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Normal_Anomaly comments on Should I be afraid of GMOs? - Less Wrong Discussion

10 Post author: Pavitra 19 May 2011 01:29AM

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Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 19 May 2011 02:15:59PM 2 points [-]

Another, keener health risk concerns something I heard about The Omnivore's Dilemma. The problem with some GM foods I hear is that they are far lower in nutritional value than other foods.

It's been a while since I looked this up, but if memory serves several GM crops have been modified to produce extra nutrients. Except for knock-on effects of modification for e.g pesticide resistance I don't see any reason why someone would engineer nutrients out of a crop. And of course, if you eat a balanced diet with a variety of foods you'll probably be fine nutrition-wise.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 19 May 2011 04:34:12PM 4 points [-]

Hypothesis here: if you engineer plants to optimize for maximum good-looking yield, there might be some loss on nutrients.

Comment author: rysade 21 May 2011 01:35:01AM 0 points [-]

That was how I rationalized it. I'm really not sure about my last paragraph up there, I just felt it needed to be said in case it contributed meaningfully to the discussion.

Rest assured I will be doing more exhaustive fact checking in the future.