From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Monsanto soybean oil could replace fatty fish acids
ST. LOUIS • Fatty acids don’t sound like things that could be particularly good for you. But over the past decade, nutritionists and health organizations have said we need more of them — specifically omega-3 fatty acids — for cardiovascular and brain health.HT: Big Picture Agriculture
Now the global market for omega-3 foods hovers around $25 billion.
A problem, though, is that the primary source of the most beneficial omega-3s come from cold-water fish — and there just aren’t enough of those fish in the sea. Plus, fish can have high levels of toxic mercury and pollutants. Plants also contain omega-3s, yet they’re problematic, too. The omega-3s most prevalent in plants — called alpha linolenic acids, or ALAs — aren’t converted efficiently by the human body into the optimal forms.
But Monsanto Co., the Creve Coeur-based biotechnology giant, believes it has an answer: A soybean oil genetically engineered to produce a type of fatty acid, called stearidonic acid, or SDA, that can be converted into the same form found in fish oil and best utilized by the body.
“SDA omega-3 soybean oil would provide a sustainable way for consumers to increase their intake of omega-3 fatty acids that help maintain heart health,” said Federico Tripodi, Monsanto’s coordinator on the project, in a recent statement. “Food companies are looking for solutions to deliver the benefits of longer-chain omega-3s while maintaining flavor over the shelf life of the product.”
In the pro-omega-3 nutritional landscape, some say, the product could be a game changer — with the emphasis on could....MUCH MORE
