some time ago the center for science in the public interest ( a lobby
organization for public policy ) published a study on food degredation
over the years. i am looking for a specific quote which stated " the
nutrition in a can of spinach in 1954 (not sure the exact year )is
equivialnt to 50 cans of spinach today"  I need the quote, the
article, and if possible any footnotes.

---

Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 25 Apr 2004 18:11 PDT

In your comment below you indicate that you want to apply your fee
toward the material that I posted. The only way this can be done is if
I post the material and links as the official answer to your question.
You could then repost your question in hopes that someone can find a
suitable CSPI quote.

If you'd like me to post the quotes I found as your answer, so that I
will be able to recieve payment, I'll be pleased to do so.

Please let me know how you'd like to proceed.

~pinkfreud, Google Answers Researcher

Thank you for accepting my findings as the answer to your question.
I've reposted the material below, with two additional suggestions.

======================================================================

"The methods used to grow and process our foods leave many of the
foods nutritionally deplete.  For example, if you ate a cup of spinach
in 1954 you would have to eat sixty cups in 2001 to get the same
quantity of iron.  Our soil is severely depleted of nutrients due to
the current farming methods."

My Health Question
http://www.myhealthquestion.com/newsletters/news_nutri_faq.htm

"Recently, scientists noticed an alarming trend occurring in the U.S.
and around the world. Since the 1940s, the fruits and vegetables which
are vital to our health have been declining in the quantity of
important vitamins and minerals they contain. Levels of iron, calcium,
vitamins A and C in our produce have fallen dramatically since the
1970s. A British study demonstrated a decline of over 75% in vital
nutrients since the 1940s. The tasty tomato your great-grandparents
ate in 1950 likely had over 10 times the amount of vitamin C than that
flavorless tomato you put in your salad today."

Independent Media Center
http://indy.pabn.org/archives/110dogoo.shtml 

"A published study in 'August Celebration' by Linda Grover, found that
in 1948, spinach contained 158 milligrams of iron on each 100 grams.
Twenty five years later the same quantity of spinach contains less
than 2.2 milligrams of iron, imagine, Now days to obtain the same
quantity of iron of 50 years ago we will have to eat 75 spinach
rations."

Multibalance
http://www.multibalance.net/informaciondeMB.htm

Here's the exact quote from "August Celebration":

"In 1948 you could buy spinach that had 158 milligrams of iron per
hundred grams. But by 1965, the maximum iron they could find had
dropped to 27 milligrams. In 1973, it was averaging 2.2
milligrams.That's down from a hundred and fifty. That means today
you'd have to eat 75 bowls of spinach to get the same amount of iron
that one bowl might have given you back in '48. That's when Popeye was
really big, right?"

VitaNet Online
http://vitanetonline.com/library/Minerals/

There's some interesting information here:

Wholesome Food Association
http://www.domainomania.com/wfa/mineral_decline.html

======================================================================

Several websites that discuss the nutritional depletion of food
mention Professor Tim Lang, who heads the Centre for Food Policy at
Thames Valley University in the UK. I've found contact information for
Professor Lang. A letter or email to him might prove fruitful as you
gather information:

Tim Lang
Professor of Food Policy
Centre for Food Policy
Thames Valley University
Wolfson School of Health Sciences
32-38 Uxbridge Road
Ealing, London W5 2BS, UK
tel: 44-181-280-5070
fax: 44-181-280-5137
email: tim.lang@tvu.ac.uk

Università degli Studi di Siena 
http://www.unisi.it/cipas/school%201996/School/timlang.htm

Also frequently mentioned in online articles about the waning
nutritional value of food is nutritionist David Thomas. I have found a
report written by Dr. Thomas that I think you'll find quite useful.
Its title is "A study on the mineral depletion of the foods available
to us as a nation over the period 1940 to 1991." The data in this
report came from the Medical Research Council and the Ministry of
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in the UK. If you're seeking
statistics which are backed up by scientific authority, this report
should be of interest.

The Good Gardeners Association: A study on the mineral depletion of
the foods available to us as a nation over the period 1940 to 1991
http://www.goodgardeners.org.uk/pages/min_dep_report.pdf

======================================================================

Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: "spinach" + "deplete OR depleted OR depletion" +
"nutrients OR nutrition OR nutritional
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=spinach+deplete+OR+depleted+OR+depletion+nutrients+OR+nutrition+OR+nutritional

Google Web Search: "minerals" + "vegetables" + "years ago"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=minerals+vegetables+%22years+ago

Google Web Search: "tim lang" OR "david thomas" + "foods" + "nutrition"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22tim+lang%22+OR+%22david+thomas%22+foods+nutrition

======================================================================

Please request clarification if anything is unclear, or if a link does
not function. I'll be glad to offer further assistance before you rate
my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

just exceptional follow through. thanks

I was not able to locate a quote from CSPI on this subject, but here
are some similar quotes:

"The methods used to grow and process our foods leave many of the
foods nutritionally deplete.  For example, if you ate a cup of spinach
in 1954 you would have to eat sixty cups in 2001 to get the same
quantity of iron.  Our soil is severely depleted of nutrients due to
the current farming methods."

