ECONOMY & CULTURE
Is Our Food FAILING US? Just because you’re loading your plate with seemingly healthy food doesn’t mean you’re getting all the nutrition you would have just a few decades ago. Multiple studies confirm dramatic drops in the nutrient levels of our fruits, vegetables, grains, meats, and dairy products.
A trip to the produce section of your local grocery store will find aisles filled with fruits and veggies that look plumper and healthier than anything our grandparents would have found, but appearances can be deceiving. Growing evidence suggests that while today’s food may look beautiful, it is nutritionally hollow when compared to the past. In a groundbreaking 2004 study, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin studied USDA nutrient data published between 1950 and 1999 and noted changes to 13 nutrients in 43 different
declared that this nutrient decline “is going to leave our bodies with fewer of the components they need to mount defenses against chronic diseases—it’s going to undercut the value of food as preventive medicine.” A GLOBAL PHENOMENON The problem isn’t isolated to North America or Europe. New research is coming in from across the globe. The 2022 issue of the journal Foods reported that iron content in Australian vegetables, including sweet corn, red-skinned potatoes, cauliflower, green beans, green peas, and chickpeas, have seen their iron levels drop 30%–50% between 1980 and 2010. Recent studies have also indicated that grains are not immune. A 2020 issue of Scientific Reports found that the protein content in wheat had decreased by 23% from 1955 to 2016. It alsoreported significant drops in manganese, iron, zinc, and magnesium as well. WHAT’S MISSING IN OUR MEAT? When nutrient levels drop in the plants that animals eat, that drop creates a ripple effect in the nutrition of meat and dairy products. Studies are finding that products from farmed animals are significantly less nutritious than they used to be. McCance and Widdowson’s The Composition of Food compared the mineral levels of dairy products in 1940 with minerallevels in 2002 and found an alarming decrease. For example, milk contained 62% less iron. The calcium and magnesium in Parmesan cheese had fallen by 70%. And the copper content in
garden crops—everything from asparagus and snap beans to strawberries and watermelon. They found that the more recent fruits, vegetables, and grains contain far less protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin, and vitamin C than those grown just a few decades ago. This “hidden hunger” in our food
1940 vs 2020 Reduction in average mineral content of fruits and vegtables between 1940 and 2020
Mineral Copper Zinc Calcium Iron Magnesium Potassium
Vegetables -86% -73% -60% -38% -34% -24%
Fruits -29% -38% -24% -34% -24% -29%
makes it increasingly more difficult to get all the nutrition we need for optimal health from diet alone. In an April 2022 National Geographic article, David R. Montgomery, a professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington in Seattle,
42 AUGUST 2022 | MELALEUCA.COM
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online