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Fruits and vegetables are less nutritious than they used to be

nationalgeographic.com

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Re: Fruits and vegetables are less nutritious than they used to be

#71

Post by saiya-jin »

dustymcp wrote: post #65
somenameforme wrote: post #57

This is the conclusion of the paper [1] that this article is based upon: "We suggest that any real declines are generally most easily explained by changes in cultivated varieties between 1950 and 1999, in which there may be trade-offs between yield and nutrient content." What National Geographic says scientists say, "Scientists say that the root of the problem lies in modern agricultural processes that increase crop…

My anecdote from my garden is that my smaller cucumbers have way more taste, my smaller red bellpebbers are way more pebbery, potatoes have a richer taste, if this is just freshnes i dont know, but there for sure is a huge difference.

I don't think that's you. When I come home and eat stuff from my parents garden, the differences in some cases are massive. Carrots for example taste 10x more intense, even one that was taken from soil weeks ago.

And I am comparing to bio carrots we buy in Switzerland, so can't go much higher than that when shopping (apart from farmers markets maybe but that depends what kind of farm).

Maybe its about transport and premature harvest, like bananas - if you ever taste some in exotic locations where they harvest them in the morning, its hard to ever enjoy bleak taste of those available in western world.

Re: Fruits and vegetables are less nutritious than they used to be

#72

Post by jillesvangurp »

robinsoh wrote: post #55

I think the latest research was showing that soil and mycorrhizae networks are very critical to the nutritional content of various plants. The sad thing is that same study (need to find it again) showed that applying conventional fertilizer actively reduced mycorrhizae and biological diversity in the soil. The scary thing is there's not much awareness of this in mainstream media. The only thing I've seen in mainstrea…

There's a no-dig movement in organic farming that is based on the notion that tilling or otherwise disturbing soil is a bad thing because it disturbs the fungal ecosystem. Interesting if you are growing some stuff at home because practicing this actually means doing less work. Once established, a no-dig bed requires very little maintenance. You basically just leave it alone. You top it up with some compost once a year or so and you grow whatever you want. Even weeds stand less of a chance because those are what show up when you disturb the soil. So, if you don't do that, there are less weeds to deal with.

Sadly, I only have a balcony and no back yard but I try to grow lots of herbs there. Very tasty addition to my food. I have lots of Cilantro growing right now and my rosemary bushes are waking up from the winter as well. And I've planted out some basil cuttings from a cheap super market plant that in a few months will turn into a nice little basil jungle.

Re: Fruits and vegetables are less nutritious than they used to be

#73

Post by thematrixturtle »

saurik wrote: post #26
cat_plus_plus wrote: post #15

They are also more abundant than they used to be and that's a valid tradeoff to consider. Would it be worth it to only have access to seasonal produce local to your region for that produce testing better? Make do with pickles and potatoes instead of fresh fruit and vegetables in late fall through early spring? If not, shelf life, productivity and greenhouse feasibility are relevant metrics in addition to taste and vi…

If my food isn't nutritious I either wither away or am forced to eat more food, which comes with more calories. So, no: it seems like it is better to make do with seasonal foods than to live in a world where I can technically experience a tomato but... is it really a tomato if it just tastes like a tomato but otherwise confers none of the value of a tomato? (If you are saying the alternative is NO food, then sure; bu…

In much of the world, "seasonal produce" in winter means essentially nothing fresh: everything had to be preserved from the earlier harvest, and the available methods of preservation were far more destructive (dry, pickle, etc) than today's frozen or canned options, never mind a cool chain than can effortlessly bring you a tropical banana for Christmas in Canada.

Re: Fruits and vegetables are less nutritious than they used to be

#74

Post by l33t2328 »

mdp2021 wrote: post #67
collaborative wrote: post #62

The way things are going we'll all end up taking vitamin pills and calling it a day Eating fruit and veg is becoming increasingly pointless. No taste, no nutrients, lots of chems. May as well drink water

> taking vitamin pills Except that it is not the same, it's not a solution...

In what sense is it not the same?

