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Why Your Favorite Fruits and Veggies May Be Bad Picks, Healthwise by josie

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Robinson_EatingontheWildSidelong by josie
In her new book, author Jo Robinson says that many of the nutritious properties of fruits and vegetables have been bred out over the years.

In her new book, author Jo Robinson says that many of the nutritious properties of fruits and vegetables have been lost over hundreds of years.

As a dietitian, when I hear someone saying that the advice to eat more fruits and vegetables is woefully out of date, I sit up and take notice. So when I read Jo Robinson’s recent opinion piece in The New York Times about the gradual loss of nutrients in produce, I was eager to check out her new book Eating on the Wild Side: The Missing Link to Optimum Health (Little, Brown and Co., 2013).

You only have to take one bite out of a pitiful supermarket peach or a slice of tasteless commercial tomato to know something is missing. In her book, Robinson argues that the loss of complex tastes and beneficial nutrients in fruits and vegetables isn’t simply due to the modern practice of producing more for less. She says the loss of nutrients has been going on for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, as generations of farmers chose to cultivate plants that were less bitter and less colorful — and therefore, less full of healthy plant compounds and antioxidants.

Instead of simply eating more fruits and vegetables, Robinson says we need good advice on which fruits and vegetables to eat. Enter Eating on the Wild Side.

Apples and bananas, the most commonly consumed fruits, are far from being the most nutritious. And while the wild varieties of these fruits had a much more impressive list of beneficial nutrients, most of those have long since disappeared. And we’re not just talking vitamins and minerals, we’re talking phytonutrients — natural compounds found in plants that research suggests may help prevent illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

Robinson goes on to explain that most native plants picked from the wild are higher in nutrients and much lower in sugar than the domesticated varieties bred for durability and longevity. One species of wild tomato, for example, has 15 times more lycopene (a phytonutrient linked to disease prevention) than the typical supermarket tomato. Some native potatoes that grow in the foothills of the Andes have 28 times more phytonutrients than the common Russet potato. One species of wild apple that grows in Nepal has 100 times more phytonutrients than our most popular commercial apples.

Since few of us are likely to trek to the foothills of the Andes or hop over to Nepal to gather fruits and vegetables, Robinson dishes out specific advice on how to choose the most nutritious fruits and vegetables available to us today. She reveals that there are still some surprising nutrition powerhouses in the produce aisle — from artichokes and asparagus to melons and muscadines — and provides detailed information on the best varieties to choose. (Farmers markets are more likely than supermarkets to carry many of the varieties she recommends.) You’ll also learn how to store and prepare fruits and vegetables to get the most nutrition benefits.

While we can’t go globe-trotting to forage in the wild or turn the clock back several hundred years to the foods of yore, we can follow much of Robinson’s advice to “eat on the wild side” and be healthier for it.

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