for National Geographic News
Purple carrots, low-carb potatoes, orange cauliflower, broccolini: So- called designer vegetables have been making headlines of late.
Exotic colors, enhanced nutritional value, reduced calories, and added health benefits have some nutritionists—weary of the uphill struggle in a supersize fast food universe—hoping that designer veggies will grab our attention and find a place in our diets.
Vegetable plants can be modified in the field through crossbreeding and in the lab using genetic modification. For years, plant scientists developing new varieties focused on farmers' needs. A variety, be it fruit, vegetable, or grain, needed to be hardy, prolific, and disease resistant. Flavor and good looks counted too.
Today plant scientists are also taking the consumer into account. Extensive work is being done to create varieties that are pumped up in vitamins and phytonutrients—the protective compounds in plants that can strengthen the immune system, inhibit diseased cells, and fight damage from radiation and ultraviolet light.
Up-and-Coming Veggie Superstars
In an Atkins-diet, low-carbohydrate-obsessed world, potatoes don't show up on anyone's menu plan. That may change as HZPC, a Dutch seed-development company, introduces its new low-carb potato to the marketplace.
"The low-carb potato was actually chosen based on its appearance and taste—it is smooth-skinned and bright, early maturing, and stores well," said Don Northcott, a marketing manager for HZPC. "The fact that it has 25 to 30 percent less starch than the two varieties most often found in the United States and Canada was a huge bonanza."
Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Beltsville, Maryland, are working on a potato variety loaded with lutein, an antioxidant that has benefits for eye, skin, and cardiovascular health. Lutein is thought to help prevent macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly.
"The most common source for lutein is from dark green leafy vegetables like kale, collards, and spinach," said Beverly Clevidence, director of the Diet and Human Performance Laboratory of the ARS. "People who don't like vegetables tend to hate those. Potatoes are the most commonly consumed vegetable in the American diet, so it would be a tremendous advantage to get lutein into something frequently consumed."
The "Spud-U-Lite," as some are calling it, is expected in southeastern U.S. stores in early 2005.
Carrots, loaded with beta-carotenes, are the most important source of vitamin A for people in the United States, Africa, and Asia. Who knew they'd only been orange for about 400 years? Researchers at the University of Wisconsin are working to reintroduce red, purple, and yellow carrots.
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