Are mini vegetables more nutritious than regular vegetables?

Rumor: Mini vegetables are newly cultivated vegetables with higher nutritional value than ordinary vegetables, so they are sold at a very high price.

Analysis: There is no essential difference in nutritional value between the two. Ordinary vegetables can still meet our needs, so it is not necessary to choose mini vegetables.

Food is the first necessity of the people, and vegetables are the basis of food. Vegetables are an indispensable food in people's daily diet. They can provide the human body with a variety of necessary nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Regular consumption is beneficial to human health. For a long time, we have been eating ordinary vegetables that are large and mature. However, in recent years, the vegetable market has undergone tremendous changes. Some mini vegetables that are much smaller than ordinary vegetables have quietly become popular, such as cherry tomatoes, mini carrots and fruit cucumbers, which frequently appear in major supermarkets.

These merchants claim that the nutritional value of mini vegetables is higher than that of ordinary vegetables, and set the price of mini vegetables several times that of ordinary vegetables. Despite the high price, people still buy them in an endless stream. So the question is, are the nutritional value of mini vegetables really higher than that of ordinary vegetables as the merchants claim? Is concentrate really the essence?

They are of the same species, but have different nutritional characteristics

Mini vegetables, as the name implies, are small vegetables. There are two types of them: small but immature tender vegetables; small but mature vegetables. Tender vegetables are vegetables that are picked before they are fully mature during the growth process. After cooking, these vegetables have a tender and smooth taste and are loved by many consumers. However, due to the insufficient growth time, the vegetables themselves have not accumulated more nutrients, and the physiological and biochemical substances have not been fully formed. Therefore, the nutritional value of these tender vegetables is much lower than that of ordinary vegetables.

As another type of small but mature mini vegetables, are their nutritional value also inferior to that of ordinary vegetables, just like tender vegetables? The answer is no.

In fact, the most intuitive manifestation of this mature mini vegetable is that it is much smaller than ordinary vegetables, and the main reason for this phenomenon is the different breeding concepts. With the improvement of people's living standards, people have changed from "eating enough" to "eating well", and have higher requirements for the taste, appearance and flavor of vegetables. Mini vegetables are loved by many people for their exquisite small size, mini cuteness and special flavor. In order to follow the market trend, breeders will select male and female parents with smaller size but excellent traits during breeding, and use various breeding methods such as hybridization or self-pollination to screen them, and finally cultivate ideal mini vegetable varieties.

Although these mini vegetables are small in size, they need to grow for a long enough period of time before they can be picked from the planting area, just like ordinary vegetables. When they are mature, their physiological and biochemical substances have accumulated and nutrients have been formed. As the saying goes, "a sparrow may be small, but it has all the organs", so their nutritional value is not lower than that of ordinary vegetables. Similarly, the nutritional value of these mini vegetables is not much higher than that of ordinary vegetables of the same type, just like the three races of yellow, white and black, all of which belong to human beings, but their genetic difference is only 0.1%. Therefore, when merchants promote that the nutritional value of mini vegetables is generally higher than that of ordinary vegetables, please do not be fooled.

The nutritional value is similar, so why is the price so high?

You may wonder, since the nutritional value of mini vegetables is not much different from that of ordinary vegetables, why are mini vegetables sold on the market several times more expensive than ordinary vegetables?

In fact, the reason is very simple. The price is affected by the supply and demand relationship. Everything is more valuable if it is rare. Compared with ordinary vegetables, mini vegetables are far from being comparable to ordinary vegetables in terms of planting area and output, so mini vegetables are expensive. Take tomatoes as an example. As the world's largest vegetable crop, tomatoes have a planting area of ​​more than 17 million mu in China, while the planting area of ​​mini tomatoes in China is only more than 2 million mu, accounting for only 11.76% of the total tomato area. The output is very limited and it is difficult to fully supply the market. Under this situation of supply and demand, the price of mini tomatoes naturally rises.

