Was grandmother's apple really better? Research points to this.

The old days were better – this is what the elderly sigh about, and even if "modernity" shows the world differently to them, there was something truly more advantageous decades ago. According to a new study, fruits and vegetables are only about half as nutritious today as they were 60 years ago. Researchers at Deep Science Ventures in the United Kingdom found that produce harvested in America today lacks vital nutrients such as vitamin C, calcium, and iron. This change coincides with the spread of higher-yielding, lower-stalk varieties of grain, while the mineral content of the examined soils showed no similar decline. A 2022 British study reached a similar conclusion by comparing food composition records from 1940, 1991, and 2019. It found that the average iron concentration in fruits and vegetables decreased by about 50 percent, while copper was down by 49 percent, and magnesium by approximately 10 percent. Of course, these figures do not mean that every carrot or apple has lost half of its nutritional value. Different plants and nutrients show different trends, and historical comparisons can be influenced by changing varieties, sampling methods, and laboratory techniques. By researching the causes, they found that soil quality is not the only reason for all this. Much more so, when crops are bred for maximum yield, their nutritional value can unintentionally decrease. The researchers call this phenomenon the dilution effect. If a plant accumulates more carbohydrates, starch, or water while the amount of minerals does not increase proportionally, then the nutrient concentration per unit mass can decrease. Although the plant yields more produce, the fruit is not necessarily as rich in minerals. Chinese researchers examined over 5000 people older than 80 to find out if diet plays a role in reaching old age. Climate change is also involved here. The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels can accelerate photosynthesis in some plants, allowing them to produce more carbohydrates. However, this additional growth does not necessarily come with more minerals. A 2025 meta-analysis led by researchers at Leiden University found widespread changes in the chemical composition of plants under elevated CO2 levels, with zinc being particularly sensitive—reports ZME Science. So, in some cases, you might need to eat twice as much bread or vegetables to get the same nutrients that our grandparents did, but then you'd be putting on weight because your calorie intake would also be doubled. Fortunately, the nutritional value of food is not a single number. An apple can contain certain amounts of vitamin C, potassium, fiber, and other beneficial components. Since these amounts vary differently, one cannot automatically conclude that the entire nutritional value of a food has degraded in proportion to a decrease in a single nutrient. The research mentioned does not mean that we should stop eating fruits and vegetables from now on. However, it is worth paying attention to variety, since different colored, varied, and origin produce can provide different nutrients. The goal is not to return to the agricultural practices of the past, but to develop modern technologies that ensure food is not only abundant but also nutritionally valuable. If you would like to know about similar things in the future, please like the HVG Tech section's Facebook page which reports on scientific discoveries.