Some Blame Environment; USDA Says Better Tests a Factor
Washington - No one is sure why, but government records of vitamins and
minerals in a sampling of vegetables show the level of nutrients has gone down
over two decades, some dramatically. The little publicized changes in broccoli,
cauliflower and other vegetables are prompting suspicion by some in organic
gardening and vegetarian circles that a changing environment could be affecting
the produce Americans eat. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture, while
acknowledging that its own data indicate a decline, says it is just as likely
that testing techniques for measuring vitamins A and C, and calcium and iron,
among other nutrients, have simply become more accurate, making the old data
wrong.
" It's rather difficult to attribute the change to any one factor." says
David Haytowitz, the USDA nutritionist whose job is to keep information on
vegetable vitamins and minerals. " I'm not saying it's one or the other." says
Joanne Holden, the research leader of the USDA's Nutrition Data Laboratory in
Beltsville, MD. " I'm just saying that we can't avoid looking at all of these
things." Haytowitz says there is no way to be certain because it is impossible
to retest the onions, collards and other vegetables that show changes in
nutrients over the last 25 years. Those vegetables or ones from the same crop,
have long since been destroyed or eaten. But testing methods have improved
substantially, he said, so the laboratory's goal is to focus on better analysis.
The governments approach does not satisfy Alex Jack, a Massachusetts author,
editor and advocate of natural food diets. Jack was updating a book: " Healing
Food." with the latest USDA nutrition information when he first noticed changes
between figures published by the government in 1973 and 1997. " My best guess is
that this was environmental, part of the large environmental crisis - Food
quality, air quality, water quality, sea quality. " Jack said. " I don't have
definite proof, but I think that government and our representatives should be
looking into this." Jack published his findings in "One Peaceful World." his
newsletter advocating a macrobiotic diet, in the spring of 1998. Anne Marie
Mayer, a British nutritionist now working on a doctorate at Cornell University,
had found similar decline in England during research that began in 1995. No one
else appears have done such an analysis.
Jack randomly selected 12 vegetables to check nutrients: broccoli, cabbage,
carrots, cauliflower, collards, daikon, kale, mustard greens, onions, parsley,
turnip greens and watercress. Comparing data published in a nutrition handbook
in 1975 with data on the Internet in 1997, he found that the amount of calcium
reported for raw broccoli - the kind sold at supermarkets - had declined by 53
percent. Broccoli also had 38 percent less vitamin A, 48 percent less
riboflavin, 35 percent less thiamine and 29 percent less niacin. Similar
declines were found for the other vegetables. The measurements were for 100
grams (3.5 ounces) of each uncooked vegetable, the equivalent of one-third to
one-half a cup. For more information
The above text was published in the OMAHA WORLD-HERALD on Saturday, January
29, 2000 |
