I do my best to squeeze in at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day in hopes that I'm giving my body the right vitamins and nutrients it needs to keep me going. But thanks to recent news, a cloud has formed over my Dudley Do-Right attitude toward produce, and my grandmother has one more thing to shake her fist at. That's right, Gram, you can say it. American produce. It ain't what it used to be.

Not only does it taste worse than it did 50 years ago, but our fruits and veggies also contain fewer vitamins and nutrients, according to the February issue of the "Journal of HortScience."

Donald R. Davis, a former research associate with the Biochemical Instititue at the University of Texas, Austin, claims that your local produce aisle contains five to 40 percent fewer essential minerals, including magnesium, iron, calcium and zinc.

Davis points the finger at what's called the "dilution effect," claiming jumbo-sized fruits and vegetables, which are more common now than five decades ago, contain more mineral-diluting "dry matter" and fewer nutrients.

Additionally, growing consumer demands for fresh fruits and vegetables have caused farmers to use chemical fertilizers and pesticides to create a faster harvest, which means produce has less time to absorb nutrients from the soil. Selective breeding, which helps increase crop yield, may also be at fault. One study of commercial broccoli grown in 1996 and 1997 in South Carolina found that this "genetic dilution effect" may have led to declines in protein, amino acids and as many as six minerals.

On top of this news, we recently found out that multivitamins that could help supplement this decline may be more placebo than miracle pill. So what are we to do?

According to the USDA, some studies have shown that organically-grown produce contains slightly higher levels of trace minerals, vitamin C, and antioxidant phytonutrients than conventionally grown crops.

It's easy to say, "Buy organic." But in these tough financial times, not everyone can afford what I consider to be a luxury. The Environmental Working Group has a handy produce list that's broken up into the "Dirty Dozen" and the "Cleanest 12," which can help decipher which organic fruits and veggies you should try to buy when you can and which you don't need to bother with.