WE are living in a time in which many of the foods we grow and consume are no longer in their natural state.
This has dire consequences on our health as shall be discussed in this article.
We shall also look at some ways in which one can tell which plant is hybrid or natural.
Every plant grown in the soil and depending on light and water to grow is considered organic.
Even if the light is not from the sun or the plant is grown indoors, it is the process of converting light and water into carbohydrates, namely photosynthesis, that makes them organic.
Humans and animals consume these carbohydrates to replenish the carbon and hydrogen in their bodies.
The basic building block of all living organisms on earth is carbon.
A large proportion of these organisms, including human beings, have a high water content.
Thus the hydrogen atoms in carbohydrates and water are very important for the body to replenish its cells.
Carbohydrates also provide blood glucose (sugar) which allows for energy flow and the process of breathing to take place.
Plants also absorb carbon dioxide during the day and convert it into oxygen which we need to breathe.
Without oxygen, breathing, thinking and other physiological processes are extremely hard and thus plants are of vital importance.
Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen (CHO) are therefore called the chain of life.
Besides fruits, grains and vegetables, plants provide shade, wind protection, decoration, construction materials and fuel (through firewood and fossil fuels).
There are also components of certain plants, particularly natural herbs that contain bark, roots and leaves which are medicinal if taken orally or applied topically.
The importance of telling between natural and hybrid plants lies in the issue of nutrient and mineral absorption.
The body has its origins in the soil, which contains in excess of 140 minerals including iron, zinc, potassium and manganese. These have to be replenished by the foods we eat.
A deficiency in any of the minerals our bodies are made up of causes disease.
For example, iron deficiency causes a fall in one’s haemoglobin count.
This leads to the failure of red blood cells to effectively carry oxygen throughout the body.
Headaches, light headedness and destracted thought processes are symptoms of iron deficiency (anaemia).
A deficiency in zinc causes nails to scale and all these are mere symptoms of a yet greater problem of mineral or nutrient deficiency.
There is also the need for food gene consistency.
This entails eating food that contains elements that the body comprises of.
Being obese, anorexic or in physical discomfort are telltale signs one’s diet may not be consistent with one’s genes.
Many wrongly assume it is because one eats too much or too little but it is often a case of one eating the wrong food for his or her body.
Harmful foods include concentrates like sugar, salt, oil, meat, milk, eggs and processed foods.
Evidentially, these edibles cannot be considered primary, though some are plant-based like sugar, yet far removed from their whole (unrefined) state.
However, simply becoming vegetarian or ‘vegan’ does not guarantee that one can successfully reverse or prevent these problems.
While this may be largely true, it should be realised that vegetarians or vegans are not immune to anorexia, obesity and other health problems.
This is because not all plants are healthy.
Many plants are hybrid and this means they would not have existed if mankind had not altered nature to an extent.
These hybrid plants are not as useful to the body and could in fact be damaging. Thus, it is important for one to be able to tell which is which; natural or hybrid.
Corn, carrot, most leafy vegetable, banana, potato, rice and so on are no longer in their natural state.
Corn or maize was engineered in Meso, US, by way of selective breeding of terracotta grass (qiosonte).
It has kernels that look like corn kernels but are much smaller and contain no starch.
Small tubers like the red rose of Lake Titikaka in Peru were also bred to become potatoes.
Rice is believed to have been engineered in East Asia from millet.
Carrots were engineered in relatively recent times in the Netherlands by way of joining two natural plants into the hybrid version we know today.
The hybrid plants often have no seed, or if they do, they do not grow in their wild state.
They need human intervention to survive.
Bananas originally had seed and were not as large and sweet as they are now.
Modern bananas have no seed within their fruit and are planted by way of cutting stems or taking new shoots and setting them in the soil.
Hybrid plants often have exaggerated size and sweetness as in the case of the modern strawberry and watermelon.
These used to be smaller and less sweet while the interior of the watermelon was white, not red.
The process of hybridisation involves identifying favourable traits like size and taste, isolating plants or animals that carry them and breeding them to produce fruit or offspring with the desired traits.
This is a safer hybrid form and is evident in the origins of the modern avocado pear whose ancestor only had a thin layer of flesh around its large seed.
Not as safe and sound is the process of cutting and binding different plants by the stem’s centre and producing a fruit non-identical to any of its parents.
This was the case with the carrot which was engineered from joining the yaro (queen enlace) and the wild yam.
This is a mechanical mixture as opposed to chemical affinity which only happens between plants of the same species.
This is similar to the conception of a mule as a result of mankind initiating and facilitating for a horse and donkey to copulate. The mule cannot reproduce itself afterwards and neither can the ‘liger’ which is an offspring of a lion and tiger.
The carrot thus depends on laboratories for its kind to reproduce, for it alone does not make seed to reproduce itself.
In both examples of the types of hybridisation, but more so the latter, the increase in size and sweetness can be attributed to one thing — starch.
Plants in their natural form produce fruit that is well-balanced in terms of starch and fibre, and containing minerals and nutrients appropriate for the season in which they will ripen.
For this reason, seasonal fruit (hybrid or not) is a must have. Oranges provide vitamin C and fructose to sustain us during winter while the watermelon provides energy and hydration during summer.
Being seasonal is a trait inherited from the natural plants from whence hybrids are derived.
Starch is a mildly refined sugar which, likewise, turns to glucose once digested.
Nature naturally limits and regulates the amount of starch in its produce and mankind adds it unnaturally when we produce hybrids.
Excess starch causes a wide range of health problems like sugar diabetes and glycation which can lead to organ failure.
This is opposed to sorghum (mapfunde), pearl (mhunga) and finger millet (rukweza).
These are all natural and have not undergone the hybridisation wheat, corn (maize) and rice have.
They are full of fibre which makes them assume a yellowy, grey and brown colour respectively when milled and cooked instead of white.