Shivananda
03-04-2006, 08:55 AM
I love growing my own veggies and herbs and do it whenever I can, wherever I am. Whether I have a big, big garden (like the spectacular 20' x 40' plot I had when I lived on Whidbey Island) or just a few pots of herbs on a sunny windowsill (as I do at this moment) I feel the freshness and variety and intensity of flavor I get that way are well worth the effort.
And here, in an article from the Seattle PI this week, is another reason to grow your own... a new study that shows what many of us have said for years, that the fruits and veggies you buy at the market are not as nutritious as they used to be. And one reason the study suggests might be that commercially grown varieties are optimized for speed of growth and size, not nutrition. Here's an excerpt:
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Fruits, vegetables not as nutritious as 50 years ago
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
By LANCE GAY
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
In spite of what Mother taught you about the benefits of eating broccoli, data collected by the U.S. government show that the nutritional content of America's vegetables and fruits has declined during the past 50 years -- in some cases dramatically.
Donald Davis, a biochemist at the University of Texas, said that of 13 major nutrients in fruits and vegetables tracked by the Agriculture Department from 1950 to 1999, six showed noticeable declines -- protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin and vitamin C. The declines ranged from 6 percent for protein, 15 percent for iron, 20 percent for vitamin C, and 38 percent for riboflavin.
"It's an amazing thing," said Davis, adding that the decline in nutrient content has not been widely noticed.
He said an agriculture scientist appears to have been the first to pick up the disappearance of nutrients in 1981 in a paper comparing the data on nutrients on garden crops grown in the United States with those grown in England.
Davis, who discussed his findings at a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in St. Louis, suspects the trend in agriculture toward encouraging crops that grow the fastest and biggest is a reason for the decline. The past five decades have been marked by the "Green Revolution," which has seen a marked increase in U.S. production and yields as farmers have turned to the fastest-growing and greatest-producing plants.
For the whole article, go to
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/261163_veggie01.html
*****
And the obvious point is that many varieties, especially heirloom varieties with superior taste and nutrition, are not grown commercially at all, and can only be enjoyed by home gardening. When I have a garden plot I always grow tomato varieties you will never see in a store because they are just too fragile to transport. One of them has more vitamin C than orange juice!
And I also have control over one more thing in my own garden, and that is the quality of the soil my veggies grow in. I use high quality organic compost to build up the soil, and add trace mineral amendments to replace what has been depleted from most soils through years of farming.
And here, in an article from the Seattle PI this week, is another reason to grow your own... a new study that shows what many of us have said for years, that the fruits and veggies you buy at the market are not as nutritious as they used to be. And one reason the study suggests might be that commercially grown varieties are optimized for speed of growth and size, not nutrition. Here's an excerpt:
*****
Fruits, vegetables not as nutritious as 50 years ago
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
By LANCE GAY
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
In spite of what Mother taught you about the benefits of eating broccoli, data collected by the U.S. government show that the nutritional content of America's vegetables and fruits has declined during the past 50 years -- in some cases dramatically.
Donald Davis, a biochemist at the University of Texas, said that of 13 major nutrients in fruits and vegetables tracked by the Agriculture Department from 1950 to 1999, six showed noticeable declines -- protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin and vitamin C. The declines ranged from 6 percent for protein, 15 percent for iron, 20 percent for vitamin C, and 38 percent for riboflavin.
"It's an amazing thing," said Davis, adding that the decline in nutrient content has not been widely noticed.
He said an agriculture scientist appears to have been the first to pick up the disappearance of nutrients in 1981 in a paper comparing the data on nutrients on garden crops grown in the United States with those grown in England.
Davis, who discussed his findings at a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in St. Louis, suspects the trend in agriculture toward encouraging crops that grow the fastest and biggest is a reason for the decline. The past five decades have been marked by the "Green Revolution," which has seen a marked increase in U.S. production and yields as farmers have turned to the fastest-growing and greatest-producing plants.
For the whole article, go to
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/261163_veggie01.html
*****
And the obvious point is that many varieties, especially heirloom varieties with superior taste and nutrition, are not grown commercially at all, and can only be enjoyed by home gardening. When I have a garden plot I always grow tomato varieties you will never see in a store because they are just too fragile to transport. One of them has more vitamin C than orange juice!
And I also have control over one more thing in my own garden, and that is the quality of the soil my veggies grow in. I use high quality organic compost to build up the soil, and add trace mineral amendments to replace what has been depleted from most soils through years of farming.