Yes. Engineered for fast growth, not for nutrition.
Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)
171–180 of 239 posts
Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)
#172If you're fortunate enough to live near a farmer's market, consider going there first to get your produce and meats. Then go to the grocery store to fill in what you couldn't find there.
Not only are you going to be helping the local economy, you'll be getting more nutritious food that tastes better and is usually better for the environment.
Do a little research on the farm and especially support the ones that practice bio-dynamic farming. It only takes 5 minutes and can have a big impact on the earth.
Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)
#173I am sufficiently confused. How does not using pesticides restore minerals? I don't doubt that soil erosion is a real thing, thats why famrers use cover crops and tilling, but where does said nutrients come from??
I've read that pesticide use impacts the types of fungus, bacteria and other critters in the dirt. I understand that they can break down components of the dirt and convert the minerals into more available forms for the plants.
Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)
#174There's no scientific basis for my choice, but I have almost entirely stopped eating seasonal produce out of a season. I eat tomatoes in the summer and early autumn and then I patiently wait months to eat them again. When the winter comes I switch to vegetables that I haven't eaten at all or in limited amount for past half a year - beetroot, cabbage, carrot and more. I also eat all kinds of quality fermented, process…
Does anybody have a good suggestion for figuring out which produce is seasonal? Do you just buy stuff grown in/around your home country? It seems like I can usually buy any vegetable I want, regardless of the time of year, so I have no sense of when anything is in season.
The easiest way is to avoid supermarkets.
I have a small market nearby where I buy, once a week, directly from small local farmers. You can learn the calendar there quickly.
Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)
#175There's no scientific basis for my choice, but I have almost entirely stopped eating seasonal produce out of a season. I eat tomatoes in the summer and early autumn and then I patiently wait months to eat them again. When the winter comes I switch to vegetables that I haven't eaten at all or in limited amount for past half a year - beetroot, cabbage, carrot and more. I also eat all kinds of quality fermented, process…
Does anybody have a good suggestion for figuring out which produce is seasonal? Do you just buy stuff grown in/around your home country? It seems like I can usually buy any vegetable I want, regardless of the time of year, so I have no sense of when anything is in season.
For the really lazy like me, Whole Foods has a wheel in their produce department which shows what's in season. Maybe something similar exists in your local grocery store ?
Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)
#176If you're fortunate enough to live near a farmer's market, consider going there first to get your produce and meats. Then go to the grocery store to fill in what you couldn't find there. Not only are you going to be helping the local economy, you'll be getting more nutritious food that tastes better and is usually better for the environment. Do a little research on the farm and especially support the ones that practi…
If you don't live near a farmers market, consider helping organize to start one. Do not accept the situation handed to you. You will find others who want fresher produce, to help their neighbors, and all the benefits of community.
The farmers markets others others live near didn't pop out of nowhere. They took time and energy. They return far more value.
Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doesn't need a scientific basis -- in-season produce just tastes better. For some it's not such a big difference but for others (tomatoes!) you might as well be eating a different plant.
Tomatoes strike me as something that more people should grow at home, where space permits. There seems to be a bigger delta in quality for tomatoes than most other produce when picked fresh, and they’re not the kind of vegetable that most of us go through a huge amount of[0]. Also, they don’t consume a huge amount of space; even a planter on the porch can produce a decent yearly crop. 0: Except for soups, but for tha…
Note: I grow strawberries and my landlord grows tomatoes in the backyard, and we can taste a HUGE difference between what we grow and what is at the supermarket. Just when our crops ripen we get stuff from the supermarket and it is probably half a year out of season for where it comes from and the following week or two we can harvest our own crops, and boy can we taste the difference.
Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)
#178There's no scientific basis for my choice, but I have almost entirely stopped eating seasonal produce out of a season. I eat tomatoes in the summer and early autumn and then I patiently wait months to eat them again. When the winter comes I switch to vegetables that I haven't eaten at all or in limited amount for past half a year - beetroot, cabbage, carrot and more. I also eat all kinds of quality fermented, process…
Does anybody have a good suggestion for figuring out which produce is seasonal? Do you just buy stuff grown in/around your home country? It seems like I can usually buy any vegetable I want, regardless of the time of year, so I have no sense of when anything is in season.
You can get a chart and hang it up in your kitchen. Moving to europe really opened my eyes up to following the seasons. The vegetables taste better, and you feel better knowing they didnt have to be imported from extremely far away
Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am certain that a vast majority of people have never tasted a "real" tomato. Here in the UK (though I'm sure this applies globally), tomatoes sold in supermarkets taste like plastic. Reason being is that they are picked when they are green and they "ripen" by the time they get to the store shelf. This is done because tomatoes are almost impossible to transfer safely in large quantities, because when they are ripe t…
Well, even growing your own tomatoes might not help that much. Modern hybrid varietals are breeded for color uniformity which removed the taste. Let me tell you it is quite hard to source real heirloom varietals: there are tons of new "heirloom" varietals, but those are basically just modern varietals with some mutations that makes them not look like industrial ones.
Our local supermarket does sell locally grown heirloom tomatoes, but because they are not perfectly round and not even in colour the entire section for four different heirloom tomatoes is about one tenth the size for the standard tomatoes (greenhouse and field).
Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)
#180The large retail chains in Europe sell what I call porn-fruits and porn-vegetables. Especially places like EDEKA, REWE, Kaufland in Germany. Strawberries, berries, raspberries, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, salads, apples, pears, eggplants, etc. - shiny (do they wax them?), large, unified size, saturated color. Barely any taste, all watery. Grown in perfectly artificial industrial greenhouses. Not a trace of soil on…
What's your favorite place to buy in Germany?
"Deutsche Piccolo" tomatoes from Kaufland taste quite good. They are also the most expensive ones from there.
But honestly the cheaper ones aren't worth their money, might as well buy colored water.