A recent analysis of a range of staple foods in
Canada including potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, apples,
onion, broccoli etc, etc, was commissioned by The
Globe and Mail and CTV news. The results were
predictable to some and a shock to others. Let’s use
potatoes as an example. This is what the analysis found:

Over the last 50 years the potato has lost…
100% of its Vitamin A
57% of its Vitamin C and iron
28% of its Calcium
50% of its riboflavin
18% of its thiamine

Of the seven nutrients analyzed only niacin levels had
increased. The results were similar for all the 25
fruits and vegetables tested. One of the worst results
was from broccoli in which ALL nutrients had declined
measurably including niacin with Calcium down 63%.

Consumer demand for cheaper and ‘good looking’ food
has over recent decades changed traditional farming
methods as well as distribution. A farmer used to
rotate his crops to suit his land and maximized his
yields through natural methods and then supplied his
fresh produce to his local market for distribution.
Regrettably that is largely the way of the past.

Now, the emphasis is on production, appearance,
storability and transportability. Nutritional value
of fruits and vegetables is of virtually no concern.

As Dr Phil Warman, an agronomist and professor of
agricultural sciences at Nova Scotia Agricultural
College points out, “crops are bred to produce higher
yields, to be resistant to disease and to produce more
visually attractive fruits or vegetables, but little or
no emphasis is placed on their vitamin and mineral
content.”

Add to this the increasing foothold of GE engineered
crops where nutritional value is way down on the
priority list and this problem is going to become much,
much more serious. What can be done about this problem?

Try to eat organic fruit and vegetables wherever
possible. Avoid processed foods! If you think the loss
of nutrient value in fresh fruit and vegetables is bad
enough, I can assure you that it is nothing compared to
the nutritional emptiness of processed foods...and to
add insult to injury they are full of transfats due to
the hydrogenated processing methods that are used.

Take a QUALITY multi-NUTRIENT supplement. A multi
vitamin/mineral tablet is not adequate for a number of
reasons. The prime one is that most ‘multi vitamin’
supplements use synthetic ingredients with both
questionable efficacy and bio-availability and they
lack other important nutrients. Unfortunately this is
an area in which many consumers are being mislead.