At the same time, in terms of breeding, foreign vegetable breeding work started earlier, and its seed quality is superior to that of domestic ones. Therefore, many vegetable seeds in China are imported from abroad, occupying a large market share in China, especially high-end facility vegetable seeds such as carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes, which are heavily dependent on foreign imports, with the import proportion reaching about 90%. For example, most of China's mini cucumbers are imported from the Netherlands, Israel and other European countries. These countries rely on their technological advantages to set higher seed prices, which has increased the cost of domestic vegetable planting, thus causing a series of chain reactions of high prices.

Agriculture is the foundation of the country, and seeds are the priority of agriculture. Seeds have become a "neck-stuck" problem that restricts the healthy development of my country's agriculture and needs to be solved urgently. At present, many domestic scientific research institutes and enterprises have formed multiple research teams to promote integration from multiple aspects to solve the "neck-stuck" problem. For example, the Shenzhen Genome Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has bred the "Deep Love" mini tomatoes, the Institute of Crop and Nuclear Technology Utilization of the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences has bred the "Xinxiang" mini sweet potatoes, and Shanghai Jiaotong University has cultivated the "Shenlu" series of fruit cucumbers, etc., which have received a good response in the national demonstration and promotion of planting. This not only injects new strength into the development of the national seed industry and rural revitalization, but also provides consumers with more choices. I believe that in the near future, the price of mini vegetables will become more civilian and benefit more consumer groups.

How to choose the right vegetables?

Now, everyone knows what is going on here, right? In fact, there is not much difference in nutritional value between mini vegetables and ordinary vegetables. The difference is that mini vegetables have fruity flavor and can be eaten raw. They taste better than ordinary vegetables. This is why mini vegetables can attract many consumers to buy them despite their high prices.

Therefore, in daily life, we can occasionally buy some mini vegetables to try, and more often we can choose ordinary vegetables to eat, which is the most cost-effective way to supplement nutrition. When we choose ordinary vegetables, we can choose fresh vegetables with a shiny appearance, no rot, no spots, and no shrinkage; in addition, we should also choose more dark-colored vegetables, such as lettuce, lettuce, broccoli, carrots and tomatoes, so that there are vegetables in every meal, and dark colors account for half. This will provide us with rich nutrients such as β-carotene, lutein and anthocyanins, which promote the healthy growth of the human body.

In summary, mini vegetables and regular vegetables have their own advantages in nutrition and flavor. As consumers, they undoubtedly provide us with a wider range of food choices, allowing us to adjust our diets according to our personal preferences and health needs. Therefore, we only need to have a balanced diet, enrich the variety of vegetables, and be non-selective, and choose vegetables that are suitable for us according to our own conditions.

References:

[1] Wang Lihao. Current status and prospects of vegetable seed industry[J]. Vegetables, 2022, (04): 2-9.

[2] Dong Jianming, Chen Hugen, Luo Peisheng, et al. Characteristics and development prospects of mini vegetables [J]. Agricultural Science and Technology Newsletter, 2012, (08): 8-11.

[3] He Huanle, Cai Run, Pan Junsong. Breeding and characteristics of fruit-type cucumber “Shenlu 03”[J]. Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University (Agricultural Science Edition), 2013, 31(02): 30-33.

[4] Shen Shengfa, Xiang Chao, Wu Liehong, et al. Progress in quality research and breeding of mini sweet potato 'Xinxiang'[J]. Molecular Plant Breeding, 2022, 20(21): 7249-7258.

[5] TiemanD, ZhuG, ResendeMFJr, etc. A chemical genetic road map to improved tomato flavor. Science. 2017 Jan 27; 355 (6323): 391-394.

This article is a work of Science Popularization China-Starry Sky Project

Produced by: Science Popularization Department of China Association for Science and Technology

Producer｜China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongke Xinghe Culture Media Co., Ltd.

Author: Li Ting, popular science creator

Reviewer: Ruan Guangfeng, Director of the Science and Technology Department of the Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center