Are Fruit and Veg Becoming Less Healthy?

We’re all well aware of the recommended ‘five a day’. Five portions (80 grams each) of fruit and vegetables a day gives you the right mixture of vitamins and minerals like vitamin C and folate, as well as dietary fibre. Consequently, it helps reduce the risk of a stroke, heart disease and bowel cancer. However, changes in the production process for fruit and vegetables may have made them less healthy. Read on for a review of exactly why our greens might not be as nutritious as they used to be.

Soil depletion

One reason that agricultural produce isn’t quite as nutritious as it once was, is ‘soil depletion’. The mass production approach to farming means that a lot of nutrients are stripped from the soil. The finished products have become bigger and more pest resistant – but their ability to gather nutrients has not.

A study by the University of Texas revealed that 43 different fruit and vegetables had suffered declines in a number of nutritional values, based on data from 1950 and 1999. Protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin B2 and vitamin C all displayed decreases over the period.

Donald Davis, a key researcher in the study, suggests that the nutritional content is in decline because agricultural methods have become more concerned with quantity rather than quality. “Efforts to breed new varieties of crops that provide greater yield, pest resistance and climate adaptability have allowed crops to grow bigger and more rapidly, but their ability to manufacture or uptake nutrients has not kept pace with their rapid growth,” he explains.

Phytonutrients

So bigger products are being produced in larger quantities over much less time. But is there any other reason the veggies are less healthy? Well, yes actually. A growing obsession with sweet food has caused some food manufacturers to tamper with something known as phytonutrients. They are the chemicals that make food slightly bitter. What they also provide, however, is a set of health benefits. They have been known to lower the risk of eye problems and certain cancers, as well as boosting your immune system when they’re converted to vitamin A.

Examination methods

People are becoming more and more concerned about what they’re putting into their bodies. So nutrition analysis is essential. But what about the methods? There are a number of methods, some more effective and accurate than others, of finding what’s in certain foods. Find out more about the new method for determination of saturated and unsaturated fat in ‘Healthy Fat in Chips and Sausages? A New Method fdor Extraction, Digestion and Analysis of Fat in Food Samples’.