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United Kingdom Science

UK Vegetables 20-50% Less Nutritious Than In the 1960s (yahoo.com) 126

Posted by EditorDavid from the beets-me dept.
The Telegraph reports that the nutritional value of fruit and vegetables has fallen by up to 50% since the Sixties, according a new study from researchers at startup studio Deep Science Ventures.

The study "found that humans needed to consume twice the number of vegetables to get the same level of minerals such as potassium, magnesium or copper as would have been present in their food 60 years ago." The study found that many crops had lost 20% to 50% of several key nutrients... The decrease in nutrient and vitamin value is thought to be down to declining soil quality and crops being selectively bred for their ability to grow quickly, rather than there being any focus on their health benefits... It raises the prospect that the advice to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, introduced in the UK in 2003, may need to be updated. The report added that people on weight-loss drugs could be most at risk from the lack of nutrients, as the treatments could cause them to consume less food...

Nature-friendly farming techniques, such as planting crops that restore nutrients to the soil, could help improve the health benefits of vegetables, according to the researchers.
In short, according to Will Summers, a senior associate at the firm, "we've been quietly hollowing out what's inside our food."

Thanks to Slashdot reader Bruce66423 for sharing the article.

UK Vegetables 20-50% Less Nutritious Than In the 1960s More | Reply

UK Vegetables 20-50% Less Nutritious Than In the 1960s

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  • This is why (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'm not a vegan.

  • Supplements (Score:3)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Saturday October 10, 2026 @10:00PM (#66370408)

    Just eat a spoonful of potassium, swallow a couple of zinc washers, and chew on a copper wire and you'll be good to go.

    • Just eat a spoonful of potassium, swallow a couple of zinc washers, and chew on a copper wire and you'll be good to go.

      Good news then, now that food isn’t being inspected you’ll be doing that whether you want to or not!

    • Have you seen the price of copper wire recently? It is totally out of reach. Not to mention you need great teeth to be able to chew on it.

    • No no, you are suppose to wear a copper bracelet. It will naturally rub off on you and you'll absorb the minerals through your skin. At least according to my really hot female coworker. Sounds like malarkey to me but she is really hot, so you know :)

  • The truth comes out... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The truth of the matter is the vitamins are the expensive part, and the greedy SoB's have been skimming them from vegetables and putting them in expensive multivitamins.

    • How much is a vitamin, 10 cents? You're telling me you can't afford 10 cents?

      • A vitamin is nearly free. What's 10 cents is the plastic package, the sugar that makes it palatable to the nurtured on coca cola and most of all the included advertising fee. Plus, it is 10 cents per vitamin, but you have 15 of them in every pill, so that's aready $1.50. And you must buy two tubes for "maximizing effect", that's now $3. Add a monthly subscription for extra convenience and "free delivery" and you're close to $100 a month only on your minerals, which is about 12% of the worldwide average mont

        • Re: The truth comes out... (Score:4, Informative)

          by madbrain ( 11432 ) on Saturday October 10, 2026 @10:56PM (#66370456) Homepage Journal

          A year's supply of multivitamin is about $25, or 7 cents a day. It is affordable in the developed world. Not necessarily in 3rd world.

          • Last time I checked, UK was part of the developed world.

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by znrt ( 2424692 )

              must have been a while ago ...

            • I didn't claim otherwise. But even in the UK, you can find a 500 tablet kirkland multi for 16 pounds. Us price is $18 for qty.

          • A year's supply of multivitamin is about $25, or 7 cents a day.

            Probably true if you grab the China-made bottle of magic powder pressed into dissolving crap from the "buy one get three free" in Walmart.

            A monthly bottle of "quality multivitamins", which may actually have some synthetic vitamin C in it, costs many times more than 7 cents a day in the "developed world".

            • Costco USP verified.

            • Re: The truth comes out... (Score:4, Informative)

              by madbrain ( 11432 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @12:13AM (#66370506) Homepage Journal

              Just checked, Costco/Kirkland multi, made in the US from various country ingredients, verified by independent USP lab, costs 16 British pounds in qty 500. Thats 4.23 cents per tablet. Us price is $18 for qty 400, or 4.5 cents.

              • go ahead, eat that, be healthy. there must be a reason why the life expectancy made in the usa is the lowest in the "developed world".

                • Nice moving of goal posts.

                  • Not at all. This is the evidence that cheap shit in bottles with printed "tested in a lab" on them has no value.

                    Incidentally, even if you pay $10 for a year for "multivitamins", you've paid too much.

                    https://www.hopkinsmedicine.or... [hopkinsmedicine.org]

                    Not to mention that if you're eating "supplements" to get your vitamins and minerals instead of quality food, you're a moron.

                    https://www.health.harvard.edu... [harvard.edu]

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by tragedy ( 27079 )

                      Not to mention that if you're eating "supplements" to get your vitamins and minerals instead of quality food, you're a moron.