My Health Question
http://www.myhealthquestion.com/newsletters/news_nutri_faq.htm

"Recently, scientists noticed an alarming trend occurring in the U.S.
and around the world. Since the 1940s, the fruits and vegetables which
are vital to our health have been declining in the quantity of
important vitamins and minerals they contain. Levels of iron, calcium,
vitamins A and C in our produce have fallen dramatically since the
1970s. A British study demonstrated a decline of over 75% in vital
nutrients since the 1940s. The tasty tomato your great-grandparents
ate in 1950 likely had over 10 times the amount of vitamin C than that
flavorless tomato you put in your salad today."

Independent Media Center
http://indy.pabn.org/archives/110dogoo.shtml 

"A published study in 'August Celebration' by Linda Grover, found that
in 1948, spinach contained 158 milligrams of iron on each 100 grams.
Twenty five years later the same quantity of spinach contains less
than 2.2 milligrams of iron, imagine, Now days to obtain the same
quantity of iron of 50 years ago we will have to eat 75 spinach
rations."

Multibalance
http://www.multibalance.net/informaciondeMB.htm

Here's the exact quote from "August Celebration":

"In 1948 you could buy spinach that had 158 milligrams of iron per
hundred grams. But by 1965, the maximum iron they could find had
dropped to 27 milligrams. In 1973, it was averaging 2.2 milligrams.
That's down from a hundred and fifty. That means today you'd have to
eat 75 bowls of spinach to get the same amount of iron that one bowl
might have given you back in '48. That's when Popeye was really big,
right?"

VitaNet Online
http://vitanetonline.com/library/Minerals/

I hope another Researcher will be able to find your CSPI citation.

this is pretty darn close...i'd like to keep my question up on the
table and i'd like to get the original article that the first quote
came from so i could footnote it. i feel like you have done great
work. if anyone can help with the cspi quote i would appreciate it. in
the meantime please apply the 30 dollars towards these answers..
thank you...

i have re read those quotes and i still need one from a scientific
journal...please recirculate..i would be ok with spending another 20
dollars to find one or some.
thanks
steve

I am leaving your question unanswered, at your request. Sorry the
quotes I found weren't precisely what you were after. I hope someone
else will be able to help. Your account will not be charged until and
unless an answer is posted.

Here is the answer to a similar question.
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=272047

Then after I had answered it, a commentor came along with this very
interesting bit of information which could lead to the type of quote
you are looking for and such quote being made only because the person
speaking was not aware of the error.

"When the iron content for Spinach was first measured/calculated, the
person doing so made a mistake and put the decimal place in the wrong
place. This gave rise to the mis-conception that spinach had 10xs more
iron than other foods. This was what inspired the Popeye cartoons
showing spinach making you very strong.

So spinach probably doesn't have 10xs less nutrients than it did 50
years ago but it does have a decimal point in the correct place now!"

Cheers
digsalot

There's some interesting information here:

http://www.domainomania.com/wfa/mineral_decline.html

Hello spa1-ga,

I?m afraid that we will not be able to prove a negative. I don?t think
the CSPI published it?s own study about nutritional degredation of
food in the past few years.

Some of the commentors on your question have already identified some
of the articles that quoted studies about the decline in the nutrition
value of spinach. I have located some of these studies and discovered
that they were all issued by alternative/allied medicine
practitioners. Some of the quoted articles and sources seem to have
been around for years. I don?t think any of the sources of these
studies can be classified as ?scientific journals? and their findings
are not recognized by the FDA or the scientific community.

Please look over the results of my search and let me know if any of
these documents/quotes will meet your needs.

All the best.

~ czh ~


http://www.cspinet.org
Center for Science in the Public Interest

***** Searching the website does not come up with any studies about
degredation of the nutritional value of spinach. Search does come up
with lots of results on the value of spinach in a nutritious diet.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/index.cfm?action=news&ID=71
Declining minerals in our food...and fewer minerals in our supplements?
David Thomas of Mineral Resources International (UK), a supporter of
ANH, reveals his findings on declining mineral content of foods. See
ANH comment which follows.
It?s not the fruit it used to be. . . 
The Sunday Times
8 February 2004
Jonathan Leake, Environment Editor

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-993250,00.html 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8126-995115,00.html
February 08, 2004 
The Sunday Times
It?s not the fruit it used to be. . .

