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posted by on Thursday February 09 2017, @01:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the keen-wah dept.

From the we-don't-need-your-stinkin-GMO department, the Beeb reports that "Scientists have successfully decoded the genome of quinoa, one of the world's most nutritious but underutilised crops." The team was led by Mark Tester in Saudi Arabia.

The South American grain is a hugely popular "super-food" because it is well balanced and gluten-free. However, prices for quinoa have rocketed in recent years as demand exceeded supply. Researchers believe the genetic code will rapidly lead to more productive varieties that will push down costs.

They go on to say that the genome will be used to direct conventional plant breeding methods. Several traits of the 7000 year old South American grain would improve its utility such as reducing the level of saponins which make it bitter. Also, varieties could be bred for other climates. The plant is naturally able to grow in salty soils and another goal is to breed tolerance to irrigation with brackish water (partially desalinated sea water).


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 09 2017, @03:09PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 09 2017, @03:09PM (#465014) Journal

    http://www.purewow.com/food/what-is-amaranth [purewow.com]

    Probably just like quinoa - right after someone figures out how to genetically engineer it, so they can sell the seed to people who have been growing all along.

    It doesn't even need any engineering to grow in the US or Europe -

    https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/grains/growing-amaranth-food.htm [gardeningknowhow.com]

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  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09 2017, @03:51PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09 2017, @03:51PM (#465042)

    Am I the only one who's getting tired of reading that foods which aren't wheat are gluten-free?

    For today's menu, gluten-free oatmeal for breakfast with gluten-free strawberries and gluten-free milk. Dinner will see a gluten-free salad with gluten-free lettuces, gluten-free spinach, gluten-free carrots, and gluten-free radishes drizzled with gluten-free vinaigrette, and for supper will be a gluten-free roast with gluten-free sweet potatoes and gluten-free string beans with a bit of gluten-free butter.

    Oh, and gluten-free tea with breakfast and gluten-free, freshly squeezed lemonade with just barely a pinch of gluten-free sugar for the afternoon. Tomorrow there will be time for gluten-free quinoa and gluten-free amaranth, possibly with gluten-free chicken chili tamales wrapped in gluten-free corn husks.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09 2017, @03:58PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09 2017, @03:58PM (#465045)

      > Am I the only one who's getting tired of reading that foods which aren't wheat are gluten-free?

      Yes.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09 2017, @07:40PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09 2017, @07:40PM (#465204)

      XKCD [xkcd.com]

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09 2017, @09:07PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09 2017, @09:07PM (#465256)

        And another [xkcd.com]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 10 2017, @06:57AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 10 2017, @06:57AM (#465416)

      About 1 percent of people in the USA have celiac disease, an autoimmune disease in which consuming gluten triggers an immune repsonse that destroys the lining of the intestines (along with other bad things). And another 1-3 percent have wheat allergies of one kind or another. And when you factor in family members who also need to avoid gluten and wheat to avoid cross-contamination into the food of their loved ones, you're talking about at least 5% of the population for whom avoiding gluten is essential.

      It may seem annoying to you to have such labels, but it is vitally important for those who need to avoid gluten for legitimate medical reasons. It may also seem ridiculous to you that foods that are obviously gluten free would carry such labels, but you'd be surprised at how many things that "shouldn't" have gluten sometimes end up having it in. Ketchup, frozen french fries, and frozen vegetables, just to name a few, are foods I've seen within just the last month or two that unexpectedly had gluten in them.

      It's funny you mentioned salad and oatmeal because are often problem foods. Lots of salads are served with croutons (gluten). You can't just pick off the croutons because the crumbs left behind are enough to trigger an autoimmune repsonse. Almost all oatmeal has gluten in it because the oats are grown in fields that are rotated between wheat and oats--just the little bit of wheat that ends up after harvesting the oats is enough to cause problems. Gluten free oatmeal can be quite a bit more expensive than regular oatmeal because it has to be grown on fields where farmers do not rotate crops as normal.

      My son was diagnosed withe celiac disease as a three year old. He will always have it and will always need to eat a strictly gluten free diet for the rest of his life. It's heartbreaking to see him cry or just slump his shoulders in disappointment when all the other kids at the birthday party or in his class get to eat the treat that he can't (and yes, whenever we know ahead of time we make sure he has an gluten free alternative to eat instead, but it makes him the only kid with something different and we don't always know ahead of time). How do you think it feels for people like him to hear self-righteous, sanctimonious mockery of gluten free eating and of food manufacturers just doing someting to try and make his life a little easier?

      Please have a heart and stop with the mockey of gluten free eating and food labeling.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 10 2017, @04:22PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 10 2017, @04:22PM (#465515)

        > ... stop with the mockey of gluten free eating

        OK, we'll mock your spelling instead... are you from New England where pronunciation is xor "r"?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 13 2017, @06:34AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 13 2017, @06:34AM (#466477)

          Weak. That's the best comeback you've got?

          Even better is the spelling mistake in your response trying to mock someone else's spelling.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09 2017, @04:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09 2017, @04:50PM (#465080)

    Amaranth is one of the better tasting grains, but its small size is sometimes a drawback. Kumut has a nice bite to it and is also tasty.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by TheLink on Thursday February 09 2017, @04:57PM

    by TheLink (332) on Thursday February 09 2017, @04:57PM (#465089) Journal

    Uh what's so great about amaranth, quinoa and the other so called "superfoods"?

