Our fruit and vegetables are getting sweeter, but at a cost to our health, scientists have claimed.
Research conducted on behalf ofNew Scientistfound that although making the likes of cabbage and Brussels sprouts less bitter may help in the battle to get children to eat them, it takes away some of the very things that make fresh produce so healthy.
The team looked at research cited in Florida 30 years ago, where white grapefruit were much more popular than sweeter red and pink grapefruits, with growers shipping 27 million boxes of white grapefruit compared to 23 million pink grapefruit, but today, coloured grapefruit are reportedly twice as popular as white varieties.
However, white grapefruit contain 50 per cent more bitter-tasting compounds, phytonutrients, linked to improving the cardiovascular system, than the red and pink grapefruit.
Jed Fahey, a molecular scientist at Johns Hopkins University, told New Scientist: 'Eating fruits and vegetables without phytochemicals would in many ways be analagous 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.'
Thousands of phytonutrients have been discovered in fruit and veg. In grapefruit, an ultra-bitter compound, naringin, has been found to have anti-ulcer and anti-inflammatory properties.
Quercetin, a bitter chemical found in broccoli can help protect against lung cancer.
Other surveys have found phytonutrients such as sinigrin, found in Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage and kale, has anti-cancer properties.
