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Why are carrots orange? It is political

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Re: Why are carrots orange? It is political

#21

Post by jballanc »

joeyo wrote: post #17
jeromec wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol that's so obvious I completely overlooked it. The first thing that came to my mind was pumpkins, which I don't like.

My understanding is there was no word in English for the word orange before the fruit was widely introduced in Europe. In other words the fruit gave the name to the color, not vice versa. (Other orange colored things were usually called 'ginger' or 'red-yellow'.)

The history of color words is a really interesting topic. For example, in Turkish the word for "brown" is kahverengi, which literally translates as "coffee-colored". Also, turquoise comes from the French word for Turkish, used to describe the color commonly used on Ottoman glassware.

Re: Why are carrots orange? It is political

#22

Post by jules »

Groxx wrote: post #12
jeromec wrote: post #3

Maybe it's just because I'm indoctrinated, but the orange carrots in the picture are the only ones that look tasty.

Indoctrination. Look at how much color is added to food. The reddest ketchups sell better, as do the yellowest mustards, and the whitest breads. I hate to cry conspiracy theory, but I really do think that American culture in particular has been groomed to think and eat this way by food suppliers. When you can color / bleach something, you can hide flaws.

Here's an alternative theory: orange carrots contain more carotene, which is good for your brain, so it's evolution doing its job. (edit: OTOH maybe the red carrots contain even more carotene, but too much carotene causes cancer, so that's why we don't like them ;)

Re: Why are carrots orange? It is political

#23

Post by bricestacey »

julius_geezer wrote: post #18
Groxx wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, and remember the green (and purple) Heinz sales? They didn't last long. At the cost of duplicating my other comment, it fits here perfectly: I hate to cry conspiracy theory, but I really do think that American culture in particular has been groomed to think and eat this way by food suppliers. When you can color / bleach something, you can hide flaws.

As probably one of very few HN readers to have made my own ketchup (all you need is time, a kettle, and a farmstand, preferably selling seconds), I can say that dark red is your basic ketchup color if you start with red tomatoes. Purple sounds like heirloom, and at farmers market prices you'd be approaching the price per volume of very good wine.

I'm not sure you'd ever get purple ketchup even with purple tomatoes. Usually the purple pigments in food disappear after heating them. Do you think that'd be any different in tomatoes?

Re: Why are carrots orange? It is political

#24

Post by Groxx »

Qz wrote: post #19
Groxx wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indoctrination. Look at how much color is added to food. The reddest ketchups sell better, as do the yellowest mustards, and the whitest breads. I hate to cry conspiracy theory, but I really do think that American culture in particular has been groomed to think and eat this way by food suppliers. When you can color / bleach something, you can hide flaws.

That's funny, I like to buy the brown mustard -- has more kick.

Me too, I've found a "stone-ground" brown that's phenomenal. I'm forever converted from the yellow stuff.

Generally speaking, though, people buy what's most pure-colored. Just look at what has the most shelf-space at a (normal) grocery store. And add in packaging designs, most of them favor large areas of a fairly pure color. Our food-color connection is pretty strongly ground in and then reinforced all over the place.

Re: Why are carrots orange? It is political

#25

Post by jerf »

Groxx wrote: post #15
Willie_Dynamite wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some foodstuffs company whose name I've forgotten tried to introduce yellow ketchup in my area a couple of years ago, but they failed pretty badly. I bought a bottle, and while it tasted just like the the red stuff, it just didn't look right. My 5 year old niece just flat out refused to eat it.

Yeah, and remember the green (and purple) Heinz sales? They didn't last long. At the cost of duplicating my other comment, it fits here perfectly: I hate to cry conspiracy theory, but I really do think that American culture in particular has been groomed to think and eat this way by food suppliers. When you can color / bleach something, you can hide flaws.

"I hate to cry conspiracy theory, but I really do think that American culture in particular has been groomed to think and eat this way by food suppliers."

I tend to consider conspiracy theories a last resort. It is not that they are never true, just that reaching for them first is a mental crutch. In this case, I would suggest that given the importance of food, one would rather expect evolutionary considerations to dominate how we feel about food colorations. It may be true that making food "look good" can be used to hide flaws, but I seriously doubt the concept of "looking good" comes from training. I would imagine it mostly comes from genes and common-sense-type-training.

(I assert this without proof, which is why I mentioned my conspiracy-theory metric. My point is that I don't see a need for the conspiracy theory choice here.)

Re: Why are carrots orange? It is political

#26

Post by _delirium »

bricestacey wrote: post #23
julius_geezer wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As probably one of very few HN readers to have made my own ketchup (all you need is time, a kettle, and a farmstand, preferably selling seconds), I can say that dark red is your basic ketchup color if you start with red tomatoes. Purple sounds like heirloom, and at farmers market prices you'd be approaching the price per volume of very good wine.

I'm not sure you'd ever get purple ketchup even with purple tomatoes. Usually the purple pigments in food disappear after heating them. Do you think that'd be any different in tomatoes?

I think it depends on the particular kind of pigment. Purple berries typically stay purple when cooked, which is why blackberry pie is still purple, and eggplants stay purple also. Beets turn red, though, since the purple pigment degrades while the red one doesn't.

Not sure where purple tomatoes would fall. Some googling turns up anthocyanin as the pigment, and Wikipedia says it's water-soluble (so would leach out if the fruit is boiled and the water not retained), and changes color based on pH.

Re: Why are carrots orange? It is political

#27

Post by Groxx »

jerf wrote: post #25
Groxx wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, and remember the green (and purple) Heinz sales? They didn't last long. At the cost of duplicating my other comment, it fits here perfectly: I hate to cry conspiracy theory, but I really do think that American culture in particular has been groomed to think and eat this way by food suppliers. When you can color / bleach something, you can hide flaws.

"I hate to cry conspiracy theory, but I really do think that American culture in particular has been groomed to think and eat this way by food suppliers." I tend to consider conspiracy theories a last resort. It is not that they are never true, just that reaching for them first is a mental crutch. In this case, I would suggest that given the importance of food, one would rather expect evolutionary considerations to d…

Yeah, I generally agree. And the evolutionary standpoint makes sense, and is the logical counter to this. My main focus there isn't that we equate the two, it's that there's such a strong connection. At least, as far as I can see. It could've grown from "that sells better, what if we do this", but it's still kinda strange, and I wonder if it's at least partly intentional.

'Tis just speculation, though. There are plenty of weird / weirder things in the world.

Re: Why are carrots orange? It is political

#28

Post by m_eiman »

joeyo wrote: post #17
jeromec wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol that's so obvious I completely overlooked it. The first thing that came to my mind was pumpkins, which I don't like.

My understanding is there was no word in English for the word orange before the fruit was widely introduced in Europe. In other words the fruit gave the name to the color, not vice versa. (Other orange colored things were usually called 'ginger' or 'red-yellow'.)

The old Swedish word for orange is "fire yellow", but now everyone uses orange. Just a little FYI :)

Re: Why are carrots orange? It is political

#30

Post by ronnieCA »

Goladus wrote: post #20
jeromec wrote: post #3

Maybe it's just because I'm indoctrinated, but the orange carrots in the picture are the only ones that look tasty.

When I saw that picture I was actually fascinated to try the dark purple, beet-like carrots. They looked the tastiest to me. The others seemed mildly less appetizing but still edible, and in fact I've seen white carrots before (they were wild and I didn't eat them, but they smelled nice).

You should never eat wild white carrots or parsnips. They are difficult to distinguish from hemlock root, which is highly poisonus.
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