Modern wheat has less iron and zinc, raising concerns about smaller meals

Researchers compared wheat saved from a long-running farming experiment in England with newer harvests and found that modern wheat contains less iron and zinc.

Wheat grown in the early 2000s had up to 49% less zinc and 27% less iron than wheat grown decades earlier.

The decline followed the spread of shorter, higher-yield wheat plants, whose mineral content did not keep pace with grain production.

A report by Deep Science Ventures suggests that people may partly have compensated by eating more, as the global food supply grew between 1961 and 2023.

But medicines such as Ozempic and Mounjaro can reduce appetite, so people eating less may get fewer nutrients from their meals.

A 2025 survey found that nearly all participants taking these medicines ate less potassium than recommended, and most fell short on iron, though it could not show that the drugs caused those gaps.

The report’s main figures rely on computer estimates and have not been checked through journal peer review; it argues that food quality should receive more attention, including through crop breeding, soil health, markets and policy.