Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Hobden
"Janet Tweedy" wrote
Now I am not someone who believes everything I hear, but an interesting
excerpt I heard on the Channel 5 programme about fitness facts, was that
vegetables grown and sold now (so not the ones we grow ourselves I am
assuming) are seriously less valuable nutrition wise than those grown and
eaten in the 20's
can anyone really confirm this which must be yet another really good reason
to grow your own food as much as possible, and why are they less
nutritious. They gave two examples cabbage and spinach.
It's possible that the high use of nitrogen fertilizer may cause that or the
modern varieties used for quick growing. Certainly it's noticeable that some
older varieties of veg have more taste ie. Majestic potatoes for chips.
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Here's a link to an abstract by the author responsible for the original work, which was in the 1980s. Of the 8 minerals usually measure, she shows that there are statistically significant reductions in the levels of Ca, Mg, Cu and Na in vegetables and Mg, Fe, Cu and K in fruit. Only P is unaffected. In fruit, their is a significant increase in water content. She gives a number of hypothetical reasons (anomolies in measurement, varieties, agricultural practice) and says research is needed to determine the cause.
ingentaconnect Historical changes in the mineral content of fruits and vegetable...
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