By Dr. Melissa (Mel) Irvine, DNP – Clinical Sexologist
Specializes in Sexual Medicine and Beauty
If there is one important thing we know about food, it’s that different foods offer different types of nutrients. Even more, various foods provide different levels of these nutrients, which is why having a balanced and varied diet is always the best choice for supplementing your body with these crucial vitamins and minerals.
However, nutritional deficiencies continue to increase, affecting the overall health and well-being of all of us, even those who eat a varied diet. This causes us to question why these nutritional deficiencies are becoming more prominent, and what we can do about it.
A Decline in Nutrition
Nutrient deficiencies continue to rise in individuals, with a 2017 report citing that 31% of Americans are at risk of at least one vitamin deficiency, a number they expect to continue increasing.
According to the CDC, the most common vitamins and minerals associated with deficiency include:
– Vitamin B6
– Iron
– Vitamin D
– Vitamin C
Even more, this risk of deficiency increases for women, those from low-income households, non-Hispanic blacks, and those who are underweight or obese.
Why Is This Decline Occurring?
There may be many reasons contributing to this decline in nutrients seen in the food that we eat, all stemming from the growing process.
First, it helps to look at the soil used to grow the food, as this is the primary source of nutrients for the foods we eat. Fruits and vegetables require fertile and biodiverse soil to achieve their maximum nutritional value, yet the quality of soil used to plant food has rapidly declined.
The blame for this declining soil quality can partly lie on current farming practices, which place a greater priority on increasing farming yield and less on preserving good nutrition.
In fact, around a third of the soil in the world has already degraded, which can occur from deforestation, farming techniques that are chemical heavy, and global warming. The second cause, in particular, directly relates to the farmer’s use of petrochemical fertilizers, fungicides, and herbicides.
These chemicals have allowed farmers to increase their yields, but the consequence is evident in the decreasing amount of topsoil remaining for future food growth. Some areas even estimate that there are only 60 years of topsoil left, which poses a rapidly approaching problem for the future of agriculture.
In addition to the quality of soil, how plants are being grown also affects the amount of nutrients they are able to absorb. High planting density has become a more prevalent practice, which refers to the planting of multiple crops in a specified area. While this increases crop yield, it causes the crops to have weaker roots, inhibiting how many nutrients they can absorb from the soil. This then decreases the nutrients they offer us when we consume them.
Combining weak roots that cannot absorb a lot of nutrients with nutrient-depleted soil leads to food with much lower nutrient profiles.
But just how significant is this decline in nutrient value? Pretty big, with reports that the average vegetable found in the store has a nutritional value of 5%-40% less than that same vegetable 50 years ago. In addition, six nutrient levels that have declined substantially come from the 13 most important nutrients found in fruits and vegetables. So, almost half of the essential nutrients your body needs to function properly are significantly less than they should be.
This means that meeting the nutrient value of one cup of vegetables in the 1960s may now require 3 cups of that same vegetable, all because their nutrient value is less. Not only does this mean that you get fewer nutrients eating the same amount of food, but if you want to meet your daily nutrient goals, you may need to overeat, which increases caloric intake and can contribute to weight gain.
Farming Changes to Address Nutrient Decline
While it can seem discouraging that such a significant nutrient decline has occurred, there are ways to combat this and increase the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables. Alternative practices to conventional agriculture, which shift the focus from maximizing yield to producing higher quality food, are becoming more widely understood, which offers a chance to improve nutritional food value.
Two of these alternatives include organic and regenerative agriculture. However, the most challenging step for farmers is first moving away from conventional practices, and this is because this shift requires changes in machinery, financial allocation, and time requirements.
Organic farming avoids pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and GMOs. Since soil degradation results from the overuse of chemicals in farming, organic farming has the potential to stop this decline.
Taking things a step further, regenerative farming builds upon organic farming by also utilizing methods that help the soil heal, increasing its nutritional composition and thus producing food with higher nutritional levels.
Some of the tactics used in regenerative farming include:
– low-till/no-till methods
– composting
– cover cropping
– rotational grazing
– crop rotating
Many of these methods help reduce soil disturbances, allowing the soil to become more biodiverse.
