Scientists Clone Sheep With 'Good' Fat 233
redletterdave writes "Chinese scientists have cloned a genetically modified sheep containing a 'good' type of fat found naturally in nuts, seeds, fish and leafy greens that helps reduce the risk of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. The gene, which is linked to the production of polyunsaturated fatty acids, was inserted into a donor cell taken from the ear of a Chinese Merino sheep. The cell was then inserted into an unfertilized egg and implanted into the womb of a surrogate sheep. With any luck, this process could be replicated in the future to clone more animals for safe and healthy consumption."
Genetically Modified Hogs next? (Score:5, Funny)
First clone of first post! (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
They already have that. It's chicken or turkey strips flavored like bacon. Very good with almost no bad fat.
They already have that. It's chicken or turkey strips flavored like bacon. Very good with almost no bad fat.
Re:First clone of first post! (Score:4, Insightful)
I would dispute 'very good'.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Of course, it will smell like fish when you fry it...
Re: (Score:2)
But first you have to catch before it flies away!!! Watch out for the tentacles.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? (Score:5, Funny)
ECOPIG!!! Swine of environmental justice!!!! Wherever evil agro-corps commit atrocities against the natural landscape ECOPIG and his sidekick PIGGY-SUE will snort in the face of danger and send those business hogs back to Wallstreet squealing!!!
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? (Score:5, Interesting)
I kinda disagree with that. Yes, current meats are kinda... bad in large amounts but that is largely because of the way the body works... if you live on mostly meats without much in the way of carbs, you'll be just fine and your body will consume those "bad fats." Problem is, it is really hard to eat that way... really hard. It's good to mix things up. So if we can have meats without the negative health impact when mixed with other things, we will get the benefits of the protiens and all the good things meat offers and still be able to eat it with things more carby... like spaghetti in meat sauce... :)
Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? (Score:5, Insightful)
Worth pointing out that the same applies to vegetables and fruits. Winter tomatoes grown in the sandy soils of Florida can't really be compared nutritionally [npr.org] to what someone can get out of their own garden.
Ultimately, it's all about the "ingredients". That's long been considered a truism for chefs in the kitchen as it is for someone involved in raising animals. That this is routinely overlooked, glossed over or otherwise dismissed in the pursuit of economic interests and efficiencies is both funny and tragic. Funny in the sense of "What the hell did you expect?", and tragic in the sense of engaging in (and wasting time and effort with) tortured discussions of good/bad ideas and practices which, ultimately, are workaround to workarounds.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? (Score:5, Funny)
When chickens are raised on a diet or worms that grow in fresh cow dung, the consistency, flavor, and overall health of their eggs is substantially higher than what is generally available in the supermarket.
For some reason, the more you talk up animal products, the more I want to become a vegan.
Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? (Score:5, Informative)
For some reason, the more you talk up animal products, the more I want to become a vegan.
I favor meat licenses. You should have to tour a slaughterhouse or kill and cook an animal before you're allowed to eat meat. Let's have a little recognition of where our food comes from and what happens to it on the way. I've killed, skinned, cut up and cooked a deer, I've caught and killed a goose by hand and it went in the stew... I understand I'm eating life, and what that actually means, and I'm cool with it. I know that when you cut them, stuff comes out you don't want on your hands, and yet after you grill them they are goddamned delicious, and good for you. If I eat a typical meal (notably including a little carb bomb) I feel stuffed and weighted down. If I just eat a big fucking steak I feel great, full of energy, have a nice crap the next morning and I'm up and at 'em. Meat, it's what's for dinner.
BRING ON THE CRAPWORMS
Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? (Score:4, Insightful)
When chickens are raised on a diet or worms that grow in fresh cow dung, the consistency, flavor, and overall health of their eggs is substantially higher than what is generally available in the supermarket.
For some reason, the more you talk up animal products, the more I want to become a vegan.
Funny you would say that. Have you seen the crap that vegetables are grown in? As someone who grows his own vegetables, let me tell you how to make the most healthy soil available.
1) Start with fresh manure from a herbivore. That's crap from a vegetarian to you city folk. Bunny crap works the best when mixed with urine soaked saw dust. Horse manure mixed with urine soaked bedding, cow, goat,llama or other large, herbivore mammal will also work.
2) Allow it to rot for a few months. (This is a good additive as is, but we can make it better)
3) Feed the rotted manure it to worms. Red Wigglers are the most common.
4) Separate the live worms from the worm crap.
5) The crap that is left is the best soil you will ever run across and it will produce the greatest vegetables on the planet.
