A load of new research from an unlikely source has captured the interest of scientists and health nuts around the world. Ria Chhabra, a 16 year old Sophomore Student from Texas, has been working under an SMU Professor for the past three years on what was originally a science fair project. The project studies the lives of fruit flies who live entirely on either conventional or organic diets and the results are startling.
"By nearly every measure, including fertility, stress resistance and longevity, flies that fed on organic bananas and potatoes fared better than those who dined on conventionally raised produce." - NY Times
Ria Chhabra showing off her science fair project
- The New York Times
The results are exciting as they offer more clear insight into the relationship between organic food and quality of life. While fruit flies are obviously not human, they are used regularly as analogues to study life cycles in a fast-cycling microcosm. Further work on type-two diabetes in fruit flies will be released by Chhabra and her research team at SMU in the coming weeks.
We hope more extrapolation of the data comes out soon!
Chhabra's results have been peer reviewed and published in the peer reviewed journal Plos One.