Why American & European Fruits And Vegetables Have No Flavor

Why American & European Fruits And Vegetables Have No Flavor

GMOs aren’t the only nasty thing from Agribusiness.
Breeding for mass production instead of taste and nutrition has cost us.
Little produce in supermarkets has flavor worth the trouble of eating,
& the lack of nutrition is destroying health.


Farmers Market Tomatoes, by Isa Sorensen (Mapless In Seattle)


by Ravi Mantha

The first time I went to a grocery store after moving to the US, I
literally jumped in joy at the opulence of it all. It was 1989, and the
Berlin wall was six months away from being toppled. Having grown up in
socialist India, I had never before seen anything like this amazing
symbol of American consumerism known as, SAFEWAY!

I danced and danced down the wide aisles of the huge grocery store,
and rode the supermarket trolley like it was a mini-scooter, admiring
the extraordinary variety of every category of, er, stuff. Eighteen
types of toothpaste, twenty yogurts, an entire aisle dedicated to
varieties of soda pop, wow!

The fruits and vegetables were perfectly waxed and huge compared to
the little discolored runts found in India. I marveled as my host-mother
Marlene selected these enormous, beautiful tomatoes and white onions
and a head of lettuce that was bigger than my own head.

We went back home, and I helped her make this wonderful looking salad, and we sat down to eat.

I bit into a slice of tomato, ready for the burst of fresh flavor to attack my tongue.

And … nothing!

I blinked. I ate another slice. Same result.

The lettuce leaf was also just a watery bite of nothing. Deflated, I
followed my host mother’s suggestion and loaded up my salad with some
sugary honey mustard dressing.

Now, my dear American consumer friends, I have a question. How is it
that the wealthiest nation on the planet produces the worst tasting
vegetables and fruits?

The main reason is actually a scientific one.

It turns out that fruits and vegetables that ripen more consistently
are also flavorless. In the wild, tomatoes ripen inconsistently. There
is an evolution/natural selection pressure that favors this because
inconsistent ripening allows the tomatoes a greater chance to be eaten
by birds and animals, thereby allowing for those seeds to spread and
germinate.

However, there is a genetic mutation that allows uniform ripening
that affects a percentage of tomatoes, and this genetic change also
happens to make the tomatoes less nutritious and flavorful.

The full explanation on this mutation is found in Scientists Find Gene Behind Ripe, Tasteless Tomatoes..

Now think about this. There are two broad categories of tomatoes.

Type 1 is full of nutrition and flavor, but this type ripens
inconsistently, and comes in all kinds of colour shades, shapes and
textures.

Type 2 looks perfectly shaped, is in a uniform color, shows perfect
behavior and ripens uniformly, but it also happens to have no flavor and
little nutrition.

If you were a big US grocery chain, even a purportedly organic one, which type of tomato would you stock?

If you guessed Type 2, you would be right, and you would also solve
the mystery of why not only American tomatoes, but the vast majority of
fruits and vegetables in the USA have no flavor and are less nutritious
compared to fruits and vegetables found in, say, a much-poorer country
like India.

It is also true that most American consumers have never really tasted
decent fruits and vegetables and they don’t know the difference. This
largely explains why when Americans go abroad, to Italy or Japan or
India, and taste real vegetables for the first time, it is a major
eye-opener!

Implications for Health


What happens when we eat these tasteless vegetables? Actually, the
reality is that even flavorless vegetables and fruits are quite
nutritious and good for you; if this were not the case, no grocery store
would stock or sell them.

The problem is more indirect. When healthy food is tasteless, our
taste buds will simply guide us towards junk food like chips, sugary
drinks, and saturated fats, so instead of a tasteless salad, we end up
preferring to eat burgers and fries.

The golden rule of public health is that we have to make healthy food
taste good. Think how wonderful a Mediterranean diet tastes like!
This diet is difficult to follow in the US because the same vegetables
that are so yummy in Greece taste like nothing in the US. There is a
mountain of difference between freshly-grated parmesan cheese, and the
pre-packaged mass-market crappy shite that passes for parmesan in
grocery stores.

The Solution


In many parts of the United States, CSA (community supported
agriculture) farms are available that provide fresh fruits and
vegetables that are not industrially produced. Just type CSA and your
home town/county into an internet search engine, and you will see them.
For a few hundred dollars, you too can enjoy the freshest fruits and
veggies throughout the growing season, and your kids can go and pick
fresh veggies in most of these farms too, which is a great day out for
the whole family!

The fact is that in the US, middle class people spend a very small
amount of their income on food. Spend a bit more, and you can have an
amazing quality of life in the food you eat. Your body is a temple; it
deserves the most flavorful and nutritious food you can comfortably
afford.


Source:-
http://gaia-health.com/gaia-blog/2012-11-13/why-american-european-fruits-and-vegetables-have-no-flavor/