Mystery Solved: Why Fruits And Vegetables In America Have No Flavour

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These are not American…

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 flavour 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 flavourless.  In the wild, tomatoes ripen inconsistently.  There is an evolution/natural selection pressure that favours 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 flavourful.

The full explanation on this mutation is found here. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112648268/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 flavour, 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 colour, shows perfect behaviour and ripens uniformly, but it also happens to have no flavour 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 flavour 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 flavourless 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 flavourful and nutritious food you can comfortably afford.

 

 

What the fastest animal on land can teach you about your health

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We open this week’s blog post with a pop quiz, with only one simple question:  what is the fastest land animal?

If you answered Cheetah, you would be conventionally correct, of course.  Here is a picture of Sarah the Cheetah, the fastest animal in the world on land, courtesy of Mr.Guilt.  Over a 100 meter distance, she is faster than Usain Bolt by, well, four seconds!

But when you think about it, the answer to the pop quiz question is in fact another question.

 

Over what distance are we measuring?

 

If the answer is a 100 metre sprint, then yes.  Sarah the Cheetah would leave the fastest human sprinter on the planet, Usain Bolt, behind in the dust.

 

But what about any distance over, say, a marathon, which is 26.2 miles?

 

Guess?

 

The answer may surprise you.  It is this fella below, or rather his species.

 

That’s right.  The fastest land mammal over distances above a marathon is actually a human.

In Texas and in Wales, they have annual marathon races between humans and horses.  In the past several years, humans have won against horses.  Of course, neither the fastest horse in the world nor the fastest human have competed in these particular races, but the point is that once you get beyond marathon distance, the human advantage goes up exponentially.  Where humans can routinely do 50 mile ultramarathons without stopping, no land animal can do that.

Many human hunter tribes in our ancient history had a very simple, if patient, technique for hunting, called persistence hunting.  They would simply follow an animal over a period of a day or more until the animal ran and ran and literally collapsed from exertion and could no longer move, at which point the hunter would slaughter it at leisure.

Interesting stuff, so what does this have to do about health?  A lot!

Humans as the highest evolved species on this planet are built for endurance.  We have the ability to lose huge amounts of body heat through sweating, and in fact, sweating makes us healthier.

The healthiest and longest-lived people as a group are distance runners, because the human body is optimized for running.  I recommend the classic book “Born to Run” by Chris McDougall which you can buy here.

http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189

Just remember that his book is inspiring and entertaining, and he doesn’t always let facts get in the way of a good story, so with that caveat, read this book…and start running!

The point is that the human body evolved for long distance walking and running.  We know that the brain actually rewards runners with endorphins, natural mood-enhancing chemicals.  The flip side is that people who have sedentary lifestyles that don’t involve walking outdoors are often depressed and unfulfilled.

The prescription is simple; go out and walk, preferably at either sunrise or sunset, for at least a half hour as many times a week as you can.