Is modern food lower in nutrients?

In several papers, researchers have used food tables – country-by-country compendia of historical information on the mineral composition of foods – to report an apparent decline in micronutrients such as iron, vitamins and zinc in fruit and vegetables over time. While they show a clear decline over time, the conclusion of one paper states that it can’t confirm with certainty whether there is a real decline in nutrients in staple foods. This is because the data they used, taken from food tables, struggles to provide a clear answer. It’s not just that food samples vary within these tables, the methods used in the laboratory to analyse food samples have also changed.

The Rothamsted research station has been studying crops – especially wheat – for around 180 years and have found that modern varieties produce slightly less protein and micronutrients than older ones did. The impact of high concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere also has an effect.