Today's Vegetables Are Lower in Nutrients
August 11, 2011 at 9:00AM by Justine Sterling | Comment
Ah, the good old days. When men were men, women were women, and vegetables were vegetables. Although they may be bigger than they were 60 years ago, research has found that vegetables are significantly less nutritious than they used to be.
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Little research has been done on the matter, but the studies that have concentrated on the issue of diminishing nutrition in vegetables have found that since 1950 there have been notable changes, reports The Grist. One of the studies, conducted by Donald Davis, a now-retired scientist from the University of Texas at Austin, found that over the years vegetables have lost significant amounts of key nutrients. For example, according to Grist's infographic, which depicts how different vegetables have depleted in nutritional value from 1950-1999, tomatoes have decreased 55% in calcium, 25% in iron, and 17% in ascorbic acid (a type of vitamin C).
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Although there is no definitive explanation, Davis believes that selective breeding is to blame. Over the last 50 years, researchers and growers have successfully developed crops that yield a high amount of produce. When studies compared these high-yield varieties to non-high-yield varieties grown in the same soil, researchers found that the low-yield samples contained higher nutrient contents. That's because plants extract nutrients from the stalk to create produce. The bigger and more plentiful the vegetable, the less nutrients there are to go around.
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To get vegetables like those from the good old days, Davis suggests choosing heirloom and non-hybrid varieties. Anecdotal evidence shows that these types of vegetables are not only more nutritious than their mass-produced counterparts, but they are also tastier. Anyone who has compared a store-bought plum tomato to an heirloom plucked fresh from the vine can attest to that. In that same vein, you have a better chance of finding these low-yield vegetables if you buy seasonally. To inspire your next trip to the farmers market, here's some great seasonal summer recipes.
