Looking for one more reason why growing some of your own vegetables and fruit makes sense? Take into account the one you might not have considered: nutritional content. While the washed and waxed produce at your local supermarket might look full of vitamins and minerals, a recent scientific report finds otherwise. In fact products in the US not only tastes worse than it did ages ago, it also contains smaller amount of nutrients. The average vegetable found in today's supermarket is anywhere from five to forty percent lower in minerals, including iron, magnesium, calcium and zinc, than those harvested just fifty years ago. Three kinds of facts point toward declines of some nutrients in fruits and vegetables available in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Today's vegetables might be bigger, but if you think that means they contain more nutrients, you would be wrong. Gigantic products contain more 'dry matter' than anything else, which dilutes minerals and vitamins. So, when it comes to growing food, less is more. Also, there is the 'genetic dilution effect,' in which selective breeding to increase crop yield has led to declines in protein, amino acids, and many minerals. Because nearly ninety percent of dry matter is carbohydrates, when breeders select for high yield, they are, in fact, selecting for high carbohydrate with no assurance that dozens of other vitamins and minerals will all increase in proportion to yield.'
Thanks to the growing rise of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, modern yield are being produced faster than ever before. However, quick and early harvests mean the produce has less time to absorb nutrients either from synthesis or from the soil, and minerals like potassium in some fertilizers often hinder plant's ability to take up nutrients. Monoculture farming is one more characteristic of the modern days - have also led to soil-mineral depletion, which, in turn, affects the nutrient content of crops. These facts provide evidence that supplementing your store-bought vegetables with store-bought vitamins and minerals might not be the solution either. When in doubt, grow your own and, if you can't do that, buy from those farmers, who are taking good care of their soil.