VEGGIE SPOTLIGHT

Apparently, when we are shopping it is not advisable to grab the bag of vegetables from the back of the produce shelf, according to U.S. scientists! The ones in front are exposed to more light and have more nutrition.

A study by post-harvest plant physiologist Gene Lester of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, has found that spinach leaves exposed to continuous light during storage were, overall, more nutritionally dense than leaves kept continuously in the dark.

The researchers exposed spinach leaves to light similar to the 24-hour artificial fluorescent light received by spinach in packages located at the front of a supermarket display case. A second group was enclosed in two-layer-thick, brown-grocery-paper bags to represent the “dark treatment” of produce sitting at the back of the shelf.

Both groups were on display in light-transmissible polymer tubs with snap-tight lids and kept at the same temperature that supermarkets currently display packaged spinach.

The study found that the continuous light affected the leaves’ photosynthetic system, resulting in a significant increase in levels of carotenoids and vitamins C, E, K, and B9, or folate

S K I N – C O P ‘ S – C O M M E N T

You are what you eat and it’s worth fuelling your body with the highest quality food that you can find.

I have a bee in my bonnet about how nutritious our vegetables are when we purchase them from the shelves of our supermarket. I grew up in Ireland where fruit, vegetables and meet were grown locally and tasted delicious. There was no such thing as ‘organic’ because there was no need for it. I’ll keep on the look out for any information I can find to advise my readers how best to feed their bodies well.