That's right. Crap from crap fed worms is the best soil imaginable. Of course, that re-crapped crap is what is absorbed into the plants, mixed with water, CO2 and sunlight to make the vegetables you eat. And they are delicious!
Of course, some animal products can be beneficial as well. Bone meal (ground up animal bones), blood meal and fish emulsion are also beneficial, but nothing compares to good old worm shit.
Don't think that just because you are vegetarian that you are not eating crap. Manure is the most important product in agriculture behind sunlight and water.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? (Score:5, Interesting)
How is it difficult to eat "that way"?
IMO it's very easy to have a diet which is primarily meat. You don't have to eat a large pork rind for breakfast or a side of bacon every other week, but if you've got good quality meat available, short of filling up your cart with lots of different meats and a handful of odd veggies at the grocery, it's really not that hard.
You need less food (in volume) if you're eating meat than if you were eating a 'mixed' carb-heavy diet, too, which certainly helps. Judging from what I've seen vegans or even vegeterians deal with, it's certainly easier (in terms of food prep and quantity) and less costly.
Re: (Score:2)
Try going to McDonald's or any place where "I need to eat and get back to work ASAP" serves up food. You can't get what you're looking for. Back in Texas, we have "Souper Salad." Those places are awesome... get what you need/want and fast and cheap. Out here on the east coast, that chain and none like it exists out here. This, then, necessitates planning and extra individual energies and time consumption on my part.
It's the accessibility problem that is a big part. Another big part is the social compo
Re: (Score:2)
Try going to McDonald's or any place where "I need to eat and get back to work ASAP" serves up food. You can't get what you're looking for. Back in Texas, we have "Souper Salad." Those places are awesome... get what you need/want and fast and cheap. Out here on the east coast, that chain and none like it exists out here.
On the West Coast, where culture and technology comes from, we have an invention known as "Fresh Choice" where you may assemble your own salad and eat it at your own pace, yea verily, even back in your cubicle. We've had Souper Salads out here in California, too, not sure if any are left. Regardless, I'll have the soup. Iceberg fail.
Re: (Score:3)
You need less food (in volume) if you're eating meat than if you were eating a 'mixed' carb-heavy diet, too, which certainly helps. Judging from what I've seen vegans or even vegeterians deal with, it's certainly easier (in terms of food prep and quantity) and less costly
Eh? Less costly? Of course, I don't know what kind of vegan you have seen, but I assume they are the kind that live on this planet (as opposed to Vegans, if you know what I mean).
Personally, I have gone from eating loads of meat about 6 years ago to eating very little of it - I've just lost the appetite for meat, somehow. I can cook a very good bean curry, which will provide my lunch for about 3 or 4 days, for as little as 2 GBP. It takes longer to cook, but the actual work involved is about 10 minutes - ca
Re: (Score:2)
He was eating grain-fed animals, though. And not following his diet (if you're referring to Atkins).
Native Americans ate primarily animal meat and vegetables. They didn't have any significant heart disease until we started introducing them to cultivated grains (and alcohol).
Re: (Score:3)
Jim Fixx popularized jogging with "The Complete Book of Running," then died of a heart attack at age 52. An autopsy revealed a cornorary artery that was 95% blocked. Sample size of 1 and all that.
Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? (Score:5, Informative)
Then you die like the doctor who came-up with this "eat lots of fat" diet.
If you think that his diet was the cause of the fall and resulting head trauma that killed him, I've got some news for you: you're a fucking moron. [wikipedia.org]
Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? (Score:4, Interesting)
>Then you die like the doctor who came-up with this "eat lots of fat" diet.
If you're referring to Atkins, he died after slipping on the ice, falling, hitting his head and going into a coma. Diet had nothing to do with that (unless he was drunk at the time!).
I dropped carbs pretty much completely out of my diet a year ago, and started eating meat with every meal after having been a vegetarian for over 20 years. I've dropped from about 215 to 165lbs, and my cholesterol has dropped from over 250 to 200. My "bad" cholesterol has plummeted, and my "good" cholesterol has skyrocketed. My triglycerides are way down. So's my blood pressure. So all of my markers correlated with heart disease have improved, dramatically. And I sleep better and have more energy.
Atkins was right. I just gotta be more careful than he was when I step on icy sidewalks!
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but you're 3' 6".
Re: (Score:2)
Wholly crap! You're right! If I keep this up, I'm going to slip on the ice and crack my skull! Atkins died in good health... except for that accident.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh shush! Let Darwin do his work.
Re: (Score:3)
I'd love to get my hands on some meat that simultaneously tastes like pork and fish.
