SubscribeFruit and Vegetables: Nutritional Quality Declining
"I remember the good old days... when the fruit was tastier and the vegetables more nutritious."
How many times have you heard such a sentiment? Or even said something similar yourself? We nod and laugh at our anecdotal observations - but what if somebody could prove it?
Research does indeed confirm this: The nutritional quality of fruits and vegetables is declining - and in some ways quite dramatically.
Research undertaken by Dr. Donald Davis, of the University of Texas examined 43 garden crops and compared nutrient data between two dates - 1950 and 1999. The results are, in my opinion, alarming. The research appears to have been largely ignored by the newspapers (as pointed out by the Huffington Post).
The decline in nutrients has come about by choice. The agricultural industry has chosen yield over quality (and in some people's opinion - taste has also been sacrificed).
A food science professor (an 'expert' with the Institute of Food Technologists) made this bland response:
...the decline of nutrients in vegetables and fruits could be made up through other foods Americans eat. "For vegans only using plant sources for food, this could be an issue," he said. But he said most Americans would pick up adequate quantities of calcium they need by drinking milk. (source)What a pathetic reaction. What other foods was he talking about? A Big Mac 'n' Fries? A punnet of M&Ms?
It seems the food industry doesn't really care. As long as you buy more processed foods, and as long as they get more dollars per hectare - health can be damned.
What have we done to ourselves? To eat healthy you avoid processed foods. Yet our fish supply is tainted with chemical pollutants, and our fruit and vegetable supply has been selectively bred to ignore nutritional quality.
The Evidence
(from J Am Coll Nutr Davis et al. 23 (6): 669)Decline in nutrients between 1950 and 1999
- Calcium -16%
- Phosphorous -9%
- Iron -15%
- Riboflavin -38%
- Ascorbic acid -15%
- Protein -6%
There were no detectable changes for vitamin A, thiamin, niacin, fat, or carbohydrate.
43 foods were tested - predominantly vegetables - including broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, cauliflower, cucumber, lettuce, onions, peas, potatoes, pumpkin, sweet corn, and sweet potatoes. There were also some fruits including strawberries and melons.
I took Environmental Geology to fulfill one of those dreaded requirements outside your major, ya know? ;-)
Anyway - I remember reading about all of the crap that is now in our soil (from construction, etc.) and how it makes its way into the water, etc., etc. Yuck. So this doesn't surprise me.
Perhaps we could make up for the vegetables with those veggie chips that have no vegetables in them. ;-)
ReplyGo organic or grow your own stuff. I personally believe that there should be a farmer's market Renaissance in cities large and small in the U.S. I think the demand is there to support it. Because I for one am getting sick and tired of these tasteless, man-made, cardboard concoctions of what use to be nature's bounty. Now it's just nature's folly.
ReplyNot only organic - but you have to track down heirloom seeds. The study in the Journal, concluded that it was more about selective breeding rather than depleted soils - although I suspect the two are linked.
ReplyIt's definitely a genetic thing, Jim. Plant breeders select strains that mature quickly, have large size, and are fairly disease resistant. Most of the time, the plant devotes more energy growing a large fruit than storing the nutrients in the fruit. Plus, nutrient storage isn't complete until the fruit is ripe, and almost NO packing company is going to harvest ripe produce. They pick it pretty green and it ripens artificially. I grow heirloom tomatoes every year and I swear, they taste SO much better than any store bought tomato ever could.
ReplyIt is a clear sense that with the ruthless growing in America, it's no wander that our nutritional value in the fruits and vegtables are dropping. Unless people stop using pesticides, the soil may infact be bad for crop growing.
Fokes, this is reversible. What they need to do is to:
Go organic,
Forbid the use of termination and synthetic biotechnology,
and don't use pesticides. It's that simple.
Not only that, our quality of our meats has gone so bad. The reason?
Chickens are drugged in a way that they artificially grown. This causes heart attacks and organ failures.
Cows and pigs are getting pussy wounds and all sorts of in fections.
Look, the underlying cause of sickness in America is because farmers are doing sloppy work on raising plants and cattle. All they have to do is to stop using pesticides and put animals back on the pasture and feed the foods they are supposed to eat. They also need to stop putting growth hormones, packing in to feed lots, and stop using progs and hot iron branding techniques.
