Study: Climate Change Worsens Nutrition
Mounting evidence suggests that climate change could shrink the mineral and protein content of wheat, rice and other staple crops. This means that a lunch plate piled high with food from plants might not deliver the same nutrition toward the end of this century as it does today.
An international research group announced online February 21 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that selenium, a trace element essential for human health, already falls short in diets of one in seven people worldwide.
Earlier studies link low selenium with such troubles as weak immune systems and cognitive decline. And in severely selenium-starved spots in China, children’s bones don’t grow to normal size or shape. This vital element could become sparser in soils of major agricultural regions as the climate changes.
Miwok