How nutritious are your veggies?

If the economy isn't grim enough for you, just check out the February issue of the Journal of HortScience, which contains a report on the sorry state of American fruits and veggies. Apparently produce in the U.S. not only tastes worse than it did in your grandparents' days, it also contains fewer nutrients — at least according to Donald R. Davis, a former research associate with the Biochemical Institute at the University of Texas, Austin. Davis claims the average vegetable found in today's supermarket is anywhere from 5% to 40% lower in minerals (including magnesium, iron, calcium and zinc) than those harvested just 50 years ago.

Source: Time Magazine

It's summed up as, on one hand, a combination of selecting for high-carbohydrate specimens of plants due to their sizes, and, on the other hand, a combination of soil depletion and insufficient time for more-rapidly-growing plants to absorb nutrients from the soil.