Re: Fruits and vegetables are less nutritious than they used to be

#75

Post by alecco »

gregwebs wrote: post #17

This article mentions that regenerative agriculture as the solution. There is a lot of concern now about the potential for a global food shortage at the end of this year because of rising fertilizer prices (leading to less planting). Regenerative agriculture can help solve this as well by focusing on restoring the biome of the soil, thereby harnessing nitrogen from the air and minerals from the soil.

What would you think about a farmer who doesn't know tech giving opinions on what the Tech sector should do? Farming is extremely hard and competitive, for mostly razor-thin margins and very high risks.

One of the biggest problems is weeds. If you use these naive methods you'll end up with weed infections and then you have to either dump a lot of herbicides to recover the land or blunt tumble, basically entombing all the topsoil.

Somehow journalists and people from the city know better than people risking their family's worth every year and working 12 hours a day on this. Every day. And even on weekends and holidays. You have no idea how hard it is.

Re: Fruits and vegetables are less nutritious than they used to be

#76

Post by alecco »

This article is mostly nonsense. The biggest problem is we want supermarkets to provide us with the same crops year-round at inexpensive prices. The apples you buy from overseas had to be taken when still green to survive months of storage.

If you want nutritious buy seasonal ripe greens and fruits from local organic farms. Don't expect to have red apples year-round. And expect to pay 50% more.

Re: Fruits and vegetables are less nutritious than they used to be

#77

Post by KarlKemp »

somenameforme wrote: post #57

This is the conclusion of the paper [1] that this article is based upon: "We suggest that any real declines are generally most easily explained by changes in cultivated varieties between 1950 and 1999, in which there may be trade-offs between yield and nutrient content." What National Geographic says scientists say, "Scientists say that the root of the problem lies in modern agricultural processes that increase crop…

The two statements aren’t contradictory. It may well be that modern agricultural processes require the use of these varieties.

Re: Fruits and vegetables are less nutritious than they used to be

#79

Post by orlp »

saiya-jin wrote: post #71
dustymcp wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My anecdote from my garden is that my smaller cucumbers have way more taste, my smaller red bellpebbers are way more pebbery, potatoes have a richer taste, if this is just freshnes i dont know, but there for sure is a huge difference.

I don't think that's you. When I come home and eat stuff from my parents garden, the differences in some cases are massive. Carrots for example taste 10x more intense, even one that was taken from soil weeks ago. And I am comparing to bio carrots we buy in Switzerland, so can't go much higher than that when shopping (apart from farmers markets maybe but that depends what kind of farm). Maybe its about transport and p…

Commercial mass-produced tomatoes, bananas and other climacteric fruit are picked heavily unripe, shipped in this more durable state, and in the destination country are rapidly artificially ripened in ethylene gas chambers. The same commercial mass-produced fruits and vegetables also have been cultivated for decades for resistance against disease, size, and shelf life. Taste is often only secondary to those.

On one hand it allows year-round affordable fruit and vegetables to lie in our stores. On the other hand it means we are now stuck buying tasteless bags of water.

It is an erosion of the 'middle class' of products that economies of scale across all products seem to cause. There are only two kinds of product left: the small-scale artisanal extremely pricy product (e.g. farmer's market), and the mass-produced MBA-optimized to death commercial product. Any product that becomes 'too successful' and reaches economies of scale falls victim to this and is subsequently repeatedly penny-pinched until nothing of value is left.

Re: Fruits and vegetables are less nutritious than they used to be

#80

Post by raspberry1337 »

bjcy wrote: post #69

When gluten-free diets began to become popular, I had a similar question as to why a food that had been a staple of multiple civilisations for hundreds of years had suddenly become "bad for you". Dan Barber has a book on this called The Third Plate , which served as a great introduction for me on nutrition, but from a culinary perspective. He's also one of the chefs profiled in the first season of Netflix's Chef's Ta…

Without reading the book, did you ever reach an answer? In my understanding, wheats and carbs were never optimal for us but if you are a starving medieval peasant on a bread or rice diet, you have worse things to worry about.
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