by Dr.Harald Wiesendanger– Klartext
What the mainstream media is hiding
They look healthy, taste of something, and are nutritionally deficient: Today’s fruits and vegetables are more about profit than food. While soils are depleted, politicians remain inactive, and consumers get their health information from commercials, nutrient density is quietly and uncomplainingly shrinking—with fatal consequences.
According to researchers at Coventry University, fruits and vegetables as sold today are only half as nutritious as they were 80 years ago. Their study compared the nutrients in 28 fruits and vegetables sold in the United Kingdom in 1940, 1991, and 2019. They found that the levels of iron, magnesium, copper, potassium, calcium, and other nutrients have dropped dramatically – by up to 52%.
The alarming study confirms previous studies in the Netherlands, Finland, Canada, and the USA. “You have to eat ten times as much fruit and vegetables today to get the same amount of vitamins and minerals as you did 50 years ago,” laments US physician Al Sears. Spinach used to be a muscle-builder – today, it’s increasingly being presented as a decorative, flavored leaf with an iron fantasy. (1) Vitamins? Yes, somewhere between water and cellulose. Carrots look like carrots and taste like air – with a hint of “I used to be healthy.” Broccoli? Pure volume, a green illusion. We’ve managed to breed edibles that look like food but, in reality, mostly resemble it.
{Sources: 1985, pharmaceutical company Geigy (Switzerland), 1996/2002, Karlsruhe Food Laboratory/Oberthal Sanatorium; most recent results: AI-calculated estimates based on trends.}
Latent Hunger
Especially in wealthy countries where acute deficiency diseases are rare, a latent deficiency in micronutrients, or “hidden hunger,” is widespread – often unrecognized but with disastrous long-term health consequences.
This includes reduced mental performance. A deficiency in B vitamins – e.g., B9/folic acid, B12 –, iron, magnesium, or zinc promotes concentration problems, irritability, exhaustion, memory impairment, and depression.
Nutritional deficiencies cause chronic fatigue and weaken muscles. Vitamin C, iron, potassium, and magnesium are essential for energy, oxygen transport, and muscle function. A deficiency leads to a lack of energy, weakness, and a decline in performance.
Nutritional deficiencies weaken bones and teeth. Less calcium, vitamin K, vitamin D, boron, and magnesium increases the risk of osteoporosis, delays bone regeneration, and impairs dental health.
The immune system also suffers. Vitamin C, vitamin A, zinc, and secondary plant substances – flavonoids and carotenoids – are essential for the body’s immune system. A deficiency in these substances increases the risk of infections and inflammation, and healing processes are slowed.
The risk of many lifestyle diseases increases. A long-term deficiency in antioxidants, minerals, and fiber promotes arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, chronic inflammation, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Heart attacks and strokes become more likely.
Children are at risk of developmental disorders. A deficiency in folic acid, iron, iodine, or vitamin A can negatively impact brain development and growth.
It leads to increased oxidative cell damage. Fewer antioxidants – e.g., vitamins C, E, selenium, and polyphenols – mean more free radicals, chronic oxidative stress, damaged blood vessels, DNA damage, and accelerated cell aging. Cancer threatens, especially in the colon, breast, and prostate.
Content: secondary. Like in politicians’ speeches.
How could nutrients be secretly eliminated from fruits and vegetables?
First: the industrialization of agriculture. It focuses on quantity rather than quality: The goal is to get as much as possible from fields and plantations as quickly as possible. Fast-growing varieties are favored, which leaves less time for nutrient formation. Frequent harvests on the same soil deplete it. The use of artificial fertilizers promotes growth but not necessarily nutrient density. Pesticides also damage soil microbiology, reducing plant nutrient uptake. Why grow healthy varieties when you can harvest ten tons of tasteless water balloons per hectare?
Second: Breeding for yield and appearance. Many modern fruit and vegetable varieties have been specifically optimized for higher yields, uniform size and color, longer shelf life, and transportability. These breeding goals often come at the expense of vitamins, minerals, and secondary plant substances. Supermarkets generate sales according to the motto: “Beauty sells.” Their vegetables resemble models – beautiful but empty. Everything shines; nothing is of any use. Apples have the texture of wax, the taste of ambitious boredom, and air miles bonuses. And the peppers now match the color of the advertising poster. In the fruit department, aesthetics reigns supreme.
Third: overused soils – dead but effective. Burnout – only in soil. Decades of monocultures and insufficient crop rotation cause cultivated areas to lose essential minerals such as magnesium, zinc, and iron. Without adequate regeneration through compost or green manure, the micronutrient content declines. Hope is planted on mineral-free sand – for yield, not for content.
Fourth: long transport and storage times. Fruits are often harvested unripe and are expected to ripen during transport. This reduces the content of specific nutrients, such as vitamin C, which only develop in the final stages of ripening. Storage, light, heat, and oxygen further degrade sensitive vitamins. Our fruit travels more than the average EU parliamentarian – just without daily allowances. Ripened on airplanes, illuminated in warehouses, and decorated in supermarkets – not much of the original vitamin content remains. Will vegetables soon be as storable as steel – but hardly more nutritious than Styrofoam?
Fifth: CO₂ fertilization in greenhouses, following the motto “Faster, higher, sweeter!” Thanks to atmospheric doping, fruit grows in fast-forward – but with more of the nutrient profile of cotton candy. Higher carbon dioxide levels in modern greenhouse crops lead to faster growth rates – accompanied by a dilution effect: more sugar and water, but not proportionally more minerals.
