Can Super Bananas Save Millions of Lives? Can Better Coffee Come from Adding Butter?

Maybe you thought bananas were already a superfood or at least a super food. But in Uganda, where they're a major part of the population's diet, they're not super enough.  So human testing is about to begin in the U.S. to see if genetically-altered bananas can solve the problem of a serious nutritional deficiency and make a major nutritional contribution to the lives of about a million children just in Uganda. 

Now here's something much less significant that's also widespread in the news media:--the new fad of flavoring coffee with butter.

Super bananas:

Super bananas are deceptive. They look the same as the usual bananas we buy in American stores, but inside they have an orange tint.  That's because they've been genetically modified to contain more beta-carotene, a nutrient that's used by the human body to produce vitamin A.  

According to Scientific American, Ugandans love bananas.  In fact, they eat 3 - 11 of them daily and get 30% of their daily calories from them.  The same is true of some of Uganda's neighbors.  Uganda grows hundreds of varieties of this fruit and uses them in many ways--for example, stewed, roasted, and ground into flour.  

So what's the problem?  The unbalanced diet, too dependent upon bananas, leads to severe vitamin A deficiency that kills somewhere between 600,000 and 2.5 million children worldwide and causes another 300,000 cases of blindness.  In East African countries, 15%-30% of young children and women of childbearing age have a vitamin A deficiency. 

So scientists have been trying to find a way to get more vitamin A into bananas.  But it's a challenge because too much vitamin A is toxic and, as Scientific American explains, "As there is no way to control how much people consume, there is really no safe way to add vitamin A directly to foodstuffs.''

Instead, here's what's been done: scientists have taken a gene from another banana variety (from Papua New Guinea), which contains a lot of beta-carotene, is bright orange, and tastes pretty bad. They've toned the gene down a bit and added it to the East African Highland cooking banana, a staple in the Ugandan diet.  The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been backing this research since 2005, to the tune of $10 million.

Now super bananas (which are enriched with both alpha and beta carotene) are about to be given clinical trials in the U.S. to determine if they actually will increase Vitamin A levels in humans. According to the website Mashable.com, "The bananas will be shipped to the U.S. for a 6-week trial that is expected to produce results by the end of this year."

But there are two problems with this high-tech plan: the website Motherboard.com says that GM foods can't be legally sold in Uganda, and Ugandans (like many Americans) are leery of lab-altered foods.  Even if it becomes legal to sell super bananas in Uganda, would farmers want to grow them if they fear no one would buy their product?  And will Ugandans buy GM?

According to Time magazine, the team of scientists working on the project hopes to receive approval to grow their super bananas in Uganda by 2020. Additional countries that could benefit from super bananas include Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, and parts of the Democrat Republic of Congo.  The developers of the super banana also hope that this technology will eventually be used to improve other crops around the world.  The research team is headed by Professor James Dale, director of the Centre for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities at Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

Butter coffee:

Ah, a steaming hot cup of coffee.  Pass the butter, please. 

Now why would you want to put butter in your coffee?  One not-so-good reason could be that it's the latest craze, and curiosity drives you to participate. There are also claims that butter coffee is much more nutritious than coffee with cream; some say it will help dieters lose weight by making them feel full longer. But don't believe everything you read about this fad.  Some say the evidence isn't there to support claims of great nutrition and long-lasting, all-day energy even if your morning repast is nothing but butter coffee.

Note: Making butter coffee isn't just a matter of dunking a slab of any-old butter in your cup of coffee and waiting until the butter melts.  The advice from experts on this fad say you must start out with clarified butter or high-quality grass-fed, unsalted butter to get the nutrient benefits.  Beyond that, making your own is a snap. The website What's the Deal with...offers this simple recipe:  "Put 1 cup of brewed coffee into a blender with 1 teaspoon butter (again, organic, grass-fed, unsalted butter) and 1 tablespoon coconut oil and mix until frothy. Drink immediately."

The idea for butter coffee brewed in the brain of Dave Asprey, inspired by butter tea, a traditional morning beverage in Tibet. Asprey switched the drink to coffee, added a few more ingredients, and created Bulletproof Coffee (which you can order online).

I learned about a taste-testing of butter coffee on starbucksmelody.com. The same site also says that, in Vietnam, it's considered "normal" to drink coffee with butter. 

"So how does butter coffee taste?"  you ask.  Some say it's hardly any different from creaming your coffee, but the butter cuts the bitterness of the black brew.  Others rave that butter coffee is super-delicious.  Followers of the Paleo diet are great fans of the stuff.  I haven't tried it. I'm happy lightening my coffee with a low-calorie, low-fat beverage--lactose-free skim milk. 

Note: After I tasted butter coffee myself, I wrote more about it.  To read my reactions, click here:

http://shelflifeadvice.com/content/odd-products-should-you-try-them-are-they-safe

Source(s):

scientificAmerican.com "'Super Bananas' Enter the U.S. Market Trials"

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/super-bananas-enter-u-s-market-trials/

mashable.com "Genetically Engineered 'Super Bananas' Begin Human Trials"

http://mashable.com/2014/06/18/super-bananas-human-trials/

motherboard.vice.com "Genetically Modified 'Super-Bananas' Are Being Tested in the US"

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/here-come-the-super-bananas

Time, "The Enriched 'Super Banana' That could Save Millions of Lives," June 30, 2014

yahoo.com "What's the Deal with...Butter in Coffee"

https://www.yahoo.com/food/whats-the-deal-with-butter-in-coffee-87809274476.html

boston.com "New Craze?  Coffee Lovers Add Butter Instead of Creamer"

http://www.boston.com/health/2014/06/20/new-craze-coffee-lovers-add-butter-instead-creamer/MzlwH673Xfc8wAXE1VzeIO/story.html

wikipedia.org "Clarified butter"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarified_butter

starbucksmelody.com "The butter coffee tasting: Starbucks Anniversary"

http://www.starbucksmelody.com/2011/09/13/the-butter-coffee-tasting-starbucks-anniversary-blend/