Fruit and Veg Mineral Levels in 2026-27

Why Today’s Fruit and Veg may be Half as Healthy as they were in the 1960s

COMMON crops, including wheat, apples, and carrots, may have lost up to half their nutritional value since the 1960s.

Declining soil quality means adults today are missing out on vital vitamins and minerals.

Around five million could be pushed towards deficiency in potassium, iron, selenium, and zinc with ‘enormous’ implications for public health.

Experts say it could lead to ‘millions of people taking increased sick days due to being tired or exhausted, and with impaired concentration.’

Selenium deficiency can weaken the immune system, increase the risk of heart disease, and impair thyroid function, with knock-on effects including infertility, depression, and fatigue. It is a powerful antioxidant that helps the immune system fight infection and protects cells from damage. As the nutrient density of wheat has declined, women may now need to eat four slices of wholemeal bread to obtain just a third of their recommended daily selenium intake, say researchers from tech firm Deep Science Ventures.

Iron and potassium are also a concern, with deficiencies linked to high levels of fatigue, heart irregularities and compromised immune function. Writing in the journal Food and Nutrition Sciences, the researchers said increasing the nutrient density of crops by just a third could significantly reduce deficiency rates.

Source: article by Zoe Hardy published in the 8 October 2026 issue of the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper.

The claim on the web that Dr. Linus Pauling, the two-time Nobel Laureate, said, “The root of all disease is directly related to a lack of minerals,” is a misattribution and is not found in his verified publications. Yet the suspicion that the statement about mineral levels has a basis remains in our thoughts.

If the levels of minerals in farming crops have halved since the 1960s, then compared to the time before intensive farming began, that figure must be even lower.

Early commercial farming (1500–1800) began in Flanders, the Netherlands, and southeast England, where farmers eliminated fallow years by planting fodder row crops and seeded pastures, doubling livestock and cereal yields. Concentrated animal feeding and meatpacking operations originated in late-19th-century Chicago. The demonstration of synthetic ammonium nitrate fertilizers in 1909 marked the beginning of chemical-driven intensive agriculture. Following World War II and through the 1980s, governments embraced mechanization, synthetic pesticides, and high-yielding crop varieties to scale up productivity per worker and acre massively.

With the troubles now in the Middle East following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, fertilizers are in short supply, threatening food shortages worldwide, not to mention the skyrocketing price of diesel fuel needed to ship crops around the world. NPK fertilizer shortages will certainly severely reduce crop yields.

So, don’t expect improvements in farm crop nutrient levels for the foreseeable future, which is why it is now even more essential to turn to mineral supplementation.

NOT supplementation with the hydrophobic metallic minerals commonly sold in High Street health shops, but with easily absorbable hydrophilic minerals available in our SHOP right now.

For more about plant-derived Senonian minerals and mineral levels in farm crops, click the button below: