Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Estimates that mineral levels in vegetables have dropped by up to 90% since 1914

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 315 posts

Re: Estimates that mineral levels in vegetables have dropped by up to 90% since 1914

#151

Post by tomp »

chimi wrote: post #86
wil421 wrote: post #2

The link got that actual paper is much better than a sentence or two on LinkedIn. The paper’s title isn’t as catchy to put in nicely. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6163803/ From my link: >It is important to note that the USDA mineral content of vegetables and fruits has not been updated since 2000, and perhaps even longer, given that the data for 1992 was not able to be definitively confirmed for this…

I used to run an organic farm experimenting with hydroponics and I did a ton of research on this. What I found, organic does not mean healthier. In fact, a larger percentage of food related illnesses are reported for organic foods than foods without the organic label, which itself is controversial and misleading. This is largely due to the types of fertilizer used. Animal waste is used to fertilize organic foods. Yes…

Very interesting! Where could I learn more about this, in particular how to run my own experiments growing plants with the 17 elements and so on? Also, have you looked into aeroponics as well?

Re: Estimates that mineral levels in vegetables have dropped by up to 90% since 1914

#152

Post by graeme »

behringer wrote: post #58
graeme wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you mean to link something else? That page doesn't appear to mention kidneys.

It was more supplemental than citation. Maybe they won't affect your kidneys. That's just something I heard when the NIH study broke in the news. Consult your doctor, etc.

I found this on supplements that can cause kidney harm. Seems it can happen even absent kidney disease.

https://www.consumerlab.com/amp/answers/can-taking-a-lot-of-...

Re: Estimates that mineral levels in vegetables have dropped by up to 90% since 1914

#153

Post by briantakita »

throwaway66920 wrote: post #77
bluGill wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing about organic that means it builds soil. Conventional farmers are adapting the same practices. In many cases conventional farming with "chemicals" does better: because of roundup a cover crop can be applied much easier - you can kill it when you are done vs having to plow it up (plowing is a horrible thing to do to soil). I find it amusing they separate "sewage sludge" from manure as if they are not…

They are not the same thing. Manure is animal poop. Sewage sludge is the output of our sewers. Despite our best efforts to filter this, there is a lot more than poop in there. Heavy metals, drugs, etc.

While there are many benefits to unfettered trade, a downside is lack of quality control of the inputs into the system. Garbage in, Garbage out...

Re: Estimates that mineral levels in vegetables have dropped by up to 90% since 1914

#154

Post by food_eater »

lucb1e wrote: post #145
chrisco255 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget meat has absolutely tons of essential nutrients and vitamins, some of which can't be found in fruits and vegetables.

Shouldn't all vegetarians or vegans fall ill sooner or later then? It seems like a weird statement given how many people do it successfully. Of course, as a vegan/vegetarian you have to look at replacements for what you are missing, but saying that "don't forget that you need your meat!" in this modern world with no source or mention of any specific nutrient is a little weird.

I've personally known of a handful of vegans and vegetarians who've all reported back after years of being on that diet of being extremely deficient in nutrients. Brain fog, lack of energy, anemia, pale skin, thinness, a ton of symptoms. Doctors recommend them to begin eating at least fish and these people got noticeably better.

Have heard of dozens more of similar cases from friends of friends. I think the vegetarians and vegans are indeed falling ill, it just happens over a long period if time and not very noticeable.

Re: Estimates that mineral levels in vegetables have dropped by up to 90% since 1914

#155

Post by BruiseLee »

NickM wrote: post #55

Something that has puzzled me recently: how is anyone supposed to get the daily recommended amount of potassium? If you look at foods like bananas that are supposed to be good sources of it, you still need to eat something like eleven bananas a day to get enough (according to US recommended daily intakes, anyway). At least with the minerals mentioned in this posting, you can fall back on supplements if you need to...…

Eat durian.

Re: Estimates that mineral levels in vegetables have dropped by up to 90% since 1914

#156

Post by jacobwilliamroy »

buckthundaz wrote: post #62

Wait until everyone learns about bioavailability of nutrients with respect to type of food -- ie. Animal-based nutrition is more bioavailable than plant-based nutrients. [1] [1] - https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/78/3/633S/4690005#1098...

I think it's important to consider the inputs. Carnivorism is just herbivorism with more overhead. Perhaps I do need to eat ~3 times the non-heme iron to get the same level of absorption, but plant crops usually win out over cattle when it comes to scalability.

Is plant iron more bioavailable to cattle animals than humans? That might tip things slightly in favor of carnivorism, however cattle does a lot more than just convert non-heme iron to heme iron and facilitating that excess resource usage may be more trouble than the heme iron is worth.

Re: Estimates that mineral levels in vegetables have dropped by up to 90% since 1914

#157

Post by dv_dt »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #135
tastyfreeze wrote: post #82

This happened due to extermination of soil life through modern farming practices of heavy tilling, fertilizing and monoculture crops. Dead soil is more susceptible to erosion and requires ever increasing amounts of synthetic fertilizer to grow anything. More soil has been lost from the US than the amount of food that has been produced. Soil fertility can be returned to historical levels by changing farming practices…

> The benefits of treating the soil as a living organism include increased fertility This is a pretty interesting (and correct) point, and there's a lot to say about it from a few different perspectives. You get much higher all-inclusive yields from a unit of land by growing several different crops in the same space. They (can) complement each other, using different resources from the ground and providing resources t…

It's pretty bizzare to me to say we can't. Perhaps the statement is better that we can't under inflexible solution points of our current technology. However, with impending sensor & robotization of agriculture other models are foreseeable.

Re: Estimates that mineral levels in vegetables have dropped by up to 90% since 1914

#158

Post by hollerith »

NickM wrote: post #55

Something that has puzzled me recently: how is anyone supposed to get the daily recommended amount of potassium? If you look at foods like bananas that are supposed to be good sources of it, you still need to eat something like eleven bananas a day to get enough (according to US recommended daily intakes, anyway). At least with the minerals mentioned in this posting, you can fall back on supplements if you need to...…

>if you try to buy potassium supplements, the max dosage you can get over the counter is 99mg

I had no problem buying potassium (gluconate) powder by the pound off of Amazon for cheap. (I am in the US.) Be careful with it because if the ratio of potassium to sodium in your blood gets too high, it interferes with the mechanism that sequences the contractions of the chambers of the heart or such.

Re: Estimates that mineral levels in vegetables have dropped by up to 90% since 1914

#159

Post by CrazyStat »

krumpet wrote: post #95
CrazyStat wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not very helpful. Why do we need to read it? Why now? How is it related to this topic? Those answers may be obvious to someone who's already read the book. To people not familiar with the book it's a cryptic imperative.

Ahhh, fair point. The Omnivore's Dilemma zeros in on the diminishing quality of vegetables due to some (not all) modern farming practices. I realize not everyone agrees with Michael Pollan's viewpoints, but I believe the book forces the reader to confront the food they are consuming, the system that helps deliver it to their table, and the impact on the environment and the food itself.

Thanks!

Re: Estimates that mineral levels in vegetables have dropped by up to 90% since 1914

#160

Post by zepto »

mikelyons wrote: post #124
fucking_tragedy wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it turns out that the adherents of the religion of "love thy neighbor" and "it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" have no problem with our economic system.

I'm talking about psychedelic induced direct experiences of the point of life as utter selflessness and infinite love.

Weird that it requires a special compound to give you a direct experience of this.

You’d think that if the point of life was selflessness and love, this would be more obvious.

Also, what do you think of the people whose medicine comes from the coca plant, who have direct experience that the point of life is greed and self-satisfaction?

Post reply on HN