Garth Rattray | Is our food still nutritious?

A 2022 National Geographic article updated in 2024, written by Stacey Colino shared among a chat group revealed that the nutritional value of our food is declining.

The article provides evidence that food crops, like the fruits and vegetables that we consume today, are less nutritious than they were decades ago. Many people have always asserted that the food consumed by our parents and grandparents were more nutritious than the food that we are consuming today. They say that our fore parents were made of sterner stuff because they grew up on natural farm products. They blame the decrease in quality on fertilisers and pesticides.

The National Geographic piece asserts that current evidence shows that today’s whole foods contain less vitamins and nutrients than they did seven decades ago. It suggests that our health might be at risk because of this. Although the ground provisions, fruits and vegetables look the same as they did before, their quality has declined. They contain less protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin, and vitamin C than before. This decline can affect our haemoglobin, and therefore our oxygen-carrying capacity, our ability to build strong bones, our metabolism of fats and drugs, our tissue growth, tissue repair and our immune system. These things constitute a large component of preventative medicine.

Another concern is the fact that more and more people are switching to a [primarily] plant-based diet. Additionally, the people of poorer nations depend heavily on grains for their nutritional needs. Of course, the decline also affects people who eat meat and animal products. Beef, pork, poultry, and mutton will be less nutritious because farm animals are eating less nutritious grasses and grains. A 2024 scientific article in the journal Foods opined that the decline is “alarming” and is “the biggest challenge for future generations’ health.”

MODERN AGRICULTURE PRACTICES

Experts blame modern agricultural practices. The way that we irrigate, fertilise, and harvest food crops to increase yield end up disturbing the health of the soil. This occurs because of the disruption of the essential interaction between soil fungi and the roots of plants. Soil fungi facilitate the absorption of nutrients. Taken together with global climate change and the increasing levels of carbon dioxide, the cumulative effect is a reduction in the nutrient value of the food that we eat.

A December 2004 issue of Journal of the American College of Nutrition referred to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) data published in 1950 and 1999, in which researchers from the University of Texas (Austin), noted [interval] changes in 13 nutrients in 43 different garden crops – from asparagus and snap beans to strawberries and watermelon.

Depending on the crop, there was a six to 38 per cent loss of the amount of nutrients found in various food crops. It was noteworthy that there was a 30 to 50 per cent decline of iron in certain crops. This is troubling, especially for people who depend on plants for specific nutrients. In a statement from a 2020 issue of Scientific Reports, it was revealed that the protein content in wheat fell by 23 per cent between 1955 and 2016, along with manganese, iron, zinc, and magnesium. Remember that it is the gluten (the protein in wheat and a few other grains) that vegetarians and vegans mostly depend on for their source of protein.

Since our food crops are not devoid of nutrients, experts say that we should continue eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to maintain our health. However, since they have reduced nutritional value, we should endeavour to mitigate against further reduction by paying attention to agricultural practices.

BLAMED ON SEVERAL THINGS

The decline in nutrition can be blamed on several things. Modern farming practices are designed to increase crop yields with larger and faster growing plants. Consequently, the plants are not able to adequately absorb or synthesise the nutrients. Bigger and greater number of crops from the same area of land guarantees dilution of the nutrients. Another factor is soil damage from high-yield crops. These crops deplete soil and therefore compromise the plant’s ability to partner with certain fungi that act as root extensions to aid in the absorption of water and nutrients.

Although plants are great carbon sinks, the rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere is causing many plants to produce more carbon-based compounds. This causes an increase in carbohydrate content, and the higher carbohydrate content causes plants to pull in less water and therefore less nutrients. A 2018 issue of Science Advances confirmed that higher levels of carbon dioxide decreased the protein, iron, zinc, and several B vitamins in 18 types of rice. This is important because wheat and rice make up about one-third of the [total] calories consumed globally. This is more so in low-income countries. This puts them at increased risk of ‘hidden hunger’ (a nutritional deficiency that occurs when people don’t get enough essential vitamins and minerals).

Soil health can be improved with regenerative farming – a technique for raising crops that improves soil health and relies less on chemicals. Regenerative farming entails, avoiding ploughing (to minimise soil disturbance), cove cropping by leaving seeds to grow after harvesting, thus mimicking grasslands, seeing rotational grazing with rest periods to speed up landscape recovery, promoting biodiversity, improving water retention, and restore soil fertility by increasing soil organic matter and microbial diversity.

We don’t need to increase dietary supplementation, we can make up for the reduced nutrition in food by eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, reaping when they are ripe, and avoid overpreparing with too much boiling or frying.

Garth Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice, and author of ‘The Long and Short of Thick and Thin’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com