Her name is Shiela, and she's not all that interesting... really.
Re: (Score:2)
I think it's probably because most of the world loves eating lamb. Roast lamb is a thing of joy. It's delicious if quite fatty.
I'm not sure why it's not so much of a thing in the US. I understand it's regarded in a similar way to how I regard goat - no majpr objections to the idea but it's a bit weird.
Re: (Score:2)
Then you must be doing something wrong, it's absolutely delicious (IMHO).
We only eat the baby sheep of course.
my wife... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
"So... your neighbor?"
Nah. It's why all his kids look like either the mailman or the plumber.
Re: (Score:2)
its usually while i'm doing your mom and your sister
Re: (Score:2)
Well, I'll admit that's "found naturally in nuts" too...
Somatic cell = old mitochondria (Score:2)
Re:Somatic cell = old mitochondria NOT (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure it's not the mitochondria, but the shortened telomeres in the older nuclear DNA.
Re: (Score:3)
If you're breeding for food purposes, I don't think longevity matters that much. Dolly lived for much longer than the usual term for lamb that are bred for meat.
Except that breeding the old fashioned way is probably a lot cheaper than cloning and genetic modification. I would think that ideally, you'd want to clone/modify a few and then breed them.
Ethics of GMO animals? (Score:3)
GMO plants is one thing, but animals? I can't quite put my finger on why, but someting about this seems... troubling.
Re: (Score:2)
Because you think modern livestock haven't undergone genetic modification?
Re:Ethics of GMO animals? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Because you can't treat a plant inhumanely. Sheep can suffer. And we know how compatible capitalism and bioethics is.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
We've been doing GMO for centuries, many of them. The difference is now we're able to make specific, targeted changes much more rapidly, whereas before we had to breed features in and out of our food species over very (very very in some cases) long periods with only a partial ability to control the outcomes well. This whole argument is kinda like hearing someone say "You genetically modified a housecat to not have claws? That's so unnatural!" .. as if housecats are at all natural. We created what they a
Creepy mental image (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Wait until they cross them with cinnamon trees.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Don't be daft. Mint.
Re: (Score:2)
Ahhh, long, fluffy, and fresh breath... I've got the mint, but no leg of larm!!!
Either Hitch Hikers or Dune comes to mind now (Score:2)
from cows that want to be eaten to genetically engineering animals to taste better and perform other tasks, I mean it cannot be far off before we engineer the livestock to eat bad stuff and convert it.
"fat found in nuts, seeds, fish and greens" (Score:2)
So we'll soon have mutton that tastes like spinach?
Re: (Score:3)
Or cashews.
Could be a growth market - flavored cows. Spinach cows, cashew cows, trout cows, kale cows.....
Dunno.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know where that nonsense came from. The fat gene comes from a worm.
Healthy (Score:5, Interesting)
Worth mentioning that humans evolved to eat animals with standard fat percentages, not margarine or mealworm-sheep. There is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD [ajcn.org], and there are healthy populations that traditionally go 6-9 months with no fats except animals fats.
Re: (Score:2)
and there are healthy populations that traditionally go 6-9 months with no fats except animals fats.
Bear in mind these populations probably also get a good amount of exercise... Here in 'merica we want to have our fat and eat it too.
Re:Healthy (Score:5, Insightful)
Here in America, we also have processed grains in everything.
We also have a very high percentage of our diets consist of processed GMO grains (corn, wheat). If you're having 2 hamburgers with a handful of corn chips and two white wheat buns, the meat isn't going to be the primary component of the meal.
It seems that every couple months there's a news article about some old guy or gal who died after a fairly insignificant (not particularly active or sedentary, nothing really marked to note) life who spent their entire life having pork (ham/bacon) and eggs for breakfast every day. It wasn't until the inclusion of excess grains that Americans started to have issues in the late 1800s.
Re:Healthy (Score:4, Informative)
Worth mentioning that humans evolved to eat animals with standard fat percentages, not margarine or mealworm-sheep. There is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD [ajcn.org], and there are healthy populations that traditionally go 6-9 months with no fats except animals fats.
FWIW, the main advance with this announcement is not the omega-3/FAT-1 transgenic aspect, it is the new cloning technique BGI calls handmade cloning which apparently allows lower-tech facilities and higher transgenic clone yield. BGI has already done this transgenic modification with pigs and now they have done it with sheep. With this new cloning technique, however, it might be possible to do this at an industrial scale.
However, If you are interested instead about this specific "fat-1" transgenic idea, it was done with mice [nih.gov] way back in 2004.
