More or Less - Are carrots becoming less nutritious?
Download Are carrots becoming less nutritious?
Are fruit and vegetables less nutritious than they used to be? And is declining soil quality to blame?
Loyal listener Sarah got in touch to ask us to investigate an interesting quote from Dr Karan Rajan in a BBC news story.
“We know our soil is not as nutrient dense as it was decades ago,” he said. “So a carrot in the 1950s will be far more nutrient-rich than a 2026 carrot.”
Is this really true? wondered Sarah. We wondered the same, so we spoke to some experts on fruit and veg nutrition to find out.
CONTRIBUTORS
Robin Marles, a former senior scientist in Canada’s Food and Nutrition Directorate
Professor Steve McGrath, a research scientist at Rothamsted Research
CREDITS
Presenter: Tim Harford
Series Producer: Tom Colls
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound Mix: Sue Maillot
Editor: Richard Vadon
Published on Saturday, 19th September 2026.
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