Fruits And Veggies Today Have Lost Its Nutritional Values, Researchers Say

The nutritional values found in vegetables and fruits today have alarmingly decreased compared to a number of nutritional values in the last few decades, according to a research made by Brian Halweil at the Worldwatch Institute. Iron, calcium, zinc, selenium and other essential nutrients in all other common food supplies have shown a 2-digit percentage decrease.

The study, which was published at Organic Center, also laid a few observations on the particular matter. Halweil noted that while we have produced more food supplies today, nutrients from those foods are also decreasing significantly.

"In the last hundred years, every new agricultural or food processing innovation-whether the pasteurization of milk or the rise of frozen foods or the invention of chemical fertilizers has prompted critics to suggest that the change has compromised the nutritional quality of our food," Halweil said. "In the last century, the increasingly scientific and chemical-based efforts to raise crop yields prompted a new round of criticism that our more abundant food supply was actually more deficient."

A few reasons were also presented in the study as to why the nutrients were declining in the food sources. Redesigning of the plants was determined to be one of the reasons of the issue. According to them, redesigned crops have fewer capabilities to acquire essential vitamins and minerals. Fast-growing plants also pose a great concern. As the farmers make the plants grow fast, there would be lesser chances for plants to acquire more nutrients from stalks and leaves, and other parts to the harvestable area.

Redesigned crops as the culprit to nutrient deficiency is a topic often dismissed and disregarded, although this problem is already known to farmers and breeders. In order to get equal nutrients from decades ago, buyers must buy locally-grown fruits and vegetables, Express UK reported.