How we're scammed into eating phony food

Unless there's some sort of Federal law that pre-empts such actions, one could plausibly sue a restaurant on a common-law fraud theory.

The problem with tomatoes and many other vegetables and fruits is, that they don't grow in the UK so they have to be imported. If they would be imported only when they were as ripe and tasty as the ones you saw in Italy, they would be rotten by the time they arrived in your supermarket in the UK. So, they are harvested when they are not quite ripe. They will ripen a bit more during transport but they will never have the same quality and freshness as the food in Italy.

TL;DR; if you want to have really fresh vegetables, stick to local and seasonal products.

I'm always surprised the Japanese (or more specifically the Japan National Wagyu Registration Association) don't kick up a fuss about the name 'Wagyu' being used for the name of the breed (no matter where it is raised) and not the origin of the meat.

'Wagyu' in Japanese literally means 'Japanese Cow'. I wonder what it would take to name an existing cattle breed 'US Beef', send breeding stock to somewhere with lots of land and cheap labor and starting a new domestically raised 'US Beef' industry.

Sometimes it really could be a conspiracy.

http://imgur.com/W7AcUDV

Medieval peasants ate 4000 - 5000 calories per day.

As late as the 40s, it was recommended that people eat 3000 calories per day and many men ate 4000 calories per day.

Now it is recommended we eat 2250 calories per day.

Neither of the first two groups are known for being fat. Actually the opposite. They look amazing in photos, all of them.

This is despite many of them eating low quality foods and insane amounts of fats and sweets. Gluttony is not new. Fat people everywhere is new.

So the number of calories we've been absorbing has steadily decreased over time.

It is all physical activity that accounts for the discrepancy?

I'm not confident that is the case. It sounds wrong to me because although I accept that our grandparents were far more physically active than we are it is known that exercise burns calories at a low rate. Exercise has always been a bad way to lose weight. It has always been easier to lose weight by eating less. You could skip the gym for two days by neglecting to eat half a mars bar.

I wonder whether there is some other systemic affect at work. Like the temperature is warmer outside so we burn less calories just living.

I'm sure that's probably wrong, I'm just offering up that there may be some alternative explanation than the conventional one.

Here's another one. Our brains use most calories. Maybe we're using them in less energy intensive ways than we used to. Maybe our brains actually use up more energy when engaged in physical activity for an actual purpose i.e. not mindlessly zoned out on a treadmill and that is a hidden multiplier affect.

Now I'm going to make a sandwich because I'm hungry.

Indeed, it has a GI tag meaning it has to be grown in a specific location to be called Darjeeling. Like Champagne, Parma ham, etc.