Most Active Stories Fri October 21, 2011 New Varieties Haven't
Taken The Nutrition Out Of Broccoli Quick question: Are
vegetables less nutritious than they used to be? You're free to
argue about this, because scientists haven't managed to come up
with a clear answer. There's some new data out this week in the
journal Crop Science, and at least for broccoli, the answer
seems to be no. But keep reading, because the story gets a
little more complicated. Scientists at the U.S. Department of
Agriculture took 13 different genetic lines of broccoli that
were released by seed companies over the past 46 years, grew
them side-by-side, and measured levels of many micronutrients,
including calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc. They also grew an
older variety of the vegetable, called Waltham 29, that was
created by plant breeders in Massachusetts in 1950. They found
no clear trend or rising or falling nutrients among the
commercial broccoli lines. Older hybrids did not, on average,
have higher or lower concentrations than m