Fruits and vegetables yielding fewer nutrients...

[Just Little Me]

Fruits and vegetables are not as vitamin rich as in the past, according to new data.

While modern farming tecniques are producing larger and more perfect fruits and vegetables, the yeild in terms of nutrients is declining.

Of the 13 major nutrients found in fruits and vegetables, six have declined substantially, according to a study by Donald Davis, a biochemist at the University of Texas at Austin.

Using data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Davis concludes that recently grown crops have shown decreases of up to 38% in protein, calcium, vitamin C, phosphorus, iron and riboflavin when compared with produce from past decades.

What accounts for this negative trend? Like any other competitive industry, farmers' attempts to drive up profits have led them to use new techniques to increase production, Davis said. The faster-grown fruits don't have as much time to develop the nutrients.

"Farmers get paid by the weight of a crop, not by amount of nutrients," Davis said. He called this the "dilution effect": As fruits and vegetables grown in the United States become larger and more plentiful, they provide fewer vitamins and minerals.

"It's a simple inverse relationship: The higher the yield, the lower the nutrients," he said.

Davis said this happens because slower-growing crops have more time to absorb nutrients from both the sun and the soil.

"Lots of agricultural scientists don't know about this, and the public doesn't know about this," he said.

Wheat Also Being Examined

Jeff Cronin, at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said scientists and the USDA often overlook farming practices.

"Breeding plants to improve crop yield at the expense of all other things seems to be the problem, as well as depleting soil and not rotating crops properly," he said.

While Davis is not pleased about the decreasing levels of nutrients in produce, he still encourages people to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.

"Even though amounts of nutrients have declined, fruits and vegetables are still the richest source of protective nutrients, much better than eating highly refined foods such as white flour, sugars and fatty foods," he said.

Davis is currently researching the dilution effect in 14 varieties of wheat. His findings already suggest that, once again, the larger the yield of wheat, the lower the nutrients.

*Article published at Earth Easy.

[hillsidedigger]

"While modern farming tecniques are producing larger and more perfect fruits and vegetables"

The word 'perfect' should be replaced with 'more attractive to look at' although not more 'perfect' at all.

These 5 pound cabbages they sell in the store (very attractive to look at) have a texture much like cardboard or balsa wood (for one example). Same thing with the tomatoes and apples, look great, but with a texture similar to dry-wall and not juicy at all.

Whole foods cannot be grown on un-whole (deficient) soil, no matter how much synthetic fertilizer like Miracle-Gro, 10/10/10 or ammonium nitrate is applied. The age of oil and converting oil (and natural gas) into food is coming to an end. There will be far less food and many fewer surviving people but there will be better naturally grown food.

[vallyfarm]

Have some of those fruits and veggies grown in soil,not dirt and chemicals. You will find the nutrition MUCH higher. Same with grass fed beef, hormone free chicken, even fish grown naturally. If you have no iron in YOUR diet you will be deficient in it too. Store food isn't even really food anymore. Go to any other country in the world and you will find edible, nutritious food. Mike

[EasyDay]

Mike is right.
Any fruit/veggie grown gets its vitamin/mineral contents from the soil it's grown in. The problem with mass producers is they aren't keeping healthy soil. They substitute with chemicals. Sure, the plants will grow and produce healthy "looking" plants/fruits/veggies, but they are practically empty of nutritional value.

If there is no (fill in vitamin/mineral) in the soil, there can't possiby be (fill in vitamin/mineral) in the produce. Healthy food comes from healthy soil. And remember, EVERYTHING we eat originates at the soil level.

[MELOC]

i think it has more to do with breeding for varieties that are big producers than soil and nutrition.

[Danaus29]

The powers that be have known about nutrient decline for at least 10 years. Another study done by Davis back in 2004 says basically the same thing.
http://media.www.dailytexanonline.co...-1657662.shtml

[jessepona]

Deconstructing dinner just put out a podcast (mp3) related to this subject:

"The End of Oil The Start of Tasty Food" http://www.cjly.net/deconstructingdinner/082307.htm

[EasyDay]

Originally Posted by MELOC

i think it has more to do with breeding for varieties that are big producers than soil and nutrition.

I disagree. I'm sure that breeding contributes to the problem, but minimally.

