What has happened to nutrient density?

Our garden harvest is done, and most of us are back to the grocery store. We’re shopping for foods that give us nourishment, nutrition, and optimum health. In fact, we want our vegetables, fruits, grains, and meats to be nutrient-dense. But do you wonder if you are getting all the vitamins and minerals your body needs from the food you eat?

Let’s start with this quiz — you may find the trend shocking.

1. What percent of vitamin C content have apples lost in the last 50 years?

Answer: 80 percent to 100 percent

2. How many apples would you have to eat to get the same amount of iron that was present in a single apple 50 years ago?

Answer: 26

3. What percent iron and calcium content have vegetables lost since 1930?

Answer: 22 percent iron and 19 percent calcium.

4. How much of their vitamin C do spinach and green beans lose within 7 days of harvest?

Answer: up to 75 percent of their vitamin C within seven days of harvest, even when refrigerated.

5. Do our rising levels of CO2 affect crop nutrition?

Answer: A study in the journal “Nature” finds that key agricultural crops grown in a high carbon dioxide environment are less nutritious.

6. Is conventional grain-fed beef more or less nutritious than the less-available grass-fed beef?

Answer: Grass-fed beef provides significantly more and better-balanced omega-3s, omega-6 fatty acids, beta-carotene, vitamin E, and folic acid. It’s also 3 times leaner.

7. What’s the one food that will out-compete vitamin C and calcium uptake in your body?

Answer: Sugar

Follow along in this series as we explore nutrient density: Where’d it go? How can we find it? How can we grow it? Specifically, we’ll delve into ways that we gardeners can pack nutrients into our crops, pastures, and livestock.

Ellen Vande Visse operates Good Earth Garden School and offers educational workshops through goodearthgardenschool.com.