Fresh Fruit: Nutrient-Packed or Not?
The Guardian investigates the myths of fruit. While it's a good thing that people are eating more fruits these days due to convenient packaging and greater availability, the article says, fruits in general aren't packed with nutrients, nor do they deserve the title of "superfood." Tom Sanders, director of the Nutritional Sciences Division at King's College London, says, "It's a myth that fruit is packed full of vitamins and minerals. The foods packed full of micronutrients are grains, seeds and nuts, the peas and things."
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
10 Comments:
Nutrients or no, there's ample evidence that people who eat lots of fruits and vegetables live longer and are healthier.
mandybrown at 12:44PM on 01/23/08
This is just another form of bait and switch. How much longer must we endure this?
Eat fruit, don't eat fruit, eat whole grain breads, carbs are bad, carbs are good again.
Jeez, just make it stop.
Come over and have a piece of cheesecake: http://tablebread.blogspot.com I promise it may not be full of nutrients but it is good :)
~Tablebread
TableBread at 1:00PM on 01/23/08
Err... your headline's a little inaccurate in relation to the type of fruit studied in the article, which is far from fresh! Seems like another argument for buying locally produced (just picked) fruits and preparing them (if need be) just before serving. Of course transported, packaged and cut fruits are going to leach nutrients. Not to mention the fact that fruits treated with pesticides aren't producing as many protective "nutrients" to begin with.
I just finished reading Pollan's In Defense of Food, and wholeheartedly agree with his assertion that our focus on "nutrients" is absurd, when looking at the concept of the last several decades, where there's a new wonder-nutrient every year, and it always turns out that it's not that wondrous after all, especially when isolated from the whole food. An orange might not have this many of this vitamin or that anti-oxidant, but eaten as whole fruit, the whole thing works mysteriosly together, in ways we haven't discovered, to be good for us.
mandybrown said it so simply in her comment: "there's ample evidence that people who eat lots of fruits and vegetables live longer and are healthier." Whatever nutrients they find or don't find, that's all I need to know.
Tactful_Cactus at 1:41PM on 01/23/08
Ugh... this kind of article is what makes dietitians like myself want to throw our hands up in the air and give up. We have to realize that no one food can provide all the nutrients we need... that's why all foods fit into a healthy diet - fruit is another building block, packed with fiber, water, antioxidants, etc... and oh yeah, and it TASTES good too! Sounds like a nutritious combination to me...
sshokie at 1:58PM on 01/23/08
I'm a dietetics student and I plan to work in the UK at some point, but recently I've read some things from British dieitians that make me seriously question their knowledge. There's no benefit to fruit beyond cellulose and vitamin C? Seriously? Their complete denial of any benefits of the antioxidants and phytochemicals is pretty ridiculous. There are chemicals in plants that probably aren't strictly required for life (ie, not "nutrients") but they still have effects on the body, often in preventing oxidation, which causes cancer and cardiovascular disease. Also, when a study finds that people who eat fruit and veg live longer, it adjusts for physical activity and any lifestyle factors they can think of. I can't believe someone who supposedly reads scientific articles would say that fruits probably aren't that important in a diet.
I understand trying to dispel myths about juice being just as good as the whole fruit, or the fadism associated with eating the new "hot" food, but this article makes it sound like they're telling people not to bother with fruit at all.
booplusboo at 2:06PM on 01/23/08
A blanket statement like that is sure to be mostly wrong. Nutritional value varies greatly from one fruit to another. Most importantly though, as always, is the method of cultivation, and the point in the ripening process at which the fruit was harvested, and how much time elapsed from harvest to consumption.
Fruits and veggies grown on industrial farms have very little nutritional value other than sugars, starches and fibre. When it comes to flavor and nutritional value, it's all about the soil. The soil they are grown in has been over extended and depleted of nutrients, and synthetic chemical fertilizers are used to promote vegetative growth. While these fertilizers are designed to optimize the growth of the plant and it's fruit, they do very little to adding the nutritional value we seek and expect. An old traditional method of farming was to rotate crops, so that a field never was growing the same crop one season to the next, and would usually be left to grow wild for one season every three or four years. Also, planting legumes every few years actually replenishes the soil in nitrogen, as legumes can grab nitrogen out of the air which is then put into the soil through the plants roots. Nitrogen is an essential component to all life. Plants use it to form chlorophyl which as we all know is the engine in photosynthesis.
Fruit is generally harvested under-ripe, and ripens in transit to the warehouses and ultimately to the stores where they are sold. Vitamins and minerals are for the most part water soluble and degrade over time and exposure to oxygen, so if a fruit or veggie is cut up into pieces and/or sits around for a while ripening in the back of a semi or in a warehouse, it will lose significant amounts of whatever little nutrients it already had to begin with.
As always, buying organic and local makes a big difference. The best solution is to grow your own, but that is not always feasible. You get what you pay for. But yeah, even supermarket factory farmed fruits and veggies are better than none at all. Robyn, your summary is misleading and I think should be re-written, as the article linked clearly makes the distinction between whole fruits and prepared and prepackaged fruit.
seyo at 2:10PM on 01/23/08
I see what's happening here (sigh). Serious Eats has gone the way of the numbers. If you actually go to the article it plainly states that 'pre-packaged' fruit is the problem.
Another title meant to generate traffic. (sigh) This is happening way too often nowadays. Same thing has happened at Slashfood. Sometimes your like: "Are they just posting this to have a post?" Sad.
IMHO
TableBread at 2:42PM on 01/23/08
Many good comments have already been made whether in reference to problematic nutritional analysis or the difference between the pre-sliced, peeled apple slices ninety days old and fresh fruit grown with natural fertilizers, peel and core intact. (FYI, I've heard the stuff about antioxidants debunked, too.)
Let me add this: concerns about obesity dominate nutritional advice to an extreme. Consequently, you'll read about all the benefits of oranges (here: http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c20Vk.html) qualified by the degree to which sugars govern calorie intake.
If you look at Harvard's survey of Food Pyramids, you'll see that recommendations favor vegetables which you're encouraged to eat in abundance, whereas you should consume 2 1/2 servings of fruit a day. Why? Much higher percentage of sugar? More calories? The greater likelihood you'll find protein and a variety of nutrients in vegetables than fruits? Or our nutritional classification system (vitamins, minerals, fiber...) to blame for slighting fruits? After all, nutrition is a product of culture, not nature.
Here's the link: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/pyramids.html
There is something to be said for the fact that fruit is delicious and probably better for me than many other options when I long for something filling and sweet.
Eliz. at 2:48PM on 01/23/08
In most cases, fresh-sliced, pre-packaged and prepared fruits and vegetables have a nutritional content comparable "whole fruit." I can't understand the reasoning behind prepared fruit being "the problem." It's simply a matter of convenience for many, and often it makes fruit more desirable to eat (which is a good thing despite what this article says). It is simply not realistic to assume that everyone can eat locally and/or organically. We should be so grateful that we have the variety and abdundance of food that we have.
sshokie at 3:30PM on 01/23/08
"Dr. Tom Sanders says that breakfast cereals served with semi-skimmed milk, are low energy meals that provide about one fifth of the micronutrient requirements of children and should be encouraged. Portion size as it is being eaten but not dry weight nutritional facts should be considered. Dr. Sanders is professor of nutrition at King's College London, leading scientist of the OPTILIP trial and acting as a consultant to the cereal manufacturers, says that traffic light labels misclassifies unfairly breakfast cereals."
These people are S-C-U-M...
sold soul to the devil...this is why i hardly ever read the Guardian now...
tochigi at 4:50PM on 01/23/08