If your body doesn’t have enough Vitamin D, that could lead to some serious health problems that involve osteoporosis and broken bones. Luckily enough, there are many foods you can consume to get the vitamin: sardines, beef liver, tuna fish, dairy and plant milk, and so on.
But above all, our bodies are able to naturally produce some levels of Vitamin D. That happens during exposure to sunlight – the body will start producing the vitamin from cholesterol. Therefore, spending too much time indoors is not exactly a good idea if you care about your health.
Gene-edited tomatoes using the CRISPR-Cas9 technology may be the new Vitamin D source you need
According to CNN, scientists have gene-edited tomatoes using the CRISPR-Cas9 technology to provide a new potential source of Vitamin D. If you’re not comfortable with the idea of consuming meat to get your dose of the vitamin, there you have another strong reason to consider eating such tomatoes.
Even with the wide variety of options when it comes to getting Vitamin D, some people still lack enough of it in their bodies. According to Healthline.com, up to 40% of adults living in the US don’t have high enough levels of Vitamin D. The same source tells us about the important functions that the vitamin has in the human body. For instance, it can regulate the absorption of calcium and phosphorus.
Guy Poppy, who’s a professor of ecology at the University of Southampton, said for the Science Media Centre in London and as quoted by CNN:
This exciting discovery not only improves human health but contributes to the environmental benefits associated with more plant-based diets — often linked with a challenge in securing some key vitamins and minerals widely found and bioavailable in animal products.
The new study was published in Nature Plants.