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.icmedicine.co.uk/journal/may06.htm
Institute for Complementary Medicine Journal
A Case for the Need for Mineral Supplementation
Chiropractor David Thomas, DC, makes the case for daily
supplementation, especially of minerals, based on his analyses of the
loss of nutrients in basic foodstuffs in the UK, confirming similar
results in the US, between 1940 and 1991.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.mineralresourcesint.co.uk/
MRI UK Ltd.

http://www.mineralresourcesint.co.uk/
Mineral Resources International (UK) Ltd. has been established by
chiropractor and geologist David Thomas, to provide interested people
with information concerning the need for trace element supplementation
in their diet.

-------------------------------------------------


http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/1999/food_security/msg00531.html
[Fwd: food losing nutrients]
by Kathryn Scharf
09 November 1999 20:03 UTC
FYI, from the Rodale Institute and the current Organic Gardening Magazine.
http://www.organicgardening.com/artprint/article2_p.html

OUR FOOD IS LOSING NUTRIENTS! WHY?

In the April 1943 issue of Organic Farming and Gardening, our
visionary founder J.I. Rodale wrote: "The United States Government has
admitted that the reason 50 percent of the men called for the draft
were rejected was because they were undernourished. Now, all these men
ate plenty of food, but this food lacked enough minerals and vitamins
to make them physically fit.

Alex Jack, a health writer in Massachusetts, and Anne-Marie Mayer, a
nutrition researcher in the United Kingdom, separately compared
government reports on the levels of vitamins and minerals in fresh
food in the 1990s and from several decades ago. Both of these
comparisons revealed significant declines in calcium and iron in a
variety of raw fruits and vegetables.

Alex Jack reported on his comparison of USDA food composition tables
from 1975 and 1997 in the Spring 1998 issue of One Peaceful World,
published by the Kushi Institute.

Anne-Marie Mayer, formerly an independent researcher in the U.K. and
now a doctoral candidate in the nutrition department at Cornell
University, reported her findings in the British Food Journal (99/6
[1997] 207-211).

-------------------------------------------------


http://groups.google.com/groups?q=spinach+losing+nutritional+value&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=fab9c5f.0205012349.45a1afc8%40posting.google.com&rnum=5
As to the nutrient content of foods, please read the following
article: Vegetables Without Vitamins

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2001/mar2001_report_vegetables.html
Vegetables Without Vitamins
Life Extensions Magazine March 2001

As our society becomes more technologically oriented, we will forget
about our health.
http://home.uchicago.edu/~sadavis1/tech.html

Proper Use of Technology
If you're involved with any group promoting these ideas, please email
me and make me aware of it.
The principle
I try hard to be an optimistic person, but there are situations in
which I see a degree of optimism from most people which is simply not
called for, and I feel a need to put up a red flag and make people
reconsider some things. Technology in the world today is going forward
relentlessly and often without regard to the most basic concern for
what's good for people, what's ethical, and what is likely to cause a
disaster. I think I was driven into this when my father tried to push
me into a career in medical research and biotechnology against my
will, and I became concerned with the fact that not only did I not
think cloning, eugenics, etc. were ethical, but I also thought they
were far too risky to pursue them anywhere near as vigorously as they
are being pursued at the moment. Producing babies by any other than
the natural means could have consequences far above and beyond what we
realize now -- we're only now seeing the costs of the long process of
artificially "improving" plants and animals to suit our needs as has
gone on for centuries. People are going ahead with cloning without
considering the social consequences and risks enough.
Changing people's natural genetic makeup in any way is a form of
eugenics, which is unethical and is likely to have more far-reaching
consequences in the sense that it undermines the doctrine that all
human beings are fundamentally equal. If the rich are able to buy
better genes for their children, have their children's genes
"corrected" so they are healthier, physically stronger, smarter, etc.,
the possibility of this being used to undermine egalitarianism and
start a new wave of Social Darwinism constitutes a real dark cloud on
the horizon. The first generation with improved genes could even feel
such a sense of superiority that they would feel justified in coming
together in a revolutionary youth movement to overturn the whole
society put in place by prior generations and destroy all defenders of
the old ways in some great revolution which might not have been so
well thought out. This sense of a group that feels that its
superiority justifies anything recalls so many of the darkest moments
in world history. Even in the absence of this, a biotechnological
disaster could pose a grave danger to the entire human race, and
preventing the spread of biological weapons will always be difficult.