Although that is possibly true that saturated fats aren't corrolated with increased risk of CHD or CVD, omega-3 fatty acids are required for controlling blood clotting and building cell membranes in the brain and are assumed to be a necessary nutrient. The "healthy populations" you seem to be alluding to likley maintain their consumption of omega-3 fatty acids from seafood and nuts and oils for 6-9 months of the year.
Evolution is far from perfection in some cases (Score:3)
Worth mentioning that humans evolved to eat animals with standard fat percentages, not margarine or mealworm-sheep.
Worth mentioning that humans evolved with recurved spines that cause back pain. Evolved eating, breathing and speaking out of the same hole. Evolved all kinds of stupid, non-optimized features, of which our fat intake/heart disease relationship may be another. "The Panda's Thumb," by Stephen Gould, is a good read. In one of the many essays, he argues that the panda's screwy thumb isn't some highly optimized limb for stripping bamboo, it's just what evolution has managed to give the panda to date, with the p
Re: (Score:2)
Worth mentioning that humans evolved with recurved spines that cause back pain.
They also grant exceptional mobility, helping us to be some of the most versatile creatures on the planet, able to reach and survive in more environments than any other single species.
Evolved eating, breathing and speaking out of the same hole.
Only 5-10% of communication is verbal.
Evolved all kinds of stupid, non-optimized features, of which our fat intake/heart disease relationship may be another.
It looks stupid and non-optimized to you because you don't understand it. It's optimized for adaptation, which happened because we are semi-migratory in that we have had numerous substantial migrations and the resulting genes are eventually folded back in to the mixture.
In one of the many essays, he argues that the panda's screwy thumb isn't some highly optimized limb for stripping bamboo, it's just what evolution has managed to give the panda to date, with the poorly-suited wristbone it had to work with.
Yes, that is how ev
Re: (Score:2)
Worth mentioning that humans evolved to eat animals with standard fat percentages,
Except we didn't evolve to eat animals every day in large amounts. There ARE significant studies that have correlated high LDL cholesterol with heart disease, and there are studies linking high saturated fats with an increase in LDL cholesterol.
Re: (Score:3)
>Except we didn't evolve to eat animals every day in large amounts.
Oh really? So what were we eating for the million or so years the human race evolved prior to the invention of agriculture?
Of course we ate meat. It was the only thing an animal our size with a digestive system like ours could eat. Any study of primitive, hunter-gatherer societies will show that meat, eggs, fish and insects are the primary component of the diet in pre-agricultural cultures. Nuts, seasonal fruits, a few starchy tubers
What could go wrong? (Score:3)
I don't want to seem old or old fashioned but this seems like a really bad idea in numerous ways. Maybe they should feed the clone brains from another sheep to add another dubious aspect to this process.
Re: (Score:3)
Mmmm... Slig! (Score:2)
When do we get Slig?
what about women? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So you want a woman with no breasts and no ass... hmmm why not just find a guy?
Re: (Score:2)
I saw a woman today at the grocery store who looked like she had zero body fat. Not a pretty sight I can tell you. I wanted to drop six pounds of bacon in her basket as an act of charity, bit I thought she might take it amiss. Besides, it wouldn't have been enough.
Re: (Score:2)
Fact: Few guys really like the skinny kind of woman.
I mean, seriously, when was the last time you walked past a construction site and heard "Hey, Bob, ya seen the hip bones of the chick?"
Disgusting (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
That the new race of superhumans that came from eating this mana from the gods is about embark on a long voyage to a distant new world they can see with their naked super eyes, and leave you sad organic nibbles to what's left of the earth.
Re: (Score:2)
That the new race of superhumans that came from eating this mana from the gods is about embark on a long voyage to a distant new world they can see with their naked super eyes, and leave you sad organic nibbles to what's left of the earth.
I've met quite a few of these "Gods" while drinking beer. Don't get your hopes up.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Chickens eat bugs and grass, not feed.
We domesticated chickens about 5000 years ago. They haven't been eating bugs and grass for a long time. (Actually I'm pretty certain birds don't eat grass at all, so you might want to brush up on your livestock knowledge). Chickens are entirely dependent on humans, and wouldn't survive a week without humans.
If you really want to stop eating anything humans have created and changed, you should stop eating almost everything in the food supply. About the only food in y
Re: (Score:2)
>They haven't been eating bugs and grass for a long time. (Actually I'm pretty certain
>birds don't eat grass at all, so you might want to brush up on your livestock knowledge).
