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Scientists Are Creating Tomatoes to Help Boost Vitamin D Levels
If you love eating fresh tomatoes in the summertime, you may be enjoying an added benefit on your plate soon. Scientists in the UK have found a way to boost vitamin D levels in tomatoes, creating a new variety containing as much vitamin D as two eggs or 28 grams of tuna in a single tomato.
A research team at John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK, is expected to begin outdoor field trials soon. If successful, the new tomatoes could become an important source of vitamin D in the future. And that’s great news for tomato lovers, especially considering that low vitamin D levels affect about 1 billion people globally.
See more: 25 Seasonal Recipes to Make With Fresh Tomatoes This Summer
Where Does Vitamin D Come From?
You probably associate vitamin D with exposure to sunlight. While it’s true that the body creates vitamin D when we spend time in the sun, food is the most important source of the vitamin for most people, especially those living in parts of the world that don’t receive enough sunlight to provide adequate vitamin D levels year round.
Dietary sources of vitamin D mainly include dairy, red meat, oily fish, eggs and mushrooms, which can make it especially challenging for vegans to get enough in their diets.
See more: Complete Guide to Tomato Varieties and How to Use Them
Why is vitamin D so important? It regulates nutrients like calcium and is necessary for keeping bones, teeth and muscles healthy. Researchers have also associated vitamin D deficiency with serious conditions ranging from cardiovascular disease to cancer and neurocognitive decline.
Fruitful Discovery
Scientists created these new tomato plants by making tiny edits to an existing tomato gene. The technique makes it possible to enhance a desirable trait quicker than breeding and without introducing DNA from another species. By making this edit, they were able to block a pathway in tomato plants that converts provitamin D3 into cholesterol, allowing the vitamin to instead accumulate in the fruit and leaves of the plant.
See more: What Are Green Tomatoes? (And How to Use Them in the Kitchen)
Due to this very precise editing process, the tomatoes would not fall into the category of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) because the plants do not contain genes from other organisms. In theory, tomato growers could achieve the same edit through many generations of selective breeding.
If the process is adopted commercially by farmers, the tomatoes could be an important factor in addressing worldwide deficiency. Because tomatoes are a popular, readily available, vegetarian- and vegan-friendly food, adding a vitamin D boost has the potential to help improve nutrition across the globe.