Modern agriculture is a true miracle: soils devoid of life. Plants devoid of substance. Harvests devoid of flavor. But hey – the main thing is that the lettuce survives 6,000km of transport and still looks like it came straight out of a brochure.
The main thing is that it’s cheap and flawless.
Politicians are doing… well, almost nothing about this, but they’re doing it consistently.
Priorities are yield and security of supply. State agricultural subsidies have always aimed primarily at high productivity, a secure and affordable supply for the population, and the competitiveness of domestic agriculture in global markets. Nutrient density is not a primary criterion for evaluating food.
In addition, nutrient losses are a “silent” problem. They don’t conjure up an acute deficit that would be immediately visible, like hunger or epidemics. The decline affects micronutrients – vitamins and minerals – whose deficiencies tend to have long-term health effects, e.g., through chronic diseases.
Above all, economic interests prevail. The agricultural and food industry benefits from high yields and long shelf life. Measures such as targeted soil remediation, variety diversity, or returning to slow-growing varieties would be more expensive and complex. Lobby groups from agriculture and industry exert massive and persistent influence on legislation and funding programs – mainly in the interests of efficiency and growth, not quality.
Policies could take action – for example, by promoting nutrient-rich varieties, setting stricter quality standards, better subsidizing sustainable soils and biodiversity, and encouraging research into regenerative agriculture.
But the more complex a problem, the more inert the government becomes. Improving nutrient density affects many policy areas: agriculture, health, education, the environment, and research. There is no clear responsibility – which is another reason why nothing is being done. Furthermore, there are no binding standards for the nutrient content of agricultural products. Farmers know: Those who cultivate slow-growing, nutrient-rich varieties will receive praise on Instagram – and bankruptcy notices in the mail. Funding is for mass, not micronutrients. Added to this is a bureaucracy that measures the curvature angles of bananas and planting distances in millimeters but has no idea how much magnesium is in a head of lettuce.
In the Age of Culinary Dummy
Instead of complaining, consumers should take a look at themselves. Their shopping habits are partly to blame for the misery. Their supermarket only delivers what they prefer: pretty, flawless pseudo-health on special offer. Most consumers are more concerned with price, appearance, and convenience. Who cares about minerals when strawberries cost 99 cents in December? Vitamin loss? “Oh, I’ll take multivitamin gummy bears anyway.” An apple from 2025 contains only half as much vitamin C as it used to? “Then I’ll just eat two.” Why buy organic when you can swallow a capsule with 27 synthetic vitamins “Made in China”? Why forgo burgers when they contain a lettuce leaf and a slice of cucumber?
Nutritional education? The average Joe knows more about the price of gasoline than about the iron content of broccoli. No marketing is too stupid to enchant them: a microscopic amount of antioxidant becomes an “immune boost,” a vitamin deficiency becomes a “gentle, balanced fruit composition.” Deliciously empty. Deceptive packaging.
Political pressure will be absent as long as there is little demand for more nutrient-rich vegetables. Nutritional literacy is lacking – and is therefore not a political priority. No one protests against empty apples. No shitstorm for carrots with vitamin dementia. But woe betide the yogurt lid if it gets a new design.
Without public protest and a change in consumer behavior, the issue will continue to be sidelined.
We live in the age of culinary illusions: Everything looks like nutrition but does nothing for you – except slowly but stylishly deprive you. The main thing is that it’s cheap, pretty, and available around the clock. A suitable label would be “Nutritionally Inspired™” – with 0% nutritional value but 100% marketing. Health? That comes later. With a prescription. And a co-pay.
Do we urgently need the mass deployment of technology to spice up increasingly nutrient-poor natural foods with artificial additives – from white bread with vitamin B3 and skim milk with vitamin A to margarine with plant stanols and omega-3-enriched eggs to rice with an extra dose of beta-carotene? Or does Homo sapiens even have to switch to designer food? Nothing beats real food. Instead of “replacing common sense with confusion,” “the first step in reforming appetite is to return from processed to real foods,” writes US nutritionist Michael Pollan.
Only self-help will help.
Politicians wave it through, the agricultural industry fertilizes for the eye, and consumers blindly buy.
What helps? A seal? A subsidy? A superfood from the Himalayas? No. Only one thing: a sharp mind when shopping.
Because no reform can combat empty calories, only a self-thinking, self-responsible, critically chewing consumer can. Someone who asks: “What’s in it?” instead of just “How much does it cost?” And “Where does it come from?” instead of “When does it last?”
If conventionally grown fruit and vegetables are no longer sufficient to ensure a healthy diet these days, how do we get the essential nutrients? Through organic products. Through heirloom varieties. Through regular visits to farmers’ markets. Through high-quality nutritional supplements with high bioavailability. Through wild herbs – true “nutrient bombs.” By growing them in our own garden.
Anyone who wants to stay healthy will have to save their own greens in the future – from nutrient depletion due to indifference, stupidity, and greed. No, your fruit doesn’t necessarily have to look better than you.
(Harald Wiesendanger)
Note
(1) Unbelievable but true: Artificial flavors can be added to frozen spinach, e.g., “creamed spinach,” as can ready meals like “spinach with potatoes.”