Nutrient levels in retail grocery stores
altered.substack.com
Nutrient levels in retail grocery stores
1–10 of 104 posts
Re: Nutrient levels in retail grocery stores
#2I thought it was a little weird that they start off talking about "calcium, magnesium, and iron" and then immediately switch to talking about how vitamin C degrades over time in produce. OK sure, vitamin C can enhance iron absorption, but it doesn't do that for calcium or magnesium and, being atomic elements, they assuredly do not disappear from food in storage.
When an article conflates things like this without calling it out, I become suspicious of the rest of the claims.
Re: Nutrient levels in retail grocery stores
#3worth actually reading:
- farmers markets are hit or miss (anyone should know this by now)
- walmart came ahead of whole foods for produce quality (whoah)
alas we cannot go back to 1914 so we have to make due with what is out there now or grow our own
keep this in context...declining-quality produce in 2024 is still better for you than pizza
Re: Nutrient levels in retail grocery stores
#4> That means it had been a year since the apples he bought were actually picked
I've been saying for a while that instead of focusing on "best by" dates, food suppliers should be forced to put on the harvest or manufactured date.
"Fresh" Apples being sold after a year is nothing compared to how old some of the food you by in the freezer, or boxed section.
Manufacturers and store owners are the ones that benefit the most from keeping food on the shelves longer.
> If you walk into a booth and that vendor is selling over 5 types of produce, there's no way they all ripened at the same time. They may not even all be grown by them.
I noticed this also when i was buying a "farmers box" that promised to deliver fresh produce from a local farm. Upon closer inspection almost all of the organic farmers market type produce delivery services buy from other suppliers and sell as if they grew them themselves.
Re: Nutrient levels in retail grocery stores
#5I thought it was a little weird that they start off talking about "calcium, magnesium, and iron" and then immediately switch to talking about how vitamin C degrades over time in produce. OK sure, vitamin C can enhance iron absorption, but it doesn't do that for calcium or magnesium and, being atomic elements, they assuredly do not disappear from food in storage. When an article conflates things like this without call…
The article doesn't say those minerals degrade, however it also fails to reiterate the linked paper's reason:
> The high rate of magnesium deficiency now postulated [5–8] can be attributed in part to a steady decline in general magnesium content in cultivated fruits and vegetables, a reflection of the observed depletion of magnesium in soil over the past 100 years
> Increasing demand for food has caused modern farming modern farming techniques to impact the soil’s ability to restore natural minerals such as magnesium. techniques to impact the soil’s ability to restore natural minerals such as magnesium. In addition, the use of phosphate-based fertilizers has resulted in the production of aqueously insoluble use of phosphate-based fertilizers has resulted in the production of aqueously insoluble magnesium phosphate complexes, for example, further depriving the soil of both components
Re: Nutrient levels in retail grocery stores
#6I thought it was a little weird that they start off talking about "calcium, magnesium, and iron" and then immediately switch to talking about how vitamin C degrades over time in produce. OK sure, vitamin C can enhance iron absorption, but it doesn't do that for calcium or magnesium and, being atomic elements, they assuredly do not disappear from food in storage. When an article conflates things like this without call…
The article doesn't say those minerals degrade, however it also fails to reiterate the linked paper's reason: > The high rate of magnesium deficiency now postulated [5–8] can be attributed in part to a steady decline in general magnesium content in cultivated fruits and vegetables, a reflection of the observed depletion of magnesium in soil over the past 100 years > Increasing demand for food has caused modern farmin…
Well that quote appears to contradict the article's claim that speed to market is the most important factor.
Now I don't know what to think..
Re: Nutrient levels in retail grocery stores
#7I thought it was a little weird that they start off talking about "calcium, magnesium, and iron" and then immediately switch to talking about how vitamin C degrades over time in produce. OK sure, vitamin C can enhance iron absorption, but it doesn't do that for calcium or magnesium and, being atomic elements, they assuredly do not disappear from food in storage. When an article conflates things like this without call…
The article doesn't say those minerals degrade, however it also fails to reiterate the linked paper's reason: > The high rate of magnesium deficiency now postulated [5–8] can be attributed in part to a steady decline in general magnesium content in cultivated fruits and vegetables, a reflection of the observed depletion of magnesium in soil over the past 100 years > Increasing demand for food has caused modern farmin…
It does mention those reasons and others, however all those reasons directly contradict the article's next point "If all you care about is nutrient content, SPEED is the only factor that matters". Seems like all these other factors should matter too! Surely not every farm is equal in these respects...
Re: Nutrient levels in retail grocery stores
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article doesn't say those minerals degrade, however it also fails to reiterate the linked paper's reason: > The high rate of magnesium deficiency now postulated [5–8] can be attributed in part to a steady decline in general magnesium content in cultivated fruits and vegetables, a reflection of the observed depletion of magnesium in soil over the past 100 years > Increasing demand for food has caused modern farmin…
It does mention those reasons and others, however all those reasons directly contradict the article's next point "If all you care about is nutrient content, SPEED is the only factor that matters". Seems like all these other factors should matter too! Surely not every farm is equal in these respects...
> It does mention those reasons
whoops you're right, I somehow skipped that part.
I guess it is kind of weird article with contradicting points of view and the author could have communicated that improving soil quality and pairing it with speed to consumption is the best combination.
Re: Nutrient levels in retail grocery stores
#9I thought it was a little weird that they start off talking about "calcium, magnesium, and iron" and then immediately switch to talking about how vitamin C degrades over time in produce. OK sure, vitamin C can enhance iron absorption, but it doesn't do that for calcium or magnesium and, being atomic elements, they assuredly do not disappear from food in storage. When an article conflates things like this without call…
The article doesn't say those minerals degrade, however it also fails to reiterate the linked paper's reason: > The high rate of magnesium deficiency now postulated [5–8] can be attributed in part to a steady decline in general magnesium content in cultivated fruits and vegetables, a reflection of the observed depletion of magnesium in soil over the past 100 years > Increasing demand for food has caused modern farmin…
One of my unorthodox views is that the popular blue light obsession is exacerbated by magnesium deficiency, given how hard it is to get enough in our diets.
Yes, blue light disrupts melatonin and makes it harder to get to bed. But magnesium disrupts sleep quality and deregulates melatonin production in the first place and makes one particularly sensitive to blue light.
Re: Nutrient levels in retail grocery stores
#10I thought it was a little weird that they start off talking about "calcium, magnesium, and iron" and then immediately switch to talking about how vitamin C degrades over time in produce. OK sure, vitamin C can enhance iron absorption, but it doesn't do that for calcium or magnesium and, being atomic elements, they assuredly do not disappear from food in storage. When an article conflates things like this without call…
Not contradicting your view that the article isn't very diligent, but have you heard of oxidation?
Atoms constantly react to the environment, they can bond with other atoms, form new compounds. Oxidation time varies, in the case of potassium it is very fast, the claims in the articles would stand. For vitamins, it also depends.
I got into a rabbit hole a few years back, digging into numbers from multiple academic sources on the subject. They concur that fruits and vegetables have "lost" the majority of their nutrient density. The low end figure is (rather was) 70% loss, the high end 90%.
The reasons are multiple like the article said. I recall reading a thorough and most backed paper explaining the main cause is the soil. We are over exploiting, not allowing the time needed for soils to recoup their content, in minerals in particular. We use fertilisers but these are to enable growth, not so that what end up in your dish is rich in nutrient.
We could quite easily reverse the trend, even getting back to normal levels, but that implies a massive hit in production for several years, in a row. Some would call it greed, but can we even produce for the world's population if we did that...