Bananas In The 21st Century

Bananas have long been one of the many contenders for the "perfect food," and now with research being carried out by Australian researchers of a genetically modified banana enriched with vitamin A, it may become the number one most perfect food.

It is believed that bananas originated in Malaysia around 4,000 years ago.  In 327 B.C there is a record of Alexander the Great's army finding them growing in India.  Eventually, bananas made their way across the ocean to the Americas, where the majority of them are produced today.  Bananas have many properties that make it such a perfect food, like high amounts of potassium and antacid effects which protect the stomach from ulcers and their subsequent damage.  Australian researchers in Queensland, developed a banana with up to five times more vitamin A than usual.  Vitamin A deficiency blinds some 300,000 children annually and is linked to the deaths of nearly 700,000 others, mostly in East Africa, where bananas are a staple but lack essential nutrients.  Put the vitamin A in one of the staple foods of East Africa, and help eliminate blindness.

The project is backed by a $10 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  Critics warn that the long-term effects of genetically modified foods remain unknown.  Human trials are underway and researchers hope to receive approval to grow the bananas in Uganda by 2020.  They say the technology could later be used for other crops around the world.  It's great when science and agriculture team up to produce a better product.  Bananas were always good.  Now they're going to be great!