Welcome to the World of Fruits: Where Sweetness Meets Sorrow!
Greetings, fruit aficionados and health advocates! Today, as we celebrate World Food Day, we’re diving into an article that has more twists than a banana peel on a slippery floor. It’s about the alarming decline in the nutritional quality of our beloved fruits over the past 60 years, a troubling trend that will make your apples feel like they’re hiding in the shadows of their former selves. You might say, “So what? An apple a day…” Well, it seems the apples of today are more like a fortnight’s worth of ‘meh’!
The Great Nutritional Heist!
According to a recent study highlighted in the journal Foods, fruits like apples, oranges, and strawberries have gone through more nutrient loss than an ( text{ex-royalty-turned-reality-star} ). The culprits? Intensive agricultural practices, climate change, and the newest glory-seeking, yield-touting methodologies! I mean, remember when fruit was actually good for you? Now, you need to eat double the amount to even feel the slightest hint of a vitamin buzz! “More is more,” they said – and now we’re just left with ‘less nutrients’!
Soothing Words from the FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is stepping in like your mate who’s just spilled tea at a party and has to fill in the awkward silence: “We need more diversity in our foods, people!” With 2.8 billion people unable to afford a healthy diet, it’s not just a matter of choice – it’s a genuine crisis. Unhealthy diets? They’re becoming the leading cause of all forms of malnutrition and conditions that range from obesity to micronutrient deficiencies. I just hope our diets don’t end up being as boring as a day in a waiting room!
The Downfall – What Happened to Our Fruits?
According to the Indian scientists behind this fruity fiasco, the decline in nutritional quality has multiple layers, just like a well-made lasagna. Here are a few eye-opening concerns:
- Intensive agricultural practices: We’ve prioritized quantity over quality. Who knew that trying to grow a grapefruit the size of a football would lead to nutrient dilution?
- Climate change: With rising carbon dioxide levels, it’s like our fruits are taking growth hormones but leaving all the vitamins at the gym.
- Agrochemicals: Chemical fertilizers might boost yields but they’re turning our soil into a glorified sandbox, devoid of the nutrients your fruits need.
- Soil degradation: If soil was Facebook, it would’ve fallen off everyone’s friends list ages ago. It’s in bad shape, folks!
- Post-harvest practices: How we handle fruits after they’ve been picked is another factor at play – long-term storage conditions often leave our fruits feeling a little… deflated.
Pitiful Fruits – A Sad Statistic!
Let’s hit you with some scary statistics: the iron content in bananas has dropped by a staggering 55.7%, while grapefruits have plummeted by a jaw-dropping 85%. What’s next? Cherries losing all allure and turning into glorified marbles? It’s not just bananas, folks – the same sad story plays out with strawberries and oranges. These figures feel like the universe’s way of saying; “You thought you were being healthy? Think again!”
The Path Forward: From Crisis to Creativity!
Now, before you head to the fridge for a pint of ice cream in despair, the researchers have some bright ideas for a fruitful future:
- Improving post-harvest practices: Let’s keep those fruits fresh and vibrant – they’re not just there to sit on a counter!
- Revitalizing traditional foods: I say it’s time to bring back millet and other underrated vegetables. Remember, just because it isn’t fashionable doesn’t mean it can’t rock your nutritional world!
- Soil management: Let’s treat our soil like royalty! Organic fertilization and crop rotation could make all the difference.
- Adopting organic agriculture: A noble pursuit – it keeps our chemical buddies at bay and brings back that much-needed nutrient punch!
- Biodiversity: Encourage beneficial microorganisms to help maximize nutrient content. Let’s turn our fields into a nutrient party!
- Biofortified crops: Because if we can’t find our nutrients, maybe we can just engineer them back in!
Conclusion: A Sweet Ending or Sour Grapes?
So, ladies and gentlemen, while it seems that our fruits have become a bit sadder and less nutritious, there’s hope on the horizon! It’s high time to shift gears, embrace diversity, and bring back the nutritional quality we so deeply miss. So let’s toast – not with sugary sodas – but with the hope of revitalizing our plates! Here’s to a future where fruits are as rich in nutrients as they are in flavor, minus the drama. Cheers!
🔊 Listen to the note
World, October 16, 2024 (ATB Digital).- Hay sweet fruits, such as cherry or red apple. There are semisweets like pear or grape. Also acidic, such as guava or raspberry and semi-acid, such as plums, tomatoes and tangerine. The universe of fruits is very diverse.
Today is the World Food Dayand a study published in the journal Foods suggested that the fruits that are considered “high performance commercial” today they are less nutritious compared to 60 years ago, and the reasons include since modes of production until the climate change.
