New Varieties Haven't Taken The Nutrition Out Of Broccoli

[salvorhardin]

I've wondered about this for a while. Looks like there's no real differences in nutritional content between present day broccoli and what was grown 30-40 years ago, except for the one variety that was never really eaten much anyway. However, varieties that produced larger heads did have less nutrients per ounce, which makes sense to me -- bigger broccoli heads means more fiber and more water. It'd be neat to see similar studies for other vegetables.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture took 13 different genetic lines of broccoli that were released by seed companies over the past 46 years, grew them side-by-side, and measured levels of many micronutrients, including calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc. They also grew an older variety of the vegetable, called Waltham 29, that was created by plant breeders in Massachusetts in 1950.

They found no clear trend of rising or falling nutrients among the commercial broccoli lines. Older hybrids did not, on average, have higher or lower concentrations than more recent ones. But the researchers did find bigger is worse; the genetic lines that produced larger heads of broccoli also had lower concentrations of nutrients — that is, there was less nutrition per ounce of vegetable.

And then there's the geezer broccoli: Waltham 29. It does have significantly higher levels of many nutrients. But there's a catch. Waltham 29 is a very different version of broccoli. The flower is looser, more bush-like, with bigger flower buds. It's less predictable; many plants don't produce any flowers at all. It doesn't keep as long, and it's harder to ship.

As a result, broccoli like Waltham 29 never was very widely consumed. Mark Farnham, a co-author of the new study, says that back in the day when plant breeders created Waltham 29, Americans ate less than one pound per person per year, on average. In the 1960s and 1970s, breeders came up with hybrid lines that could be more easily stored and shiped. "It's really after these dramatic changes that people started eating it," Farnham says. Today, the average American eats seven or eight pounds per year.
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/10/20/141557743/new-varieties-havent-taken-the-nutrition-out-of-broccoli]

[msongs]

1. plastic ships and stores well. any way we can infuse it w/nutrients and digest it lol nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. It is what the stuff is grown IN that provides nutrients.

And that important tidbit is buried in the bottom of the story.
"Those ( nutrient) levels can vary widely depending on what the soil a plant grew in, what time a vegetable was harvested, and how long it sat in storage."

None of the critical above factors have much to do with what variety of broccoli one grows.
But have everything to do with how much nutrition any variety provides.

[Tumbulu]

3. This study examines modern varieties grown conventionally- ie high yielding

In my experience the higher the yield, the more dilute the micronutrients and things we associate with flavor become- as though there is some set amount of them available in the soil bank from which the plant is able to draw from.

Non irrigated low yielding grapes are the valuable ones used to make premium wines. The irrigated, fertilized high yielding varieties are either made into table grapes, raisins or used to make juice that is used to lower the cost of producing the decent wines.

The organic veggies that test high for nutrients reflect the lower yield of most all plants when grown without the chemical fertilizers that really ramp up the yields.

I grow an heirloom wheat. I get about 700 lbs per acre. No irrigation and fertilized entirely by my sheep eating the stubble of the rotated previous crop. It has an unbelievable flavor that non foodies can recognize. Regular modern wheats grown in my area- even those grown organically produce about 3000 lbs in an acre. But no flavor- well at least nothing that I can recognize.

I look at the puffed up way the plants and animals look who eat the chemically pumped up high yield crops and then I look at the general population ......

[Tumbulu]

4. table grape vs wine grape prices

the price per ton for the highest yielding irrigated and chemically fertilized grapes for crush were around $200/ton in 2010 . The average price per ton of low yielding, marginally irrigated, not chemically fertilized wine grapes from Napa County was over $3000/acre.

So, in the wine industry it is a well know fact that natural ie not amped up yields from produce flavor.