The medical community has managed to put all medical advances in such
a positive light that everyone seems to think it is good for people to
eliminate every disease and try to push the human lifespan as long as
possible. The human lifespan, at present, is limited to about 100
years for good reasons. I am all in favor of preventing people from
coming to an early death, but once people have reached the age of
about 80, they ought to be emotionally prepared to end life and say
that they have had enough. Instead, the relentless search for cures to
everything, combined with the feeling that people should be kept alive
even if they cannot ever leave their hospital beds again, seems to
justify high prices for medical care. Through the current system, we
deny care to the poor in order to develop expensive drugs and
operations to artificially prolong the lifespan of those who can
afford it. More frequently than ever before, by living into their 80's
and 90's, these people often end up living many, many years of
physical and psychological pain and suffering. I have great respect
for those few who are willing to say that they have had enough of life
at some point and face death calmly. I don't respect those many who
are selfish enough to insist that their loved ones keep living in
order to postpone that grief for them. I'm not prepared to debate this
issue with some economist who is going to tell me that the continued
health of the economy rests on constant development of new medicines
and treatments, but I don't believe that medical researchers do any
great service to humanity by developing new treatments all the time. I
don't think people are as skeptical as they should be about the
medical establishment and its motives. Why do we think it is OK that I
spent 24 hours in the hospital recently, the doctors found nothing
wrong, and they still billed my insurance company almost $5,000?

On a different but related note, I'm also concerned with making sure
that machine intelligence does not get out of hand. Artificial
intelligence hasn't moved forward as fast as people predicted at one
point, but soon humans will be capable of creating machines that can
"think" and defy the control of humans through their "intelligence". I
think at least people will probably be more sensible about this than
in the case of medical technology and have due fear of the possibility
of machines destroying human society. There are a lot of dumb movies
that have trivialized the subject somewhat, but at least they have put
the idea in people's minds. I am optimistic that we should not have to
worry about this for long.

Now, I've just described examples of technologies that are
particularly negative, but even those technologies that are generally
good can create new social problems faster than we can come up with
solutions. As the development of technology becomes more and more
rapid, we are no longer able to solve old social problems as fast as
new ones are being created. For example, to cite a relatively trivial
example, better communication and transportation have created greater
mobility, which breaks people apart and inhibits them in sustaining
personal relationships since they tend to move every few years. A more
serious example is the rise of all kinds of tools of indoctrination, a
still unsolved problem that technology helped to create nearly a
century ago. Mass media remains a tremendously powerful tool for
massive propaganda campaigns by those who control it, and the
resistance to it seems to have declined greatly in my lifetime. Most
obvious of all is the constant "improvement" in weapons, whether they
be in the hands of foreign states or of mentally unstable individuals,
that puts people at greater danger all the time and makes many people
live in a constant state of fear. The longer these problems remain
with us, the more we stop realizing their role in harming our
psychological health. In the early twentieth century, there was a lot
of literature and art about the toll that the modern world takes on
the human psyche, but now, we seem so inexplicably willing to accept
declining mental health as inevitable or as the price one must pay for
technological progress, which is considered an absolute good. Now, if
Americans abandon technology completely, we are told, we may risk
falling under the political and economic domination of someone else
who places a higher value on it, but I would say we must try to do
something to reduce our dependence on technology.

What needs to change
The older generation still has such a rosy outlook on technology as
something to fix all our ills, and the new problems created by new
technologies are ignored. Recently, the faith in technology has almost
rebounded to the dangerous level it reached during the late 19th
century after the Industrial Revolution. To me, the end of the 19th
century was one of the darkest periods in Western history, witnessing
not only the rise of big business but also an idiotic philosophy often
(rightly or wrongly) connected with the name of Nietzsche. This
philosophy was comprised of an ultracompetitive spirit, a belief that
people knew everything, and an unwavering faith in science and
technology. This degree of faith in technology is not warranted. If we
have learned our lesson, we will be able to look back and see that
this faith in technology came crashing down once we had two wars of
unprecedented cost and the possibility of nuclear disaster hanging
over our heads. The bottom line: Proponents of questionable new
technologies sing a very seductive song that the public must learn to
resist.
Recommended reading
Overall, I really liked Neil Postman's Technopoly, which describes how
technology has become an end in itself rather than just a means to
human ends, as well as a tool to exert greater control over helpless
average people. It is especially good in describing over-medication
and the use of computers as a tool of bureaucracy to manipulate the
individual.
Those interested in the impact of computer technology in particular,
including artificial intelligence, should definitely read Joseph
Weizenbaum's Computer Power and Human Reason. It is a very powerful
indictment of the way in which many scientists today ignore what is
really best for people.

ok this messege goes to pinkfreud-ga...lets say the question is
effectivly answered and i will post a new question which does not
focus on spinach but scientific evidence of degredation in our food.
thanks
steve e.

Many thanks for the kind words, the five stars, and the nice tip!

~Pink