The researchers postulated that over the last 50 to 70 years, Fruits such as apples, oranges, mangoes, guavas, bananas and strawberries have lost a considerable amount of nutritional density.
The research, which was carried out by Indian scientistsbegan by considering that currently more than two billion people suffer from micronutrient insufficiency, especially iodine, iron, folate, vitamin A and zinc.
“Since the 1940s, the crop yield and the per capita food availability “have not stopped increasing due to intensive agricultural techniques, artificial fertilization, pesticides, irrigation, cultivation of high-yielding varieties and other environmental means,” they wrote.
Meanwhile, “malnutrition tends to increase unabated due to the disruption of the fine balance of soil life and the decline in nutritional density and quality of food crops,” they added.
Why FAO drew attention to food diversity
On the occasion of World Food Day 2024the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) He clarified that “there should be a greater diversity of nutritious foods available in fields, fishing nets, markets and on tables, “for the benefit of all.”
However, around 2.8 billion people in the world they cannot afford a healthy diet.
Unhealthy diets are the leading cause of all forms of malnutrition: malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and obesity, which now exist in most countries and affect all socioeconomic classes. “Too many people suffer from hunger and cannot afford a healthy diet,” FAO clarified.
What are the reasons for the impact on fruits?
The Indian researchers commented that there are a global concern about the decline in the nutritional quality of foods in recent decades. They pointed out the main causes behind the change:
- Intensive agricultural practices: The adoption of modern, high-yield agricultural techniques has prioritized increased production at the expense of nutritional quality. This includes the use of high-yielding varieties that, although they increase the yield, often have lower nutrient content due to a dilution effect.
- Climate change and increased carbon dioxide: The increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can stimulate plant growth, but at the same time reduce the concentration of essential nutrients in crops.
- Excessive use of agrochemicals: The excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has a negative impact on soil biodiversity and on the organoleptic and nutritional quality of fruits, which can affect the absorption of nutrients by plants.
- Soil degradation: Soil quality has been compromised by erosion, loss of organic matter, soil structure and microbial life, factors that are vital to properly nourish crops.
- Postharvest and storage practices: Fruits often suffer nutrient loss during post-harvest handling and storage. Processes such as prolonged storage, improper temperatures, and transportation contribute to this degradation.
In addition, they warned that “nutrient-rich crops, such as millet, conventional fruits and vegetables, have been displaced due to their lower economic competitiveness compared to large products such as wheat and rice, impacting the health of populations in underdeveloped countries.” .
They gave examples: the iron content in bananas decreased by 55.7%. It also dropped 85% in grapefruit, 75% in oranges and 62% in strawberries, according to the group led by Latika Vyasof the Maharana Pratap University of Technology and Agriculture.
Furthermore, the vitamin A in some fruits such as bananas and guavas it has also decreased significantly. This reduction in nutrients is attributed to factors such as the excessive use of high-yield varieties and intensive agricultural techniques, which prioritize quantity over nutritional quality, they commented.
To do the job, the researchers evaluated 200 closely related studies to conclude their task. In addition, they carried out field work between 2017 and 2021: they interviewed 1,500 farmers to understand changes in eating habits, nutritional patterns and food qualities.
The study results indicate that there has been a significant depletion of nutrients in foods over the last century, with dilution rates accelerating following the call green revolutionwhich consisted of a set of agricultural initiatives implemented between the 1940s and 1960s that introduced high-yielding crop varieties, along with the intensive use of fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation techniques, to increase global agricultural production.
“Traditional foods are losing popularity, but they are essential to offer a diversified diet rich in minerals, vitamins and other essential nutrients,” they stated.
They considered that there is an “urgent need to develop management strategies that maintain the nutritional density of foods” to ensure the health of future generations, and proposed these recommendations.
Improvement of postharvest management practices and added value: include proper storage and processing of fruits and vegetables to maintain the quality and nutritional value of fresh produce
Revitalization of traditional foodssuch as millet and certain fruits and vegetables, because their rich nutritional content can improve the food and nutritional security of populations.
Integrated soil nutrient management: The use of agricultural practices that improve soil fertility is promoted, such as organic fertilization, crop rotation, and the use of biodiverse cover crops.
Adoption of organic agriculture: Reduces the use of agrochemicals and increases the content of vitamins, minerals and phenolic compounds.
Improvement of soil ecosystem and biodiversity: especially through the promotion of beneficial microorganisms, it can increase the availability of nutrients for plants.
Use of biofortified crops: This strategy is seen as a sustainable way to combat hidden malnutrition by increasing the vitamin and mineral content in the edible parts of crops.
SOURCE: INFOBAE