    Compare 100g of each cooked stuff:

    Amaranth:
    https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/10640/2 [self.com]
    Quinoa:
    http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/10352/2 [self.com]
    Potato:
    http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2550/2 [self.com]

    There really isn't a significant difference especially in the context of the whole diet (not just the staple). And potatoes are cheaper (they are also a super-food from South America ;) ).

    Because if you want vitamins and other micronutrients it's much easier and better to get significant quantities of them from more nutritionally dense stuff like green vegetables:
    Kale:
    http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2462/2 [self.com]
    Broccoli:
    http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2357/2 [self.com]

    Or just pop a sardine or two:
    http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/finfish-and-shellfish-products/4115/2 [self.com]

    Summary: if you're going for a nutritious diet with carbs you might as well eat sardines, green vegetables (for fibre), potato or other cheap carb staple that suits you (rice, pasta). There's no significant benefit from quinoa and amaranth (they tend to be more expensive).

    If you're going for a low carb diet you should be avoiding high carb stuff which includes quinoa and amaranth grain.

    If you want fibre and usable carbs are ok add some beans or peas. If usable carbs are not OK add some flaxseeds: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3163/2 [self.com]
    (low digestible carbs)

    If really desperate for fibre: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/custom/669594/2 [self.com]

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by richtopia on Thursday February 09 2017, @05:28PM

      by richtopia (3160) on Thursday February 09 2017, @05:28PM (#465105) Homepage Journal

      Superfood: Food which has not been factory farmed to death so the plant contains zero nutrients.

      Don't worry, we are working on demoting quinoa from superfood to factory food.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 09 2017, @05:40PM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 09 2017, @05:40PM (#465113) Journal

      Part of my interest in "alternative" foods and crops, is related to all the many monocultures we have today. You mention potatoes. In the early 1900's, we had hundreds of varieties of potatoes in America - and I'm sure that Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America probably had other varieties that we didn't bother with. Today, there really aren't very many choices in potatoes. Go into your local grocery, and you'll probably find two choices, maybe three.

      I'm happy to promote just about anything that increases variety in the diet. I'll even promote Gaaark's mealworms - for other people, LOL. https://soylentnews.org/~Gaaark/journal/2223 [soylentnews.org]

      I'm also happy to promote anything that remains free of agri-business encumbrances. Or, more specifically, anything not owned by Monsanto.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09 2017, @07:09PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09 2017, @07:09PM (#465174)

        Every grocery store near me carries at least four different varieties, and the health food store has more. A better example is the banana.

      • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday February 09 2017, @07:30PM

        by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Thursday February 09 2017, @07:30PM (#465195) Journal

        Today, there really aren't very many choices in potatoes. Go into your local grocery, and you'll probably find two choices, maybe three.

        I completely agree with you about the problems of monocultures and how we should try to preserve other varieties. On the other hand, I'm not sure I've been to a decent supermarket lately that had fewer than three varieties of potato. (Maybe a tiny corner shop or something, but not a full-blown supermarket.) You need at least several types of potato for different applications -- those which are good for boiling (e.g., for potato salad) are not necessary good for mashing (can be too "gluey"). And these types may not necessarily be the best kinds for baking... or french fries... or whatever. Different amounts of starch and different densities/distributions are important for different potato applications.

        Thus, every large store I've been in tends to have at least three varieties of potatoes. Many stores lately tend to carry fingerling potatoes that also contain options which aren't part of the "big 4 or 5" potato varieties that are most common.

        Again, obviously it's still far from what existed historically, and we should seek more diversity. But I think there are often a couple more options in stores than you imply.

    • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday February 09 2017, @07:24PM

      by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Thursday February 09 2017, @07:24PM (#465189) Journal

      Summary: if you're going for a nutritious diet with carbs you might as well eat sardines, green vegetables (for fibre), potato or other cheap carb staple that suits you (rice, pasta). There's no significant benefit from quinoa and amaranth (they tend to be more expensive).

      While I agree with you about the "superfood" hype around things like quinoa, total nutritional content is not the only thing one should look at in foods. You hint at this a bit in your discussion of fiber, but there is a metabolic difference in how your body processes orange juice compared to whole oranges. And there's a difference between how you metabolize finely ground bleached pastry flour vs. large whole-meal wheat flour or even whole wheat berries. (One metric for this is glycemic index, which has been connected not only to blood sugar/insulin response, but to hunger and patterns of food consumption.)

      Now, that difference isn't necessarily huge between, say, whole wheat vs. white in things like pasta. You're right that a lot is made out of that difference, but it's relatively small. However, there are significant metabolic differences in how you might process, say, wheat bread compared to whole barley or even whole wheat berries. Sometimes the form of the food also makes a big difference -- for example, even white pasta typically has a significantly lower glycemic index compared to bread, because of the starch structure differences and how they are digested.

      Meanwhile, potatoes frequently have some of the highest glycemic indexes. Again, none of this is an argument to join on the "superfood" hype and buy quinoa or amaranth or whatever unless you actually just like the flavor. You're certainly not going to be getting a lot more nutrition from them. BUT, not all starches are alike in the way the body processes them, and that can have significant effects. Fiber is one element that affects this, but there are other elements about the form of the food. Sometimes mixing things together can help (as you mention, like putting in beans, etc.) -- but the point is that among the cheaper starches, there are still sometimes better and worse choices, not just because of the nutrient breakdown.

    • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday February 10 2017, @12:16AM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday February 10 2017, @12:16AM (#465325) Homepage

      Kale tastes like shit. Its as if those who eat it regularly think that its bad taste means that they will get more jacked on nutrients like those who drink shitty tasting beer (and hey, I love IPAs, but they do taste like shit) are justified in thinking they're gonna get more fucked up.