How our veg are getting sweeter – but less healthy

FOR parents struggling to get youngsters to eat their greens, it may sound like good news – our vegetables are getting sweeter.

But the change comes at a cost to our health, scientists claim – because bitter compounds present in fruit and vegetables have a range of benefits, including protecting us from cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Many fruit and vegetables have become sweeter in recent years because manufacturers are producing ‘child friendly’ varie- ties with fewer phytonutrients – bittertasting compounds – in them. These include Brussels sprouts, broccoli, tomatoes and grapefruit.

According to research in New Scientist magazine, coloured grapefruit are now twice as popular as white grapefruit. But the white variety contains 50 per cent more phytonutrients, including the compound naringin, than the red and pink kinds.

Naringin can inhibit the growth of breast and cervical cancer cells and has been linked to improving the cardiovascular system and protecting against ulcers and inflammation.

And the phytonutrient sinigrin in Brussels sprouts – also found in cauliflower, cabbage and kale – has also been found to be able to kill cancer cells. Jed Fahey, a molecular scientist at Johns Hopkins University in Mary- land in the US, said: ‘Eating fruits and vegetables without phytochemicals would in many ways be analogous to drinking the empty calories of a can of soda.

‘Yes you could survive on de-bittered fruits and vegetables, and they would help maintain life, but not good health.’

Other bitter compounds regularly taken out of our food include tomatine in tomatoes, with some wild tomatoes having 166 times more of the chemical than sweet cultivations.