.” Luis points out. “Very low pressures, very low oxygen levels, perhaps high levels of carbon dioxide”.

Geez, Luis, maybe you should work for NASA, not a Texas Universit- oh, right. Houston is in Texas. As in ground control for NASA. And NASA has already teamed up with Luis and fellow Texas A&M Professor Fred Davies.

The result? “What we saw is that some of these plants when exposed to these conditions synthesized more antioxidants, which is amazing.”

Most plants, like other living things, don’t respond well to torture. But Luis has seen positive antioxidant results in lettuce, celery, carrots, parsnips and sweet potatoes. This is good because antioxidants reduce free radicals in your bloodstream, and free radicals can damage cells, and may play a role in heart disease, cancer and other diseases.

So what does this mean for you? In short, sliced or shredded carrots are healthier for you than whole carrots. To get the most benefit, the sliced or shredded carrots should be left in the ‘fridge for 2 or 3 days to let the carrots build up their antioxidants. So prep in advance.