There has been a global decline in food micronutrient levels since the 1980s. This is related to the way most crops are grown: Monocropping (predominantly corn, soybeans and wheat or rice, worldwide), tilling (destroys soil mycorrhizal nets which gather micronutrients and exchange them for plant sugars), the use of inorganic fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides (kills soil microbiome). At the same time, the incidence of autism spectrum disorder and other diseases has risen. Is there a causal link?
I think you have to be more specific and list of lacking micronutrients and their percentages related to normal values. Also you have to state whati is the effect of A GMO, or genetically modified organism related to micronutrients.
Thank you Sinan and Phil. I think you've both said that you don't know of any proven cause and effect relationship between changing disease incidences and soil/plant micronutrient deficiency...
Here's one source: Article Global trends in dietary micronutrient supplies and estimate...
Barry - that is certainly a difficult article. Based largely on assumptions and estimates, theirs and others, plugged into complex equations with no validation.
Did you read the article? Note please -" Over this 50-year period, the estimated prevalence of inadequate intakes of micronutrients has declined in all regions due to increased total production of food and/or micronutrient density."
and
Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where dietary micronutrient density has declined over this 50-year period.
Figure 3 offers the same info.
Austism prevalence
https://prevalence.spectrumnews.org/?min_yearpublished=&max_yearpublished=&yearsstudied_number_min=&yearsstudied_number_max=&min_samplesize=&max_samplesize=&min_prevalenceper10000=&max_prevalenceper10000=&studytype=&keyword=&timeline_type=published&meanincome=&education=
Focused in developed countries where micronutrients are apparently not lacking. Granted, diagnosis in the 3rd world is poor.
The above posts shows micronutrient av in food has not declined but has certinaly increased globally over the last 50 years. Further, autism diagnosis appears much more common in regions where micronutrients in foods has always been substantial - with the caveat that these represent developed countries whose medical systems are better equipepd and prioritized for diagnosis of the relevant conditions.
The hypothesis that there is a global decline in food micro nutrient levels that might be connected to the incidence of a number of medical conditions is of interest to scientists and health care professionals as well as to people who prefer products of "organic" farming.
Isabel, we need better evidence regarding the actual micronutrient state of food. I made an assumption in my question based on an "expert" view from 2 scientists, but support for that in the scientific literature is hard to find. Stay tuned.....(Based on soil quality, I think it's unlikely that our mono-cropped food has anywhere near the broad micro-nutrient levels that we would have enjoyed as hunter-gatherers...)
It was the first one, and it didn't support what I had assumed based on expert opinion, but perhaps incorrectly. I skimmed it and realized that if my experts are right, I'd have to look harder, and more critically at the article I provided when I get the time.
Autism is a neurological condition observed in children. Insufficient consumption of micronutrients from food during pregnancy could possibly affect certain nerve (brain) development at a critical time that results to austin.
No scientific evidence to my knowledge.
https://ourworldindata.org/micronutrient-deficiency
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26045325/
I'm not sure that micronutrient deficiencies are worsening globally, but there'a ample evidence that they exist, and that they're related to current dominant agricultural practices, especially tilling and the heavy use of inorganic fertilizers. See refs above. Exploring links to human health could be a fertile field for epidemiology
Magnesium, too, has been extensively reported in decline. Agricultural practices are discussed in Cazzola R, Della Porta M, Manoni M, Iotti S, Pinotti L, Maier JA. Going to the roots of reduced magnesium dietary intake: A tradeoff between climate changes and sources. Heliyon. 2020 Nov 3;6(11):e05390. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05390. PMID: 33204877; PMCID: PMC7649274.
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