No thanks, I prefer Banana Man.
Posted on 07/10/2017 3:11:16 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Vitamin A deficiency is one of the leading causes of children's deaths in Uganda - but scientists hope that a new superfruit could significantly lower the statistics
It is also the leading cause of preventable blindness - and can significantly increase the risk of disease from severe infections.
Now scientists in Australia have developed a revolutionary ‘super’ banana, rich in pro-vitamin A, which could save the lives of the hundreds of thousands of children who die from this deficiency every year.
The golden-fleshed fruit was created by researchers from Queensland University of Technology, who have been growing the biofortified bananas for over the last 10 years - thanks to $7.6 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The bananas were created by taking genes from a species of provitamin A-rich banana found in Papa New Guinea, which only grows in small bunches.
Scientists then fused it with the ‘household’ Cavendish banana - the bunches which are produced in mass which most people are familiar with seeing in the supermarket.
The result is an unusual orange-coloured banana that could significantly increase the vitamin intake of the consumer.
Writing in Wiley’s Plant Biotechnology journal, Professor James Dale, who led the research, said: “Over the years, we’ve been able to develop a banana that has achieved excellent provitamin A levels, hence the golden-orange rather than cream-coloured flesh.”
The team have already trialled growing the bananas in Australia, where the fruit exceeded expectations by producing double the level of provitamin A than expected.
“Achieving these scientific results along with their publication, is a major milestone in our quest to deliver a more nutritional diet to some of the poorest subsistence communities in Africa,” Prof Dale said. “Our science works. We tried and tested hundreds of different genetic variations here in our lab and in field trials in Queensland until we got the best results.
"These elite genes have been sent to Uganda in test tubes where they have been inserted into Ugandan bananas for field trials there.”
Scientists are now keen to test the results of growing the bananas in East Africa, where cooked bananas are already a staple part of of the country’s diet.
Despite scientists making significant in roads in reducing vitamin A deficiency worldwide, research has found that the deficiency in children aged between six months and five years in Uganda has increased from 20 percent in 2006 to 38 per cent in 2011.
If initial field trials are successful, the researchers hope that their bananas will be self-sufficiently grown by Ugandan farmers by as early as 2021.
They have peeled their way to that slippery slope...
“Could save thousands of children’s lives”
Does it come with instructions on how to put on a condom the proper way?
On your typing fingers?
When will they develop a treatment for painful neuropathy of the feet? 8% of Americans suffer from this disease but all I can find are plenty of charlatans who supposedly have treatments that are not covered by Medicare or any other medical insurance companies.
So, tell me again why liberals hate Western society and want to burn it down to the ground?
Your confusing American/Western civilization teens with African kids
Because these scientist’s won’t give away their discoveries for free...
Try searching Dr. Jonathan V Wright and foot neuropathy...if Dr Wright doesn’t know..no one knows
Because these are GMO bananas and that is evil, ask any liberal.
NO! NO! NO GMO!!! :->
Funny, I was thinking that but, you said it...LOL
I thought we already had that - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpqxSBclqWs
(Doesn't matter that millions of lives will be saved or transformed for the better or that some of the money will be rolled back into research to help more people.)
If mankind evolved in Africa and spread to the 4 corners from there shouldn't Africa be much more developed than the rest of the world?
...funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation....
..
Tells you all you need to know.
Sometimes the joke is plainly obvious. I need to grow up.
Compassionate liberals would rather have African children go blind than eat GMO bananas.
I’m dying to see the little yellow guy in action. Is his costume really blue? Can he fly or just slide along. Or am I full of it and it is a female banana? Wonder Bananaaaaa.
rwood
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