Healthier Eating

"This is a paper that is technologically quite important. It demonstrates a way that you can improve the welfare of animals at the same [time] as also improving the product from those animals -- the meat."
"I very much doubt that this particular pig will ever be imported into the USA -- one thing -- and secondly, whether it would ever be allowed to enter the food chain."
R. Michael Roberts, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences peer-review professor

The genetically modified low-fat piglets   Photo: Jianguo Zhao

"This is a big issue for the pig industry. It's pretty exciting."
"They [the genetically engineered piglets] could maintain their body temperature much better, which means that they could survive better in the cold weather."
"Since the pig breed we used in this study is famous for the meat quality, we assumed that the genetic modifications will not affect the taste of the meat."
"People like to eat the pork with less fat but higher lean meat."
Jianguo Zhao of the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, lead scientist in the study

Chinese scientists conducted a new gene-editing technique, CRISPR-Cas9, to produce pigs capable of self regulating their body temperature in a more biologically efficient way, by burning fat. The breed of pig used in the research was one valued for the quality of the meat it produces, leaving the lead researcher in this project confident that despite the genetic modification undertaken in his research group's efforts to produce a leaner animal, the flavour of the pork would not be affected.

And as long as the consuming public, preferring to know much less about where their meat comes from, doesn't view the photographs of the cute little piglets that resulted from the CRISPR experiment, the meat product itself would be appreciated for its leaner qualities. Imagine a CRISPR pig? Now that's a bit of serendipitous terminology although CRISPR doesn't stand for crisper, but rather it is the contraction of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat, a fairly new, advanced genetic engineering technique.

And while Professor Roberts who edited the paper -- produced by the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences -- is enthusiastic about the science behind this genetically modified animal, he also observes that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration would most likely not be prepared to approve a genetically modified animal product meant for human consumption in the United States. Not, at any rate, at the present time.

Still, another professional biologist in the U.S., Chris Davies, associate professor at the school of veterinary medicine at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, feels that: "The population of our planet is predicted to reach about 10 billion by 2050, and we need to use modern genetic approaches to help us increase the food supply to feed that growing population." Eventually, due to dire necessity, it may become necessary to acknowledge that genetic modification will go far to help feeding this planet.

Pork, and bacon in particular, is extremely high in saturated fat and in sodium. Four slices of bacon represents 40 percent of recommended daily values of both saturated fat and sodium. A leaner animal producing a less-fatty bacon would obviously be a healthier alternative for health-conscious consumers. And the CRISPR method that produced a dozen healthy, low-fat pigs is a broad step in that direction. 

In Canada, however, there is less reluctance to permit genetically modified foods to reach the consuming public. According to Eat Right Ontario, since 1994, some 85 GM foods were made available in the Canadian marketplace. GM salmon, as an example, was approved in 2015 for sale in Canada, no identifying labelling required. Despite that Canadian consumers "still want more transparency", according to Global News reporting on a 2017 Angus Reid Survey. 

In the meanwhile, those concerned with eating well, with a view to maintaining good health might observe the following guidelines:

• Eat more vegetables and fruits, fresh or frozen; the brighter the colour the greater content of minerals and vitamins;
• Eat more grains and legumes;
• Eat leaner cuts of meat and poultry;
• Eat more fish;
• Eat vegetarian meals at least several times weekly;
• Eat fewer processed foods where salt, sugar and fat are present in quantities you wouldn't add in your own kitchen
• Use limited but sufficient amounts of butter or oil; 
• Cook your own meals more frequently; eat out less often;
• Exercise more frequently.