Hope Not Hype - Third World Network

44 Hope Not Hype
Figure 4.1: Lysine and carbohydrate relationships in common foods. Illustrated
are, from right to left, the values for LY038, oats, sweet corn, broccoli, lentils,
edam cheese, raw egg, chicken, fish (tuna, flatfish and Pacific cod) and red meat
(Nutrient Data Laboratory, 2006).
Carbohydrate and lysine content for diverse food products
Lysine (mg/100g)
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
LY038
0 20000 40000 60000 80000
Carbohydrate (mg/100g)
maize called LY038. This maize was ostensibly produced as an animal feed, but because
it is expected to co-mingle with the human food supply, the developer has sought approval
in various jurisdictions to allow this material into human food (FSANZ, 2006). It was
exclusively safety tested as raw corn – the way animals eat it – but because of its unique
composition it may produce food hazards only when in its cooked or processed form – the
way humans eat it.
LY038 has extremely high concentrations of the amino compounds free lysine and
various toxic breakdown products of lysine (Table 4.2). Vegetables are normally low in
free amino acids, especially lysine (Mennella et al., 2006). There is approximately 52
times more free lysine in LY038 compared to other varieties of maize and four times the
sugar of sweet corn (Table 4.3). Moreover, the ratio of free lysine to total lysine is 30
times higher in LY038 than in the comparator used by the developer (LY038(-), Table
4.4). All foods high in lysine for which proper measurements are available, are extremely
low in free lysine and sugar. LY038 has an apparently unique composition with respect to
these two compounds (Figure 4.1).
There are compelling reasons to believe that when prepared as human food, LY038
will be the source of products or concentrations of products unique to this corn. When
cooked, amino compounds and sugar combine to form advanced glycoxidation end products
(AGEs) (for reviews, see Huebschmann et al., 2006; Terry, 2007). While some AGEs
might be beneficial, it is not possible in advance to know which are and which are not.
Dietary AGEs are meanwhile thought to contribute “to the pathologic sequelae seen in
normal aging, diabetes, and kidney disease” (quote from Goldberg et al., 2004, p. 1289;