Artificial ‘nano-food’ could soon show up at a store near you

• Spartaaaaa wrote on 2010-12-07 11:26

  Ethan A. Huff
  Natural News [1]
  Dec 6, 2010
  
  The scientific community has once again caught food-tampering fever. Recent reports indicate that food scientists are busy developing nanoparticle-modified (NM) food that could one day end up on your dinner plate — and you may never even know about it. By shifting around nanoparticles, food scientists say that fat-free foods can taste like full-fat foods, and they can be programmed to digest more slowly–two changes that some say may help reverse the obesity epidemic.
  
  But most of this research [2] is going on in secret because of fears over how the public will respond. Like genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), nano-modifying food [3] involves literally changing its molecular properties, which has never been proven safe. So naturally, consumers are likely to reject NM food if given the choice.
  
  “These particles could be hazardous and we need to know more about their effects both in the body [4] and in the environment,” said Frans Kampers, coordinator of research on food nanotechnology [5] at Wageningen and Research Center in the Netherlands. “Since these particles are very small, they can…enter cells or even the nucleus of a cell if they have the right characteristics.”
  
  The stated goal of nanotechnology research in food is to create foods [6] that behave differently than real ones in terms of digestion, assimilation, taste and nutritional value. By altering the “nano-structure” of food, so to speak, NM food can be programmed to make people feel fuller faster, for instance. And nutrients in food can also be nano-encapsulated to release at timed intervals to specific parts of the body.
  
  Even though NM food has yet to see the light day, the European Union (EU) is already taking proactive steps to make sure that, if it does make it to consumers, NM food will at least be regulated and labeled. Thus, the EU has developed a research project called NanoLyse to address the “very limited knowledge [that is] available on the potential impact of engineered nanoparticles on consumers’ health.”

  
  
  Link to article: http://www.prisonplanet.com/artificial-nano-food-could-soon-show-up-at-a-store-near-you.html
• Tatsu wrote on 2010-12-07 11:28
  Sounds just as appealing as the words "Synthetic bacon and synthetic eggs" do.
• Sleeperdial wrote on 2010-12-07 11:49
  Sounds good to me. Americans are so lazy all they have to do is hear that "It makes you less fat." and they'd eat it even if it were uranium.
• TA wrote on 2010-12-07 11:55
  I'm all for it as long as it's appropriately labeled and properly tested to ensure it's safe for human consumption.
• Username wrote on 2010-12-07 12:22
  Not to sound paranoid but, im not eating non-natural ****.
• Ruquion wrote on 2010-12-07 12:54
  It'd probably be expensive as ****.
• TA wrote on 2010-12-07 13:03

  Quote from Ruquion;239806:

  It'd probably be expensive as ****.

  
  
  Nah, probably not.
  
  A lot of foods we have now are already unnatural.
  
  Some scientists still think there are some terrible side effects probably associated with some of the foods we are already regularly eating.
  
  Hydrogenation. Everything you read that says "hydrogenated".... it's very unsafe. If you knew the process they use to actually make it, you'd shutter at the thought of actually eating it. I had a Bio Professor in college tell me about how she suspects they'll discover just how bad these things really are for us pretty soon.
  
  That and "enriched" stuff is generally really really bad for you. Like, "enriched wheat flower" -- really bad.
  
  And hell, soda are pretty much cans of death.
• Ampersand wrote on 2010-12-07 14:23
  Just paranoid sensationalism. If as much research went into "traditional" and "natural" foods, you'd uncover just as much gross stuff.
• Sleeperdial wrote on 2010-12-07 14:48
  I wonder how bad monster nitrous is for you.
  After all they "nitrogenated" it.
• Kueh wrote on 2010-12-07 14:54
  This is going to be the kind of thing I'll be doing eventually!
  
  Except I don't think I'll be working with food. Most likely I'll make pharmaceutical or industrial products.
  
  Also, this article contains nothing new, especially since it's not completed yet. The UN getting ready to restrict a new product doesn't mean it's bad. That's just standard practice.
• Sleeperdial wrote on 2010-12-07 15:09
  I can't decide what I want to do. What category would this fall under? Chemistry?
• Kueh wrote on 2010-12-07 15:18
  Biochemisty
• TA wrote on 2010-12-07 15:21
  I have a friend that's an Organic Chemist. :)
• Sleeperdial wrote on 2010-12-07 15:21
  I'm thinking of doing material chemistry. Like ceramics, polymers, fake skin, bullet proof vest etc. But what makes it 'bio' cause I was also thinking of doing medicinal chemistry.
• Kueh wrote on 2010-12-07 15:37
  Because it interacts with processes of living things.
  
  I also suspect they made the particles using biochemical procedures.