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Scientists Grow Decaffeinated Coffee Plants
An anonymous reader writes "According to a CBC News story, researchers have genetically modified coffee seedlings to produce up to 70 per cent less caffeine." The Japanese researchers quoted in the article say "..demand for decaffeinated coffee is growing worldwide. Caffeine can trigger palpitations, increase blood pressure and disrupt sleep in sensitive people", and so "..used a tool called RNA interference to genetically engineer the one-year-old plants." Seems like these boffins may be competing against the University Of Hawaii researchers we mentioned last year to take away your buzz.
Caffeine can trigger palpitations, increase blood pressure and disrupt sleep in sensitive people
:/
I don't think this is a good idea to get "sensitive people" used to the taste of stuff which is not good for them.
This is like Coke Light : though it has no sugar inside it still tastes exageratedly sweet and this would be a better idea to get the "users" curious about differently tasted products.
I am afraid, at the end of the story, everything will taste the same and recipe will consist of posologies.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
So we must protect the fools who, in spite of the symptoms, insist on drinking coffee. Not only do we have to do that, but we'll just have to do it by letting loose modifed genomes with no idea of how this will change the ecosystem?
GM food has not been proved safe in long term cultivation and it will not help to relieve hunger in 3rd world countries. Hunger is a political problem, not an agricultural problem. The production capacity of the Earth would feed the current and future population very well if the distribution of food were done fairly.
BOO! TERRO
I'm sure this story will be full of "what's the point?!" comments. Just a single data point / anecdotal bit of evidence. I always had trouble getting to sleep (and, consequently, getting up in the morning) although I stuck to only two or three cups of instant, and nothing after midday/1pm. Just for the hell of it, I had a cup of tea for my morning kickstart a couple of weeks ago, and stayed off coffee the rest of the day. Result: solid refreshing sleep;
4) happiness! (better than profit! any day...)
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
Surely the kind of person who thinks caffeine will kill them, is hardly likely to touch a genetically modified plant? Never mind that maize, wheat, barley et al are all genetically modified grass, and cabbages, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and swedes are all genetically modified turnips. OK, in those cases the GM was done the slow way, but evolution is still technically genetic modification.
:) but a worthwhile one}.
.....
If ever anyone needed concrete evidence that the world is going stark, raving bonkers, this is surely it. First it was Lucozade Light {for the benefit of foreigners, Lucozade is a high-calorie drink with glucose for an instant energy boost. Table sugar is sucrose, which the body has to hydrolyse into glucose and fructose.} The whole point of Lucozade is to provide quickly-assimilated calories. If you need fewer calories then just drink less; if you still need fluid then dilute it with water.
Not so long ago we ate loads of fried food, fat and sugar, we smoked woodbines, we drank beer and whisky all the time and we didn't die! We weren't all pasty-faced, nesh asthmatics either. Nowadays it is "trendy" to be a health freak, so people latch onto any convenient buzz-words without thinking properly what they mean. Then they drive their cars from the bedroom to the bathroom to the gym, where they pay good money to sit on a fake bike and pedal nowhere. I bet some young mother somewhere is probably bringing up a baby exclusively on soya milk because she thinks breast milk is bad for you.
Last year, in a Tesco supermarket, I found Organic Milk -- available in skimmed and semi-skimmed varieties, but not full cream. So, you go organic to get nothing artificial added, then they go and take something natural away. {it's not that long ago I remember drinking unpasteurised milk - a test of faith in the immune system
What next, decaffeinated Red Bull? For crying out loud, if you don't like the thought of caffeine, then don't drink coffee! Or drink tea, which contains something that stops your body absorbing caffeine.
Somebody needs to patent a home coffee decaffeinator - and maybe a home milk skimmer/semi-skimmer - to sell to the trendy brigade. Or, failing that, a way of distributing a clue
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
Seriously, ditching caffeine last year has had many benefits: more energy, better concentration, easier time sleeping, and more restful sleep. Plus no frantic lunges for the mug when those caffeine deprivation headaches set in.
These days I'll brew up strong decaf (to make up for the flavor loss from decaffeination), herbal tea (roibos, yum), and decaf black tea. I save those wonderful espressos, cappuccinos, etc. for those times when I'm terribly exhausted, at which point the caffeine has a big big effect since the addiction's gone. Or I'll drink a mate for a similar kick.
Or a "seedless watermelon"!
Or any of those monstrous "seedless grapes"!
Or, God forbid, monstrosities such as "broccoflower"!
Honestly, you people who use the term "frankenfood" have absolutley no clue what you are talking about. Get a remedial education about what you actually do eat, then come back!
Curb CO2 emissions: Kill yourself today!
As troll-like as it seems it's not particularly offtopic. Monsanto is one of the world's biggest producers of genetically modified plants, and often has a nasty way of sneaking them into places through backdoors.
Certainly, and I really like the taste of beer, that's why i grab myself a couple alcohol-free beers in the morning before making the commute to work. Once though, I was picked up for speeding and swirving a little. me thinks perhaps I grabbed the wrong bottles that morning. anyway...
... non-dairy creamer... dupe-free slashdot...
caffinated beverages are consumed for their stimulating properties, alcoholic beverages are consumed for their alcoholic properties and water is consumed for its thirst quenching properties. some how i think this shit's here for a reason.
fat free hamburgers... carb free pancakes
I hope their new bean has a unique and interesting taste; if so, I'll definitely be buying it--caffeine or not. But these guys shouldn't be focusing on caffeine, they should be trying to produce a coffee bean that can be grown easily in many regions, yet tastes as good as Jamaica Blue Mountain. They should be making coffees that taste more like chocolate, or like orange or like a thousand other things.
"A *person* is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."
- 'K' in Men in Black.
...or (C) Scott Adams was the anonymous reader who submitted the story.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Rumor has it John Ashcroft is trying to get it declared as a controlled substance.
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
If these coffee plants contain 70% less caffeine, I wonder how succeptible to pests they will be since caffeine acts as an insecticide to prevent insects from tearing the coffee plant to shreds.
I'm sure there is someone out there wondering what the point of coffee is when there is esspresso.
Look at tea. There are vastly differing levels of caffeine in the different types of tea. Why not let the same be true for coffee.
Why should you care what someone else drinks, or how it affects your image of what the drink should be.
postmodernsideshow.com
Some of us like the taste of coffee, but don't like the effects.
Believe me, I love a good caffeine buzz -- and for the longest time, I didn't think it was affecting me, because I could easily go to sleep at night, and I could sleep for 12 hours at a stretch, too!
Problem was, I was always tired. No amount of sleep was enough. My doctor suggested quitting caffeine -- and it worked! Like a charm. Sure, I had a pounding headache for the first week, but after that, I felt great, and I could wake up refreshed after a normal amount of sleep. I actually had *more* energy than I did while on caffeine.
I grew up drinking coffee. My dad taught me how to brew it when I was four. Cheap decaf sucks -- my understanding is that they use chlorine in the process, but whatever the reason, cheap decaf makes my stomach churn. It also tastes awful. Expensive decaf is better, but still just a little less tasty than the real deal.
If they can make a plant that will give me yummy coffee and little caffeine, I'm all for it!
-monique