Culinary herbs and nutrition depleted foods

Something that I've been thinking about recently. Between deplete soils, chemical fertilizers encouraging nutritionally empty growth, and plants developed to produce more sugar and less nutrients the reduced nutrition available from traditional crops has become widely known. To my taste buds, nutritionally dense foods have more flavor. This also makes me believe that plants used only for flavoring are extremely nutritionally dense. Can adding extreme amounts of home grown herbs replace any of the nutrients that we're losing in our conventional crops? Rather than adding a pinch of this and a dash of that I often find my measurements closer to a quarter cup or more (especially if it's fresh and not dried herbs) Even when I'm doing something like opening a can of soup, I usually add extra spices because I'm becoming used to so much more flavor in my foods.

I use gobs of herbs and spices. As I understand it, we should maybe research some of them because some herbs and spices might be somewhat toxic in larger than normal amounts (for instance juniper berries, used to season meat and gin, can be toxic). I think most of the common herbs such as parsley, rosemary, etc are probably pretty safe. If it doesn't give you a stomach ache or other digestive upset, odds are it's ok. When in doubt, research.

Yes, IF the herbs are grown organically in nutrient rich soil. Research what they are good for and go to town. We often put them in salad as greens or load up a pesto to put on anything and everything.

I was trying to explain to my husband the "zing" I get when I eat freshly picked produce, which isn't present in storebought produce. It's not exactly a flavor, but more like a physical response to the taste. He agreed about the enhanced flavor but wasn't sure about the zing. It's especially present in uncooked leaves, both leafy greens and herbs, but also in fruit. I wonder if anyone else gets it too?

Galadriel, definitely that 'zing' just don't quite compare to storebought

My food is typically prepared with 1/4 cup of spices rather than teaspoons.

As a plant breeder, I am constantly selecting for high-zing foods! hee hee hee.

Here's a photo of two of my high-zing corns. The bottom one is particularly high-zing.