permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] Breeding the Nutrition out of Food
Date: Mon, 27 May 2013 08:02:56 -0400
From: Joel Gruver <jgruv@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Hello folks,

the Sunday Review section of the NY Times contains an interesting 
article about the impact of breeding on the nutritional content of crops.

Here is a link: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/opinion/sunday/breeding-the-nutrition-out-of-our-food.html?

Joel - in very very wet Western IL

*************************************

Breeding the Nutrition out of Food
by Jo Robinson


WE like the idea that food can be the answer to our ills, that if we eat
 nutritious foods we won’t need medicine or supplements. We have valued
this notion for a long, long time. The Greek physician Hippocrates
proclaimed nearly 2,500 years ago: “Let food be thy medicine and
medicine be thy food.” Today, medical experts concur. If we heap our
plates with fresh fruits and vegetables, they tell us, we will come
closer to optimum health.


This health directive needs to be revised. If we want to get maximum
health benefits from fruits and vegetables, we must choose the right
varieties. Studies published within the past 15 years show that much of
our produce is relatively low in phytonutrients, which are the compounds
 with the potential to reduce the risk of four of our modern scourges: 
cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dementia.
 The loss of these beneficial nutrients did not begin 50 or 100 years
ago, as many assume. Unwittingly, we have been stripping phytonutrients
from our diet since we stopped foraging for wild plants some 10,000
years ago and became farmers.


These insights have been made possible by new technology that has
allowed researchers to compare the phytonutrient content of wild plants
with the produce in our supermarkets. The results are startling.

Wild dandelions, once a springtime treat for Native Americans, have
seven times more phytonutrients than spinach, which we consider a
“superfood.” A purple potato native to Peru has 28 times more
cancer-fighting anthocyanins than common russet potatoes. One species of
 apple has a staggering 100 times more phytonutrients than the Golden
Delicious displayed in our supermarkets.


Were the people who foraged for these wild foods healthier than we are
today? They did not live nearly as long as we do, but growing evidence
suggests that they were much less likely to die from degenerative
diseases, even the minority who lived 70 years and more. The primary
cause of death for most adults, according to anthropologists, was injury
 and infections.


Each fruit and vegetable in our stores has a unique history of nutrient
loss, I’ve discovered, but there are two common themes. Throughout the
ages, our farming ancestors have chosen the least bitter plants to grow
in their gardens. It is now known that many of the most beneficial
phytonutrients have a bitter, sour or astringent taste. Second, early
farmers favored plants that were relatively low in fiber and high in
sugar, starch and oil. These energy-dense plants were pleasurable to eat
 and provided the calories needed to fuel a strenuous lifestyle. The
more palatable our fruits and vegetables became, however, the less
advantageous they were for our health.

*snip*

The United States Department of Agriculture exerts far more effort
developing disease-resistant fruits and vegetables than creating new
varieties to enhance the disease resistance of consumers. In fact, I’ve
interviewed USDA
 plant breeders who have spent a decade or more developing a new variety
 of pear or carrot without once measuring its nutritional content.



We can’t increase the health benefits of our produce if we don’t know
which nutrients it contains. Ultimately, we need more than an admonition
 to eat a greater quantity of fruits and vegetables: we need more fruits
 and vegetables that have the nutrients we require for optimum health.



        


Jo Robinson is the author of the forthcoming book “Eating on the Wild 
Side: The Missing Link to Optimum Health.”
        
Joel Gruver

School of Agriculture

Western Illinois University

jgruv@hotmail.com