Chickens most certainly eat grass. My grandmother used to raise a few. They eat a lot of stuff. They seemed to love bugs the most. They'll eat seeds and grains too, but there's no way that's the bulk of their diet in the wild.
We evolved to eat free range meat. Agriculture to produce farmed grains for livestock is a VERY rec
Re: (Score:2)
Planning a holiday soon?
polyunsaturated animal fats? (Score:2)
Aren't they usually a liquid at body temperature? Going to make for some really squishy lambs...
Re: (Score:2)
Try s sip, you might like it!!!
Re: (Score:2)
no, you're thinking plant fats with one hydrogen atom vs. animal fats with two. the "hydrogenate" plant fats to make them taste and have the texture of animal fats but as a result, they're just as bad for you.
This is more about the fatty acids and oils that are why fish are healthier to eat than beef (in that we eat too much beef and not enough fish, generally).
The real question is ...how will it taste.
Hmmm.. (Score:2)
What could possibly go wrong?
Roundworm fat (Score:2)
The article says they successfully cloned the roundworm gene into a sheep but doesn't say how much it changes the fat in the sheep. Who knows if it's even significant? And who knows if it's OK for sheep's health to make a weird kind of fat and who know if people will like to eat wormutton?
A lot of the taste of meat is in the fat. Will it taste wormy?
Re: (Score:2)
More than that, it will likely interact with the brain differently. You could conceivably be creating sheep with very different brain function.
Re: (Score:2)
An influence on the brain function of a sheep could only be for the better though.
Good fat, bad fat, I'm the guy with the gun (Score:2)
Am I the only one who thinks animals evolved with "bad fat" for a reason, other than clogging your cardiovascular system?
Perhaps this "bad fat" isn't so bad? Remember when eggs were really bad for you, because they contained cholesterol, and now they're really good for you, because they contain good cholesterol?
Re: (Score:3)
Food doesn't contain "good" or "bad" cholesterol. It's always good old (10R,13R)-10,13-dimethyl-17-(6-methylheptan-2-yl)-2,3,4,7,8,9,11,12,14,15,16,17-dodecahydro-1H-cyclopenta[a]phenanthren-3-ol (or C27H46O for short).
Those terms refer to the way it is tested in the blood. Cholesterol travels around the body in little bubbles named after the proteins they're carried in. The low-density ones tend to be worse, because they deliver cholesterol to the tissues. If you just look at the total cholesterol in the b
Absolutely no information (Score:3)
There is absolutely no information in the article. "Healthy fat found in seeds"?
What it sounds like they're doing is they've figured out how to genetically modify animals to produce omega 3 and similar types of fats instead of the fats commonly found in grain fed or industrially raised meats. That's actually fairly big (good) news, I think.
On the other hand, 'healthy' fat can be found in animals which are 'free range'. It's less environmentally intensive. The unhealthy fat found in animal meat is only unhealthy because of the way they're raised.
Re: (Score:2)
Omega 3s (DHA etc) are pretty sparse in plants, and the types of it in plants are poorly absorbed and metabolized. W
Sheep with roundworm fat? (Score:3)
Ewe!
or, just eat "nuts, seeds, fish and leafy greens" (Score:5, Insightful)
We already have chep chicken tasting like fish (Score:2)
Now we'll have lamb tasting like it, too.
China, land of the free (science)... (Score:2)
Be honest: You think this could have happened here? Where we get our panties in a knot if someone only DARES to mention the idea of cloning or "playing God"?
I know a few people who actually went over to China to do some research without having to deal more with some religious nuts than with actual scientific problems. And, face it, if the Chinese can do it, they will do it. And that kind of food will be popular, think of it: Tasty meat without the associated health risks of eating too much of it. You want t
Can we save our bacon? (Score:2)
bacon cracklins chicharrones ... at 60yo, I really miss ....
Re: (Score:2)
Good. Leaves more meat for the rest of us.
Re: (Score:2)
You can get that today, just be warned the cow will kick you ass for burning her udder!!!
Re:Fat? (Score:4, Informative)
I think you may be wrong. Nuts and avocados are the most common plants to contain fats, but others do as well. Like olives.
Unless you think you're frying your chicken on olive carbs, rather than olive oil?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Well obviously the fats came from animals. Olive trees are notorious for eating squirrels and other rodents.
Re: (Score:3)
Agreed, I'm still hoping it's a joke.
Re: (Score:2)
And not have to think about eating worms. Ewe!
Re: (Score:2)
This is really sad. I mean, you know the Internet is really going down the tubes if even spammers are too stupid to use it right.