The Weight of The Evidence: Eating Food Plants and Food RNA Is Not Detrimental to Health

In a recent editorial article published by Salehi (2014) in Journal of Food Quality and Hazards Control (1: 93), the author cited two studies of plant microRNAs (miRNAs) as supporting adverse health consequences of genetically modified foods (Zhang et al., 2012a; Zhang et al., 2012b).The first of these studies reported that a conserved, ubiquitous, and high-abundance plant microRNA could regulate expression of the mammalian gene LDLRAP1 (Zhang et al., 2012a). On the other hand, analysis of public RNA expression datasets (Zhang et al., 2012b) found little evidence foruptake of plant dietary miRNAs, or xenomiRs (Witwer, 2012) by ingesting animals. Strikingly, and of some potential concern, it was suggested that the foods examined in these two studies (plants without specific modifications) are safe, while a f ood category not examined in the studies genetically modified plants) represents a health risk. It might be useful to examine the two cited studies more closely, as well as to consider the more recent literature on the topic of xenomiRs.