https://www.wionews.

com/science/between-1940-and-now-nutrients-levels-in-
fruits-vegetables-in-uk-reduced-by-50-says-study-473160

Between 1940 and now, nutrient levels in fruits, vegetables in UK reduced by

50%, says study
London Edited By: Gandharv Walia
Updated: Apr 25, 2022, 02:08 PM IST

In comparison between 1940 and now, the amount of key nutrients in the fruits and
vegetables available in the UK has reduced by around 50%, said a study. The
depletion has been witnessed in the levels of magnesium, iron, sodium and copper.
It also means that citizens in the UK have the risk of facing malnutrition, warned
experts.
The adoption of higher-yielding varieties of fruits and vegetables, industrial
agriculture, and more reliance on imported produce seems to have led to this
situation, said reports.
In order to come up with the findings, the Coventry University researchers checked
the nutrients in around 28 types of fruits and vegetables. These include, potatoes
and bananas, which were available in the UK in the year of 1940, 1991 and 2019.
The levels of copper reduced by 49 per cent, iron fell by 51 per cent and sodium
decreased by 52 per cent, as per the analysis, which was published in the
International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition.
The amount of potassium has reduced by 5 per cent, magnesium 10 per cent and
calcium 2.5 per cent.
Several fruits and vegetables nowadays have been bred to increase productivity
and profitability and "this focus on yield has largely ignored any implications for
nutritional quality", the researchers said.

https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/food/climate-change-drives-down-yields-and-
nutrition-of-indian-crops/

A decline in the nutritional quality of grains could exacerbate “hidden hunger”, a

form of undernutrition where a person‟s energy intake may be high enough, but
their intake of nutrients like iron and zinc is so low that it affects their health and
development negatively.

1
Experiments in the United States, Japan and Australia revealed that concentrations
of iron, zinc and protein decreased in wheat, rice, maize, peas and soya beans when
they were exposed to elevated CO2 levels. Studies also indicate that, by 2050,
nearly 140 million people across the world could be suffering from a zinc
deficiency, while nearly 150 million could experience a protein deficiency.

https://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/health/2019/sep/18/losing-
out-on-nutrients-from-our-food-sources-2035370.html

In one of these studies, where 130 different crop varieties grown with high CO2
levels were analysed, the mineral levels in the crops had decreased by 8%, which
included the level of iron.

While the minerals dwindled, the carbohydrate content went up in the same crop,
which is not desirable considering we are plagued with a huge population
suffering from diabetes and heart disease.

The other study revealed that wheat grown with high CO2 levels had 6.3% less
protein, 9.3% less zinc and 5.1% less iron. Zinc, like iron, promotes good
immunity. Significant losses in the B vitamins have also been noted.

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/health/food-basket-in-danger-57079
The data released by the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad, on
January 18 suggests that the foods we eat today are less nutritious than what we
used to consume just three decades ago.

NIN has released such data after a gap of 28 years. In the report, Indian Food
Compo sition Tables 2017, NIN researchers have measured the values of 151
nutrients in 528 food items collected from markets across six geographical regions.
Down To Earth (DTE) compared the values with NIN‟s previous estimation done
in 1989. All the food items and nutrients listed in the 2017 report do not find a
mention in the 1989 report. But DTE‟s snapshot analysis shows an alarming trend:
there is a perceptible decrease in nutrition levels in all types of food (see „Healthy
no more‟,).

Consider bajra (pearl millet), which is consumed across rural India and is often
2
referred to as the poor man‟s staple food. It is consumed mainly for carbohydrate,
which provides energy. DTE analysis shows that carbohydrate levels in bajra have
redu ced by 8.5 per cent in the past three decades. In whole wheat, carbohydrates
have reduced by 9 per cent. Similarly, pulses are being depleted of their key
nutrient—protein, which plays an important role in building, repairing and
maintaining tissues. Protein has reduced by 10.4 per cent in masoor (whole brown
lentil) and 6.12 per cent in moong (whole green gram).

On the other hand, protein content has increased in food items like snake gourd (by
78 per cent) and rice (16.76 per cent). “Foods like rice are not consumed for their
proteins. So this increase may not do much to meet body‟s requirements,” says
Veena Shatrugna, former deputy director of NIN.

Micronutrients, which are essential for growth and development, have increased in
some foods, including masoor and moong and leafy vegetables like spinach. But
their levels have significantly reduced in many other food items, particularly in
fruits and vegetables. In potato, iron has increased but thiamine (vitamin B1),
magnesium and zinc have reduced. The four micronutrients have reduced by an
astounding 41-56 per cent in cabbage. In ripe tomatoes, thiamine, iron and zinc
have reduced by 66-73 per cent. Iron has reduced by 76.6 per cent in green tomato
and by 60 per cent in apples.

Coarse grains, especially millets, are fast gaining popularity among the health-
conscious as they come loaded with micro nutrients. DTE analysis shows that the
levels of thiamine, iron and riboflavin have reduced in bajra, jau (barley), jowar
(sorghum) and maize.

The overall trend suggests a decline in the nutrition value of foods, says Umesh
Kapil, professor at the Human Nutrition Unit of the All India Institute of Medical
Sciences, New Delhi. However, he cautions against a simplistic comparison of the
two reports. “Analytical methods used now are different from those used earlier,”
says Kapil.

