by Mel Mcintyre

Created on: February 10, 2009   Last Updated: February 16, 2009

I'm not sure of the origins of this adage but it is certainly a phrase I remember well from my childhood. I guess the meaning is pretty obvious to anyone. The vitamins, nutrients and fiber in an apple combined with a balance of exercise and careful consumption will lead to better health.

So why has a single apple been replaced with the current five-a-day campaign?

There are a number of reasons for this, largely to do with food production, processing and marketing.

Mass Production A number of changes have taken place in food growing procedures in the latter part of the C20th. There is increasing demand for plentiful, cheap produce that is uniform in standard and has a long shelf life.

There is a price to pay for cheaper foods that many of us are not aware of. To produce food cheaply a farmer almost automatically has to over-farm his land. The old system of allowing land to lie fallow between crops or rotating crops is no longer viable, meaning there's not enough time for the soil to regain nutrients drawn out by a crop. Farmers are now demanding crops from nutrient deficient soil, which means there is less nutritional value in the food we eat.

The next logical step for the farmer is to artificially replenish the soil. He uses fertilizers that add nutrients and ensure an abundant crop, so the nutrients he applies to his field will be those needed for speedy and guaranteed growth. But these nutrients are there to make the crops grow faster and bigger; they're not necessarily the nutrients our bodies need for balanced well being.

Consumerism Buyers demand perfect specimens at ridiculously low prices. The farmer can't afford any wastage, so he protects his crops against natural pests with chemicals that are harmful to insects and wildlife. The result is perfect fruit with a waterproof chemical jacket that washing will not remove.

Although pesticide residue on a single piece of fruit is well within safety limits, there can be no telling what a cocktail of chemicals on our five-a-day will do to us. So far there seems to be little in the way of scientific investigation into the accumulative effect of the array of chemicals we ingest.

The next great innovation in the production of cheaper foods is food processing. We eat far more processed food than our recent ancestors, even as recently as the 1970s. Food processing robs food of its basic nutritional value, adds sugars and salt for bulk and preservatives, and delivers palatable foods with little or no nutritional value.

Even

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