Any farmer or serious gardener will tell you that all the pesticides, herbicides and fungicides being used these days are killing the required microorganisms that support plant life. That's how we end up with dead soil. Dead soil won't support plant life without the aid of chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers will make the plants grow, but don't make healthy plants. If the plants aren't healthy, neither are the people eating them. The bottom line is, our health rests on the health of the bacteria/microorganisms in the soil.... which are transferred to plant life.... then on to our own bodies, which couldn't function without bacteria. ...and so are the days of our lives.

[ksfarmer]

By EasyDay: "That's how we end up with dead soil. Dead soil won't support plant life without the aid of chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers will make the plants grow, but don't make healthy plants. If the plants aren't healthy, neither are the people eating them. The bottom line is, our health rests on the health of the bacteria/microorganisms "

I would really like to hear how a unhealthy plant grows and produces.

[Rita]

Also, a tomato picked green and then gassed to turn red could not have the taste, texture and nutrients of one allowed to ripen on the vine.

[pixelphotograph]

I read about this just recently the guy in the article said the ammount of iron in a certain vegetable from 1968 has gone down from the ammount of iron in the same type of vegetable now in 2006 at the time of the study. He said everyone is doint it wrong. He said everyone focuses on NPK but doesnt pay attention to trace minerals in the soil.
He had several test plots one done the big ag way with pesticides chemicals fertilizers and npk testing.
then he did one the organic way no pesticides chemicals or fertilizers but still using npk testing.
then he did one his way no chmicals pesticides or fertilizers npk plus his trace elements. As you can figure his way produced the best tasting and best for you as far as vitamins and mminerals in the vegetables.
Organic came in second
and big ag farming last with vitamins and minerals coming in extremely low but quality of looks coming in higher and better yields. so if you want alot of pretty vegetables do it the big ag way. If you want the best tasting best for you healthy vegetables do it his way.
This really isnt new this idea has been around for some time now. Try albert howards books.

[pixelphotograph]

Originally Posted by ksfarmer

I would really like to hear how a unhealthy plant grows and produces.

Look at fat overweight americans. They are unhealthy and grow and produce offspring who are unhealthy. (and before anyone gets mad I am a unhealthy fat american LOL
Its easy.
As for the plants they have what they need to survive food and water. But they dont have the minerals and vitamins they need to be healthy.

You can eat and live off of fried foods with grease and fat or you can eat healthy. Both will sustain life but its the quality of life and health of the system that we are talking about.

[EasyDay]

Originally Posted by ksfarmer

By EasyDay: "That's how we end up with dead soil. Dead soil won't support plant life without the aid of chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers will make the plants grow, but don't make healthy plants. If the plants aren't healthy, neither are the people eating them. The bottom line is, our health rests on the health of the bacteria/microorganisms "

I would really like to hear how a unhealthy plant grows and produces.

Serious question... did you ever study agriculture? Just wondering, "ksfarmer".

Don't assume that because a plant is growing that it is nutritionally fulfilled (or healthy).

Vegetables can be grown to look pleasing to the consumer without containing minerals that are needed to be "healthy". Chemical fertilizers will provide the minimal amount (and sometimes synthetic version of) minerals needed to grow a plant. Healthy tomatoes, for instance, take up selenium from the soil. But, tomatoes don't NEED selenium to grow and so will appear as healthy plants but are nutrionally deficient for human consumption (selenium is essential to human health). Remember that minerals come from the soil, while vitamins are produced by the veggie. Without proper nutrition from the soil, the veggie can't properly produce it's vitamins.

Nutritionally deficient plants aren't as healthy as they could be and won't be as resistant to disease and pests as a plant grown with proper nutrients. Nutritionally deficient veggies also don't taste as good. That's why store-bought tomatoes taste like cardboard, IMO. Most store-bought veggies are grown in depleted soil so people that buy them are consuming inferior veggies.

Mass producers don't care about disease-resistance (or nutritional value) in their veggies because they can kill most diseases and pests with more chemicals.

[Wolf mom]

Pass the vitamins, please.

[donsgal]

A lot of it has to do with mineralization. There are several places on line where you can read about the concept. It's very interesting and I think that when I get seriously into gardening I will take a much closer look at it.

donsgal