Thread: Modern Veggies Not as Good?

An interesting article on nutritional deficiencies in vegetables and fruits compared to what they used to contain in the past. Did Grandma & Grandpa have more nutritious vegetables?

Eating Your Veggies: Not As Good For You?

I thought this paragraph particularly interesting:

Less studied, though, is the "genetic dillution effect," in which selective breeding to increase crop yield has led to declines in protein, amino acids, and as many as six minerals in one study of commercial broccoli grown in 1996 and '97 in South Carolina. Because nearly 90% of dry matter is carbohydrates, "when breeders select for high yield, they are, in effect, selecting mostly for high carbohydrate with no assurance that dozens of other nutrients and thousands of phytochemicals will all increase in proportion to yield."

So, we do our best to eat well, but perhaps our food just isn't as good as it could be. Makes a home garden sound pretty good, doesn't it?

And tomatoes that don't smell like tomatoes certainly aren't going to taste like tomatoes, either. I hate trying to find good tomatoes in the store. I eagerly look forward to our first tomatoes each summer. There just isn't anything quite like eating a tomato fresh-picked, still hot from the sun!

Thanks Nita! I've known this for years. no one believes me when i tell them this. I'll have to point them to your link.