Why Do We Need These Nutrients from Food?
Many of the nutrients we gain from food are necessary for specific processes in the body, but cannot be produced by the body itself. These are called essential vitamins and minerals because the only way your body can obtain the nutrients it needs to complete these processes is by ingesting them through the food you eat.
These processes, controlled by various vitamins and minerals, can include:
– fighting infections
– making bones strong
– healing wounds
– regulating hormones
– store energy
– protect vision
– maintain water levels
our food is not as nutrient-dense, the important functions in your body start to become less effective. This may mean that your energy levels decline, or your hormones become imbalanced. The body is a system that requires balance for all areas to function correctly, which is why a decline in nutrients can snowball into other areas of the body, causing various symptoms and problems.
Because of this connection between nutrients and body functionality, it is vital to ensure that you are getting enough essential vitamins and minerals each day.
How Can You Increase Nutritional Intake?
Now that we know the extent to which food nutritional levels have declined within the past few decades, it is only natural to wonder about what you can do to ensure you get enough nutrients each day to allow your body to function properly. Listed below are some options.
Support Alternative Farming Methods
The best way you can support alternative farming methods that are helping to combat the declining nutritional value of food is by purchasing food grown by these farmers.
When you show support for these farmers and the methods they use, which are often more expensive or time-dependent, you ensure that the farmers see a benefit for the changes they have made, which can encourage other farmers to take on these methods as well.
Eat A Varied Diet
Even though there has been a decline in nutritional value available from certain foods, it is still important to try and get as much of your daily nutrient amounts from the food you eat. Even more important is focusing on a varied diet, as this helps to increase your likelihood of getting all the different vitamins and minerals you need.
As we discussed before, different foods offer different nutritional profiles; one may be high in calcium, while another is high in vitamin C. By eating a variety of foods, instead of always eating the same ones, you ensure that you also get a range of vitamins and minerals.
Try a Dietary Supplement
Taking a supplement should always come second to eating a more varied diet because the body can absorb vitamins and minerals more easily from food than from a supplement. That being said, if you eat a balanced diet and are still noticing nutritional deficiencies, it is always helpful to talk to your doctor about taking a supplement to help your body meet its needs.
A report found that those who do not take dietary supplements were at the greatest risk of any type of deficiency, showing the powerful potential for supplements to bridge the nutritional gap you may be facing.
The Importance of Nutrients
Receiving enough vitamins and minerals from the food you consume is crucial for properly supporting your body and ensuring it can function correctly.
However, the amount of nutrients found in the foods we eat is declining due to farming practices such as high crop density and soil degradation.
Alternative farming methods are increasing in popularity and use, offering the potential to increase the nutritional profile of fruits and vegetables to those seen decades ago. This will then help you meet your nutritional needs with less food.
Currently, you can help improve your nutritional profile by eating a varied diet and supporting any remaining deficiencies (which your doctor can help you find) through dietary supplements. To see improvements in the long run, start supporting farmers who use alternative practices now so that we can build a future where food has higher nutritional profiles.
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References
Bird, J., Murphy, R., Ciappio, E., & McBurney, M. (2017). Risk of Deficiency in Multiple Concurrent Micronutrients in Children and Adults in the United States. Nutrients, 9(7), 655. doi: 10.3390/nu9070655
CDC’s Second Nutrition Report: A comprehensive biochemical assessment of the nutrition status of the U.S. population. (2012). https://www.cdc.gov/nutritionreport/pdf/4page_%202nd%20nutrition%20report_508_032912.pdf
Davis, D. R., Epp, M. D., & Riordan, H. D. (2004). Changes in USDA food composition data for 43 garden crops, 1950 to 1999. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 23(6), 669–682. https://doi.org/10.1080/07315724.2004.10719409
Vitamins: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. (2022). https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002399.htm
Key messages | Global Symposium on Soil Erosion | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2022). https://www.fao.org/about/meetings/soil-erosion-symposium/key-messages/en/