Why you should avoid this new type of tomato seed when growing your own.
Why I do not advise eating it and here is why.
Messing With Homegrown Tomatoes
Someone recently asked me to comment on an article in the Epoch Times about GMO purple tomatoes. You should be able to read it for free.
If you search for homegrown purple tomatoes, you will see pages highlighting these wonderful new purple potatoes that look gorgeous on your plate, so why not grow them?
The purple tomato was created by inserting genes from the snapdragon plant into tomato cell DNA, which means this new variety is a GMO plant.
The new tomato contains anthocyanins, an antioxidant not found naturally in tomatoes. The anthocyanin amount in this GMO tomato is higher than in its naturally producing counterparts, such as blueberries and purple grapes.
Should you eat the new GMO purple tomatoes?
Forbes, the NYT, CNN, USDA, FDA, and other mainstream organizations recommend eating purple tomatoes!
That should answer the question, but let’s dive into the information.
You should avoid using these new seeds for a couple of reasons. I do not entirely understand the Epoch Times article, as I am not a geneticist but a nutritionist; however, I know something about antioxidants.
Antioxidants are compounds found in whole foods that can neutralize free radicals and reduce a systemic inflammatory response in the body. Antioxidants are found in your colorful whole foods. For instance, anthocyanins are found in purple and reddish-blue foods, and lycopene is found in red and pink foods such as tomatoes and watermelon.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of substances act as antioxidants. Vitamins, such as vitamins C and E, can act as antioxidants. Phytochemicals in plants are also antioxidants, such as carotenoids in yellow and orange foods. Spices and herbs are also antioxidant-rich.
Most antioxidants found in plants are concentrated in the skin or peel of the food.
Eating a rainbow of whole foods has many benefits. When you do so, you get an array of naturally antioxidant-rich foods that have been shown to reduce CVD, cancer, and dementia.
Anthocyanins
According to this systematic review and meta-analysis by Fallah et al. (2020), this compound found in purple and blue whole foods, such as blueberries, can reduce oxidative stress and provide other health benefits.
The new GMO tomato contains high levels of anthocyanins. Tomatoes naturally contain lycopene, another antioxidant.
Safety concerns about the GMO purple tomato
In this article, Williams (an RD) says that GMO foods are safe because that is what the FDA says. The article also repeats the statement that GMOs are safe because
“technically, genetic modification has been cultivated for thousands of years through cross-pollination and crossbreeding. Its modernized form is done in a lab.”
So they must be safe, right?
Williams states that GMOs have been in our food supply for over 20 years, and no health issues have been reported from eating them.
Thus, she concludes that these tomatoes are safe to eat.
I beg to differ.
Her comment that there have not been any reported health issues from eating GMO foods is an ignorant statement.
If you want to explore GMOs in more depth, the best source I know of is Jeffrey Smith, whose site is https://responsibletechnology.org.
Smith will clear up some confusion on his site, such as that GMOs are NOT the same as traditional breeding and are not necessary to feed the world's population.
Williams’s comment that there have been no reported health issues with GMOs is absurd because often the danger is not right after ingestion but the long-term downstream health effects that no one would trace back to GMO foods. Much like studies on anti-depressants (have you seen a long-term antidepressant study evaluating effectiveness and safety after years of use), there are few long-term and in-depth studies examining the effects of GMOs on humans.
Or, for that matter, the new c19 injections. Often, the health issue does not arise right after the injection.
Damage from daily GMO consumption may elicit health issues years later that no one will ever associate with your GMO-filled diet.
In GMO Myths and Truths by Fagan and colleagues, they discuss the science that is ignored and the researchers who are attacked if they do find issues with GMOs. (not much different than vaccine or medication studies, is it?)
Why we should not mess with the antioxidant content in our foods
Honestly, I do not even understand why they added anthocyanins to tomatoes. Instead, eat purple foods such as blueberries, purple grapes, and eggplant.
Food found in nature is created with the right blend of nutrients in perfect little packages. Why are we messing with our fruit and vegetables? Why does a tomato need an antioxidant that it does not contain in nature?
But now, if you eat a tomato, you are not only getting anthocyanin but also much more than you would naturally find in a plant source such as blueberries.
Someone is sure happy about the new GMO seed, and obviously, many gardeners think that the GMO seed is great, too!
This company states they have already sold in 2024 over 13,000 purple tomato seed packets for home gardening.
Getting too many antioxidants can backfire.
Again, food contains nutrients, including antioxidants, in the proper concentrations, so why put them in a tomato where they don’t belong and add even more than what is found in nature?
Consuming more antioxidants than you require can backfire, leading to antioxidative stress. This typically happens when you take supplemental antioxidants, but it was never an issue with whole foods.
Will antioxidative stress occur now from eating too many GMO plants with higher antioxidant content not found in nature?
According to Poljsak et al. (2013), too much of a good thing, such as antioxidants, can upset the balance of antioxidants to free radicals, resulting in aging, interfering with immune function, contributing to cancer, and possibly increasing mortality.
Taking too much of one antioxidant, such as anthocyanin, can disrupt the balance with other antioxidants and lead to oxidative stress.
Where antioxidants are located in natural produce
You should not peel off the top layers of your produce because this is where your antioxidants are found in concentrated amounts. This is why you should scrub your carrots instead of peeling them and only peel off the outer skin of an onion—don’t waste those top antioxidant-rich layers. Some skins you can eat, such as kiwi skin, which many people do not know they can eat.
According to the Epoch Times article, this new GMO tomato contains an antioxidant not naturally found in tomatoes that is also added to the entire tomato, not just the outer skin layer, increasing the anthocyanin content to unnatural amounts.
Bottom Line
Grow tomatoes from organic seeds or buy organic tomatoes and avoid unnatural tomatoes. You do not need a tomato with higher anthocyanin content.
Get this antioxidant from foods that contain naturally occurring anthocyanins that will also be in the right amounts rather than the excessive amounts found in the GMO purple tomato.
While some people may think the purple GMO tomato has benefits, it may backfire and lead to an imbalance of antioxidants, leading to oxidative stress.
The biggest concern is cross-pollinating your home-grown tomatoes with a neighbor who may be using GMO seed. This will be the biggest challenge depending on where you live and whether you grow in a greenhouse, indoors, or outdoors.
Show my posts some love, please!
It is just me writing, reading, researching, and seeing clients!
I do not use mainstream social media, so please share my posts so that more people can get informed on how to get and stay healthy.
This is NOT information allopathic practitioners will share with you.
Thanks Karen, that was an excellent response to the purple tomato. I do grow a cherokee purple which is an heirloom. It does have a very deep red inside, which i think is why it's called purple.
Hello Karen, You say you are not a geneticist, but a nutritionist.
Well I am a geneticist, actually a plant breeder, and can tell you that anthocyanin is present naturally in tomato and can be bred into commercial tomatoes resulting in large increases in anthocyanin content. While the tomato you mention is GMO, there are several commercial varieties of tomato with enhanced purple pigmentation that are not GMO and safe to eat. See https://phys.org/news/2023-04-purple-tomatoes-high-anthocyanin-content.html and see:
https://journals.ashs.org/jashs/view/journals/jashs/133/2/article-p262.xml. Also see this reference: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2019.00133/full.