That's all.
Also, I think that people should go back to bison, as this meat packs in more nutrients. But still eat organic fruits and vegtables.
ReplyI must confess I was ignorant on this subject, but I have certainly noticed the difference in taste over the past few years.
ReplyIt became more apparent to me last year, when our small community started a farmer's market on the town square on weekends. The corn, cabbages, tomatoes and potatoes I purchased there are not as uniform in size or appearance as the ones in the grocery, but the taste of these items was exquisite!
I am looking forward to it opening again this year, and am planning to try my hand at some canning this year.
I could see what he's saying about making some of the nutrients up from other foods.
* Calcium -16%
Pretty easy to get one's daily calcium from hi-calcium milks, even without the extra from plants. I even avoid veggies with significant amounts of calcium at meal-times, because I have low iron and it can interfere with uptake.
* Phosphorous -9%
Again, milk can be good for this.
* Iron -15%
Plant iron is a poor iron source in comparison to meat. I've seen non-haem iron's absorbtion described to be anywhere between 1/5th to 1/12th that of haem, plus it tends to be in lower quantities in the servings we eat. By eating meat and maybe some iron fortified things, that decline in plant iron shouldn't make a big dent in your overall daily absorbed iron.
* Riboflavin -38%
Gah, almost 40%?!?! But then again, milk and meat tend to be significant sources of riboflavin, it is possible to get your daily intake with no veg at all. (I wouldn't recommend it)
* Ascorbic acid -15%
Vitamin C by another name. It's in practically everything, you probably eat many times the necessary amount each day. Provided you're eating some fruit and veg, this shouldn't be a problem, even with lower levels.
* Protein -6%
This worries me. While it is possible to get all these nutrients from other sources, these sources seem to be mostly meat and milk, which have their own associated health problems. And even if you get the daily recommended level of each vitamin/mineral/macronutrient, that doesn't account for the fact that getting above that daily level can be even healthier than just reaching it.
ReplyThe genetically modified products bother me. They seem to be designed to look great but contain little nutrition. Also it seems harder to find good quality produce at the market. The shelf life of fruits and vegetables seems to be shorter unless they are irradiated which also may be problematic. I find myself going to the market two or three times per week now to have fresh produce in the house.
http://www.antiagingatlanta.com
ReplyI'm always recommend eat more vegetables and fruits instead just do not eat.
ReplyOn last visit of UK I'm again realized that the vegetables and fruits just grew on some drugs...
i've been reading "the end of Food,", by thomas F. Pawlick, and apparently a lot of the nutritional decline has to do with the amount of synthetic fertilisers that are being used, as well. compared to (what as far as i know were) the same variety of tomato, as grown with the fertilizers, and with manure ect(organically) the fruit was a bit smaller for the organic, but much higer in vitamin C(which was the main focus-nutrient, in terms of loss in the study) the amount of nitrates and nitrites in modern, commercial produce is actually generally much higher than it should be, as well, due to pesticide residues/whatever other means they might be getting into the produce.
ReplyiI AM TRYING TO TEACH MY 4 YEAR OLD GRANDSON WERE FRUITS AND VEGTABLES COME FROM,BUT FOR HIM NOT TO BE ABLE TO VISUALIZE THIS IS A PROBLEM.I HAVE TRIED SEVERAL DIFFERENT THINGS,EXCEPT FOR THE LIBRARY,WE ONLY GET HIM EVERY NOW AND THEN BUT USUASLLY WHEN THE LIBRARY IS CLOSED.CAN YOU HELP?HE LOVES FRUITS AND VEGTABLES AND TO LEARN BUT HE NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO SEE THINGS TO REALLY GET IT.THANKS FOR YOUR TIME.DONNA AND 4 YR.OLD DOMINIC
Replymaybe you could check a book or two out of the library for when dominic visits.
ReplyWell, Claire, it's all about moderation. A little bit of meat and vegtables.
After all, chimps ate birds, small mammals, eggs, fish, and insects as well as fruits and green vegetables.
Reply