                      You might want to qualify that a bit. Synthetic folate is much more effective than natural. It is absolutely recommended by doctors that any woman who might become pregnant should be taking synthetic folate supplements to avoid neural tube defects in offspring.

                    • It is absolutely recommended by doctors that any woman who might become pregnant should be taking synthetic folate supplements to avoid neural tube defects in offspring.

                      Yes, sure, there are few edge cases. But in the case under discussion, healthy people, the research quoted above is unequivocal.

                      Incidentally, I think you have it backwards, methylfolate, the natural form, is the thing that is mildly preferable for pharmacokinetic reasons - it is biologically active, it doesn't cause problems with some people and at high doses it creates fewer risks than folic acid. On the other hand, folic acid is cheaper and you can keep it around forever. But that's a subject I've not pai

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Malc ( 1751 )

                Do you account for VAT (nearly always included in UK prices, at 20%) and sales tax (nearly always excluded in US prices, at variable rates)? The comparable price is probable £13.33 for the UK, or $17.64 for 500 (3.53 cents per tab).

                • I didn't. Sales tax is exactly 10% in san jose now. Regardless of the exact amount, it's a very reasonable cost. There is no known downside from taking a multi for most people. You can't buy much nutritious food for only that many cents per day.

            • Fred Flintstone chewables have never let me down. And they're a heck of a lot tastier than "Centrum Silvers".

              • Fred Flintstone chewables have never let me down. And they're a heck of a lot tastier than "Centrum Silvers".

                I think I might now buy some of those instead just for the nostalgia.

              • Wow, I thought it is a joke, turns out it is a real thing.

                If we come across each other, please share one or two, yabbadabba doo!

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Ambvai ( 1106941 )

            I was visiting a few friends in Portugal earlier this year, and they asked for vitamins, so I moseyed down to Costco and got them each a bottle... they were surprised by my 'generosity'.

            I later learned that the bottles of Centrum that cost me about 25$ after tax were closer to 200USD over there.

    • Holy cow, really? How do you skin nutrients from a vegetable?

      You apparently forgot the /sarcasm tag on your post...

      • You don't have to "skin" them vitamins if you don't put them there in the first place.

        Also, since when it is that a sarcasm tag is necessary? Once upon a time we used our reading skills to figure out what is what.

  • No surprise (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Vegetables and fruits are now bred for maximum shelf life and minimum cost.

  • grain fed duck (Score:3)

    by evanh ( 627108 ) on Saturday October 10, 2026 @10:38PM (#66370432)

    I got the shock of my life when I ordered duck at a restaurant a couple of decades ago and ended up with gooey white sludge that was whiter than even chicken meat. Needless to say it was also tasteless to boot. Quite the contrast from wild duck with its dark colour, dry texture and distinct flavour.

    Also, just this year, I discovered butter is the same when the dairy cows are feed grain too.

    • I don't think anyone is making a claim that grain fed ducks are tastier than ducks that forage. We feed ducks grain because it's cheap and easy.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by evanh ( 627108 )

        And that's what the article about. Crap food because it's easier to mass produce for less cost. I concurred and gave an example.

        • Ok I guess I didn't follow you. So you ordered the duck expecting wild duck and when you complained the waiter informed you it was grain fed? I raise ducks FWIW.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by evanh ( 627108 )

            Yup.

            And the recent butter experience occurred because it was an imported butter. All local butter is from grass feed cattle. It was very pale and tasteless in comparison. Like margarine.

            It got a strong negative coverage in the press and was immediately withdrawn as a result. I was one of the ignorant, not watching the news, that purchased before the withdrawal happened.

  • Farming has changed (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Most of the nutrients aren't taken up into fruits and vegetables until they ripen. It's not uncommon for fruits and vegetables to be picked before they're ripe and put into cold, low-oxygen storage for anywhere up to twelve months before they appear on supermarket shelves.

  • Is the measurement methodology the same? Was the equipment equally sensitive? Could the difference be attributed to the differences in technology from the past 60 years?

    • Is the measurement methodology the same? Was the equipment equally sensitive? Could the difference be attributed to the differences in technology from the past 60 years?

      I think so. I was but a tyke in that era, but I clearly remember my uncle bitterly complaining at the time: "We can put a man on the moon, but we still can't measure the nutrient levels in vegetables with sufficient accuracy!"

      Life is so much better now.

    • Why would the methodology need to be the same? The question is does it get repeatable results within error bars? Also why are you asking us? Just go to the website and get the report.

      • You answered your own question. "Does it get repeatable results?" Testing methodology is everything.

        If you get a colon cancer screening, you can go with the traditional colonoscopy, or you can get a DNA test (ColoGuard) or you can get a blood test (The Shield). Each testing method has its own strengths and weaknesses, and has differing levels of accuracy and false positives.

        With regard to nutritional content, there is Chromatography, Spectroscopy, Chemical Scoring and Profiling, to name three. Each has stre

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dryeo ( 100693 )

      Well, for minerals, where basically you flash burn the plant material and then measure the minerals in the ash, accuracy has probably improved resulting in smaller error bars but measuring things like iron, copper, potassium and other micro-minerals is old hat and we're talking 30-50% changes. A 5 or 10% change doesn't change the observation that much and it is likely less then 5%.
      Similar with vitamins though I know less. Chemists have been measuring this stuff for a long time. Likely more accurate but once

  • They don't taste like they used to (Score:5, Informative)

    by Sam Hobbs ( 10503023 ) on Saturday October 10, 2026 @11:39PM (#66370486) Homepage
    I know that peaches, peas, carrots, strawberries and other fruits and vegetables sold in stores have little taste compared to what we got half a century ago. I suspected that that meant a reduction of nutritional value and this confirms my suspicions. It is frustrating when a nutritionist says I must eat more fruits and vegetables and I say they don't taste like they used to and the nutritionist has no idea of what I am saying. Now I have evidence of what I am trying to tell them. The solution is not to tell us to eat more. The solution is to grow them (harvest them) like they used to. Currently they try to make fruits and vegetables taste good by adding sugar.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by spaceman375 ( 780812 )

      Move to South America. The farms aren't depleted/fertilized and the genetic strains are less in-bred. The food tastes WAY better. Just plain chicken has a richer flavor than in the US or EU. The veggies & fruits have a full spectrum of nutrients and flavors that I just can't find north of Ecuador. Visit Peru and you will hunt for Peruvian restaurants when you come back, but the food doesn't have the depth of flavor it does when you are actually in Peru.

      • Just plain chicken has a richer flavor than in the US or EU.

        Gallena de patio that gets bugs and scraps is richer than factory fed feed-only birds.

      • And yet I can go to the supermarket and buy fruits and vegetables grown in Peru that are the exact same quality as the ones grown in Mexico or California.

    • Re:They don't taste like they used to (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Fons_de_spons ( 1311177 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @04:20AM (#66370606)
      My father in law is retired. He spends days in his garden. Whenever he as too much, he hands his veggies out to us. My god, what a difference. It is astonishing. All of the sudden, a bellpepper tastes fantastic without any herb or seasoning.
      Of course, we need to feed 7 000 000 000 mouths these days. Something has to give.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      But then the cost would go up, and there is a cost of living crisis, and a housing crisis, and a climate crisis, and a student debt crisis already.

      It's part of a long term trend towards making life for ordinary people are marginal as possible. Fine tuning the system to keep us alive and healthy enough to work, at the lowest possible cost and highest possible profit margin.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by djinn6 ( 1868030 )

        Food is among the smallest slice of cost of living, yet has by far the largest impact on health. The hospital is a money burning machine by comparison.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Yeah, but this the UK. Healthcare is free(ish) and when people are short of time and money they tend to make short term decisions.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by HiThere ( 15173 )

            Expensive health-care doesn't keep that from happening.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by djinn6 ( 1868030 )

            Then they can tax unhealthy foods and use that to fund the public health care system. If the true cost of the unhealthy food showed up on the sticker price, nobody would be buying them to save money.

      • 1,000% this!
        It's all about putting money in the pockets of whoever owns the big corporate-owned factory farms, not making it so the family farmer can pay off the loan in 6 months.

    • Well, the nutritionist can afford to go to Whole Foods or Byerlys, while we can only afford Wal-Mart or Coborns.
      Not to mention, eating healthy isn't cheap.
      If you have a family, you'll eat that pound of peas or that head of lettuce before it spoils... but, us single people aren't eating three salads a day to use that head of lettuce up before it spoils (unless you're a vegan).

    • Have you cut sugar out of your diet besides fresh fruits? So much of our processed food and drink is very heavy in sugar and it gives the impression to your brain that real fruit just isn't sweet. Cut out all your sugar, change products if need be, and you'll see when you eat in season, local fruit that it will indeed taste better then today where you have to much garbage sugar.

      Of course, eating fruit shipped half way around the world out of season which is picked early and then ripened with a gas upon deli

    • Kiwi here.
      When I see "USA" on fruit and fruit and veggies , I know they will look pretty but taste bland.
      I don't buy them.

      Sure they add nitrates and phosphates to the ground to keep the over harvested ground growing, but all the trace elements have been stripped.

      The land needs remediation, a LOT of compost, a LOT of plants to help rebuild the soil, the land left fallow for a while and then more carefully used.

      • It's exactly the same in the US if it says "kiwi" on the label.

        You're not going to be buying fresh produce, picked at the peak of ripeness... from halfway around the world.

        Fuck an A, people...

        Meanwhile, in the US, you can buy flavorless, colorless, super-cheap vegetables from one bin, or higher quality, more expensive "organic" vegetables from the bin next to it. Or, for half the year, visit a farm store (these are available in cities, not just actually at farms) and pay even more money for old-fashioned pi

  • You can take a multivitamin to get these nutrients now

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pla ( 258480 )
      Golly, wouldn't life be awesome if we could just take a few pills per day to get all our nutritional needs like some kind of 1960s sci-fi trope? Oh, wait - No, no it wouldn't. Food is enjoyable, to the point most people like eating so much we have an obesity epidemic in the Western world.

      It's also worth mentioning that countless studies have failed to find any benefit of taking supplementary vitamins on either lifespan or quality of life in otherwise well-fed individuals. Conversely, ~600 kids per year (i

      • I actually do wish I could just pop a series of pills and call it a day. I hate cooking and cleaning and yet I do that nearly every day so that I can eat decently and as affordable as possible. The stuff I like to eat is garbage, so I have to limit that stuff and stick to mostly raw ingredients to cook with.

        But make no mistake, having to shop for it, store it, prepare it, and then clean up the dishes. It's a lot and that's even more so if you making numerous sides. About the only benefit there is usually yo

    • Enjoy all the soylent flavors.

    • Sure, hopefully you won't bother to look at the studies on medical outcomes that show that taking multivitamins only improves outcomes for the most severely malnourished. For people who aren't halfway starved to death, they're mildly toxic and provide none of the benefits associated with eating foods naturally high in vitamins.

      And if you look into the manufacturing processes, you may (or may not) be surprised to learn that the main inputs for "multivitamins" is ultraprocessed toxic industrial waste. It turn

  • Real facts instead of face Telegram "news" (Score:3)

    by crath ( 80215 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @12:01AM (#66370502) Homepage
    See "Are carrots becoming less nutritious?": https://www.bbc.co.uk/programm... [bbc.co.uk]

  • AFAIR the "five a day" was about fibre, not particularly about vitamins. And the definition of a portion was "a handful", as in a handful of spinach (was that before or after cooking), or a handful of apple. On a par with walking 100,000 steps a day or drinking 8 gallons of water a day. Easy to remember, harder to justify.

  • Bury your food scraps, plant heirloom vegetable seeds with a little fertilizer boost, eat well, repeat. It can't replace all vegetables all year, but it sure helps to eat SOME nutritious vegetables rather than none. It's also fun.

    • The average home gardener is not capable of being self sufficient for fruit and vegetables. Hell my grandma barely was, and her "garden" was 1/4 acre in a small village to say nothing of the size of the average garden in the UK.

  • First the regenerative agriculture people manage to create cows with internal fusion, now plants can do it too?

    Ntrogen and carbon can come from the air, the rest not so much.

  • Overwatering will get weight up and they are paid by weight. But that will dilute the nutrients.

    On the other hand prolonged farming may just run out the trace minerals which has both direct effects (if the soil is short of copper then so will be the plants) and indirect effects on the nutrition, what ever the plant was making with the copper won't be made in adequate quantity.

  • maybe (Score:3)

    by noshellswill ( 598066 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @10:33AM (#66370796)
    Check the paper: < https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889157516302113 > .... the decrease in  vegetable nutrition may be small, while availability vastly increases.  Maybe it balances out. Of-course "food store" fruits and veggies taste like shite, compared to what you could pick  yourself.

  • Shocking! It now takes consuming two 50 gram zucchinis to get the nutrition of just one 100 gram zucchini from the 1960s.

  • Was always an undershoot anyway. 10 a day is more accurate to what is required, but they knew that was too much to be suggesting, and 5 a day was certainly better than none a day.
  • Quick growth and/or bad soil means less flavour too.

  • BS (Score:3)

    by TRRosen ( 720617 ) on Monday October 12, 2026 @04:04AM (#66371836)

    This seems like a big pile of crap. They mentioned three minerals that don't typically exist in any significant amount in most vegetables and they listed peas, carrots, and onions, vegetables that specifically wouldn't be a source of these minerals to begin with.
    This would seem to be more product of reduced pollution than food getting less healthy.

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