Nutrient depletion in fruits and vegetables, is it causing the

[HysteryDiagnosis]

increased rate of diseases in younger people that used to be seen mainly in the elderly??


http://www.glycoscience.org/RDInsight_Farmtokitchen_v2121207.pdf

Four recent studies reported that today’s fresh fruits and
vegetables are lower in certain vitamins and minerals than
they were as little as 50 years ago. These studies compared
nutrient data from as early as 19304 to
as recent as 19995,6 for the U.S.,6 the
U.K.4,5 and Canada.5 No matter the
country nor the timeframe studied,
the results are strikingly similar: the
vitamin and mineral content of fruits
and vegetables is decreasing.4,5,6,7
For example, two peaches would
have supplied a woman’s vitamin A
RDA in 1951. Today, she would have
to eat almost 53 peaches to meet this
requirement! 5

[Muttocracy]

1. Is this due to breeding for shelf life and transport survival? nt

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Picking green certainly is going to affect the level of the highly

important phytonutrients found in fruits and vegetables... the mineral content? Not sure. Point is, there is something affecting the overall wellness of the population, it could be the air, stress, water... but food, I'd imagine so.

[Muttocracy]

3. I was thinking breeding of particular varieties - like those awful tomatoes

that have no taste but ship well - my parents were big tomato growers and as much as I love tomatoes, I can hardly buy them in the store or eat them in restaurants because they are like styrofoam to me!

edit to add - think I may have seen this article or similar reports
http://www.organic-center.org/science.nutri.php?action=view&report_id=115

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Tomatoes.... grown in WNY are great.... those in Florida in the

sand? Not so much. That has been my experience, my grandfather had a garden that produced some wonderful stuff. I wish I was half the gardener he was... bless his soul.

[Muttocracy]

8. I grew up with VA/WV tomatoes actually. I miss gardening

It's one of the main reasons I'm obsessed with buying a house as soon as I can!

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. That is definitely a factor

There is evidence that the decline in food nutrition has a number of sources.

Breeding Walk into any florist shop, and sniff the flowers. How many roses have any kind of smell, much less smell like roses? How many carnations have a fragrance? For generations, these flowers have been bred for appearance rather than fragrance. Once breeders get a flower that looks pretty, it gets mass replicated; that it has no smell is irrelevant. These pretty blossoms are cross-bred with others to produce other pretty blossoms, so the lack of fragrance is passed on to even more varieties.

The exact same thing has happened to foodstuffs. For at least a century, breeders have sought new varieties of fruits and vegetables that were insect resistant, could travel well and had a long shelflife once they reached the market. Taste has been a secondary concern and nutritional value has not been a concern at all. As a result, these things have been bred out.

Immature harvest Most fruits are pretty delicate when ripe and bruise easily. As a result, many fruits are picked while still green and better able to withstand the rigors of transportation. If you have ever had the opportunity to eat farm-fresh, ripe harvested fruits -- cherries, peaches, strawberries -- you know exactly what I'm talking about as far as taste and texture. Nutrition, too.

Depletion of the soil A study by the University of Washington a year or two ago found that the nutritional quality of the soil itself has severely decreased, as plants pull out minerals which are never replaced by our modern system of agriculture. Even if you use "heirloom" varieties of plants and wait for full maturity before harvest, food grown in nutrient-poor soil will be nutritionally inferior.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. It is primarily due to growing the *food* in dead soil.

Minerals and vitamins from produce as well as meat, eggs, milk, comes from what is in the soil, from what the plants "eat" or the animals eat.
Good organic soil usually has the proper amounts of nutrients which can go up the food chain. And lacks chemical fertilizers, pesticides, other poisons.

Agribusiness for years has focused on use of tons of oil based fertilizer to make stuff grow, because the land is depleted from overuse of production and chemicals.
Nutrients cannot grow in a poisoned environment.
The USDA food/nutrition recommendations have been widely off for decades.

Anything in the dirt goes into the food which goes into our bodies.
We are eating corn and petroleum.

Start with good fertile organic dirt, you can produce healthy food.

Organic growing supporters have known this for centuries, we lost our way with the coming of large agribusiness.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. Think it has anything to do with the illnesses that are cropping

up in the younger population??

[Muttocracy]

9. good point - fertilizer for 1/2/3 elements isn't going to provide trace minerals. nt

[cosmik debris]

10. Here is a related thread from E/E forum

“With cultivation, organic matter tends to decline in most places around the world,” she said. “In the more than 100 years that we have been cultivating soils in the Palouse,”—the wheat growing region of Eastern Washington, Northern Idaho and Northeast Oregon—“we have lost about half of the original organic matter.”

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=115&topic_id=162354

[Tindalos]

11. 53??

It's known that good nutrition helps fight disease, so vitamin deficiencies could increase rates of certain diseases. I think someone recently posted about an increase in rickets due to vitamin (D?) deficiency in children too. We really need to rethink our food supply/practices.

Oh lord! I have enough trouble eating the recommended 8 servings of fruit/veg per day. Now this.

[Maat]

12. About a month ago, I began eating solely organic foods when at home ..

including everything from organic fruits and vegetables, organic, humanely-treated meats, organic oils and butters, etc., etc. I began feeling 100% better almost immediately. Everything TASTES so much better.