How many vitamins and minerals have vegetables and fruits lost?
How many vitamins and minerals have vegetables and fruits lost?

Video: How many vitamins and minerals have vegetables and fruits lost?

Video: How many vitamins and minerals have vegetables and fruits lost?
Video: Master Brewing Water Chemistry in 9 Minutes 2024, November
Anonim

For those who like to scoff about "the grass was greener before." In the paper "Science and Life", No. 6 for this year, I read the article "The harvest is getting higher, the benefits are decreasing." Her brief conclusion: Our food becomes less nutritious and healthy over the years.

The article describes several analyzes of the vitamin content in modern fruits and their comparison with their amount in the past.

The works of the American biochemist Davis showed that compared with 1950, in modern vegetables, iron has decreased by 43%, calcium by 12%, vitamin C by 15%, vitamin B2 by 38%.

British biochemists compared the vitamin content of fruits in the 1930s and today. Calcium decreased by 19%, iron by 22%, the content of magnesium and sodium, copper, potassium, etc. decreased.

“Maybe they were grown differently before? The specialists of the US Department of Agriculture planted 14 varieties of broccoli, bred from the 1950s to the present day. It turned out that in the“young”varieties the content of minerals and vitamins is reduced, but The content of iron in the "young" varieties in comparison with the "old" varieties fell by 18%, zinc by 28%, magnesium by 30%.

Modern varieties grow faster than old ones, absorb water faster by the roots and give higher yields, but they do not have time to absorb or synthesize as many nutrients from the soil as the old varieties.

Breeders today are striving for faster growth and longer shelf life of vegetables and fruits, as well as their better resistance to diseases and pests, and to transportation, but pay little attention to their usefulness.

The foregoing applies not only to vegetables and fruits, but cereals, meat, milk and eggs, the article says.

Recommended: