4 Fool-Proof Steps To More Nutrient-Dense Vegetables In Your Garden

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4 Fool-Proof Steps To More Nutrient-Dense Vegetables In Your Garden

Are you eating healthy and nutritious food? If you get the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables, enjoy lean protein and healthy fats, you are probably going to answer “yes” to that question. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
The fruits and vegetables that most of us enjoy today are less nutrient-dense than they were a generation ago. As early as the 1940s, scientists started to notice the alarming trend of less and less minerals and nutrients in the soil – and, as a result, in the food that was grown in that soil.

Studies in North America and in Europe have noted a decline of vitamin and mineral content across a variety of garden crops that has ranged anywhere from 2-84 percent over the last 75 years. In 2006, even the U.N. admitted to a new food crisis which they called “type B malnutrition” which was not due to lack of food but rather to poor food quality.
Why Is Some Food Today Less Nutrient-Dense?
Perhaps the biggest factor in the decline of vitamins and minerals in our food today is due to mineral depletion in the soil. Big Ag – and even some organic farms – often practice monoculture in which a single crop is grown on a piece of land.
The longer this occurs, the less nutrients in the soil. Wild plants (which do not grow in isolation but rather with many other organisms), on the other hand, tend to have a much higher level of nutrition. For example, dandelions have far superior nutrition than conventionally grown spinach, and certain wild native apples have 100 times the nutrition of a Golden Delicious.

Another reason for this deficiency has to do with the crops we select. Nowadays, agribusiness – and even many home gardeners – choose varieties that are known for growing fast, big and plentiful. But bigger and faster rarely means better. The longer a fruit or vegetable takes to develop, the more time it has to absorb minerals from the soil. Many heirloom or heritage vegetables, for example, take a longer time to mature but they have a higher nutritional content.
The third reason why many of us are getting less nutritious food today has to do with the way many of us get most of our food – from the grocery store. It is a known fact that the older fruits and vegetables get, the more nutrients they lose. What is less widely known is that by the time much of our produce hits the grocery store shelves, it is already as much as seven weeks old!….More Here

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4 Fool-Proof Steps To More Nutrient-Dense Vegetables In Your Garden