But in the 2017 report, NIN compares its 1989 data with the nutritional values of
major food categories it had measured during the British regime in 1937, and says
the nutritional content of many food items had declined during the half-century.

3
The decline is not significant in most cases except carbohydrates in leafy
vegetables and vitamin B1 in roots and tubers, it says.

An in-depth comparison of NIN‟s 2017 nutritional data with that of 1937 will help
understand how much nutrients are now left in our food basket, and how this
change will affect the overall nutrition of a person.

But why the decline?

NIN‟s findings have resonance with the global trends. In a 2004 study published in
the Journal of the American College of Nutri tion, researchers with the University
of Texas at Austin, analysed food composition data for 43 crops grown between
1950 and 1999. Six nutrients—protein, calcium, iron, phosphorus, riboflavin and
ascorbic acid—showed a significant decline in almost all the crops. In 1997, a
study published in British Food Journal compared the nutritional values of 20 fruits
and as many number of vegetables grown between the 1930s and 1980s. It found a
significant reduction in the levels of six minerals—calcium, magnesium, copper
and sodium reduced in vegetables, while the levels of magnesium, iron, copper and
potassium dipped in fruits.

Scientists across the world have identified two reasons for this declining food
nutrition. One, intensive agricultural practices have stripped the soil of
micronutrients.
This could well be the reason for India where soils have been found deficient in
nutrients. An assessment by the Indian Insti tute of Soil Science, Bhopal, shows 43
per cent of the country‟s soil is deficient in zinc, 18.3 per cent in boron, 12.1 per
cent in iron, 5.6 per cent in manganese and 5.4 per cent in copper. “The NIN data
substantiates the impact of intensive agriculture on food nutrients,” says Kapil,
adding that the changes could also be due to different varieties of crops cultivated
then and now. In commercial cultivation, the focus is now on crops that are high-
yielding and disease-resistant, and not on their nutritional content.

Scientists say rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the environment could also
be affecting plant nutrition levels. In a 2014 study published in Nature, researchers
compared the nutrient levels in wheat grown in present-day conditions with those
grown in an atmosphere with an elevated CO2 levels, as expected by 2050. They

4
found that wheat grown in high CO2 levels had 9.3 per cent less zinc, 5.1 per cent
less iron and 6.3 per cent less protein. Rice grown in such a condition had 5.2 per
cent less iron, 3.3 per cent less zinc and 7.8 per cent less protein.

A 2015 study, published in Global Change Biology, provides an explanation for

this decline. High CO2 levels in the atmosphere lower the nitrogen concentration
in plants, which in turn affects the protein content in food. The effect persisted
even after the researchers used nitrogen-rich fertilisers on the crops. This suggests
lower protein is not due to limited access to nitrogen in the soil.

In all probability, the poor nutritional status is here to stay. So the government
should use the latest nutrient values to revise dietary regulations and nutrition,
public health and agriculture policies. “We have seen a wide variation in the levels
of micronutrients in food collected from different geographical regions. A study of
such regional databases will help understand the relation of food with diseases,”
says T Longvah, director, NIN. “Long-term approaches, such as exploration of
biodiversity, nutritional characterisation and mainstreaming of underutilised foods,
and plant breeding are stable and sustainable means of nutritional enhancement of
foods,” he says.

Globally, organic cultivation is also being looked at as a solution to the problem. A

2007 study published in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry analysed
samples of dried tomatoes kept at the University of California-Davis for
flavonoids. The samples included tomatoes grown by both conventional and
organic system between 1994 and 2004. Analysis showed that some flavonoids
like quercetin and kaempferol were present in higher levels (79 and 97 per cent,
respectively) in organic tomatoes.

Experts also suggest a targeted approach for dealing with nutrient deficiency in
food. Anura Kurpad, head, Department of Physiology and Nutrition at St John‟s
Medical College, Bengaluru, says, “If there is a true decline, policies should begin
to look at biofortification.”

5
https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/environment-and-conservation/2022/05/fruits-and-vegetables-are-less-nutritious-than-
they-used-to-be

Nutrient decline “is going to leave our bodies with fewer of the components they
need to mount defences against chronic diseases—it‟s going to undercut the value
of food as preventive medicine,” says David R. Montgomery, a professor of
geomorphology at the University of Washington in Seattle and co-author with
Anne Biklé of What Your Food Ate.
Even for people who avoid processed foods and prioritise fresh produce, this trend
means that “what our grandparents ate was healthier than what we‟re eating
today,” says Kristie Ebi, an expert in climate change and health at the University of
Washington in Seattle.

Scientists say that the root of the problem lies in modern agricultural processes that
increase crop yields but disturb soil health. These include irrigation, fertilisation,
and harvesting methods that also disrupt essential interactions between plants and
soil fungi, which reduces absorption of nutrients from the soil. These issues are
occurring against the backdrop of climate change and rising levels of carbon
dioxide, which are also lowering the nutrient contents of fruits, vegetables, and
grains.

Experts say it‟s important to keep these declines in perspective and not let this
news deter you from eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to
maintain your health. But they hope the results will spur more people to care about
how their food is being grown.

“Most people know that what we eat matters—if how our food is raised also
matters, it opens a new, compelling reason for the average person to care about
agricultural practices,” says Montgomery. “We can‟t afford to lose arable land as
population grows. We need to prevent further damage and work to restore fertility
to already degraded lands.”