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Because the fruit and vegetables in grocery stores, including Walmart, have about as much flavor as a sheet of notebook paper. It's ridiculous! The only time this is not true is if the fruit or vegetables are in season locally (only a short time out of the year), you shop at the local farmer's market (which is also only seasonally available), or you go to Whole Foods or some other expensive, high end health food store. These high-end health food grocers are able to afford to fly in-season fruit and vegetables in from Brazil or some place because they will tack the cost of freight on the price you'll pay. No wonder so many Americans are fat. At least with the candy and junk food there is a good flavor and it's affordable. Not so with the fruit and vegetables in grocery stores; even though it's affordable you get no more satisfaction from the taste of it than you would from licking chalk.
Well, around here, Wally World is not the place to buy fruits and vegetables (nor meat or fish, either). One goes to HEB for that.
As it is, my fruit consumption period is during work. Even if I do get something of a breakfast before my midshift, such as a salad, oat meal, or peanut butter tortillas, I fill up the mesh bag with fruit and munch on the stuff through the night.
As far as candy goes, in the current era, I gave that up for Lent. My religious commitment, however, doesn't include my Tollhouse cookie recipe adaption makings. That comes back under the joy of cooking and a belief in what I whip up from scratch. Yes, scratch; I don't buy cookie dough but rather, use flour, sugar, etc..
As far as junk food goes, I left that behind in the 80s but it was more due to realizing the economics and developing a joy of cooking.
the modern day supermarket is a modern marvel......... god are we soooo damn spoiled ..
the modern day supermarket is about 100 years old .....
ive got to belive for hundreds of thousands of years humans would have loved to go to one place and see fruits and veggies from all over the world.....
im from maine can walk into a store of my choice and buy a banana... for .59lb from across the planet..
i can buy a coconut a pineapple ..... raspberries... none of which i could get from maine at this time of year..
i can buy veggies, fresh frozen canned ....unbelievable ......any time of the year..
i can buy blueberries and blackberries year round......
and im still going to ***** and complain because they dont taste like i grew them????? noooo!! im not so arrogant.
+1. I don’t think people from more temperate climates understand this luxury quite the way people from far up north do. Growing up in Vermont, finding a piece of citrus fruit in winter was a huge deal; I remember splitting one with my brothers, because the damn thing cost $3.00. Now, I can walk into the grocery store and buy a whole damn bag of oranges, anytime I want. And, quite frankly, I don’t care if they were grown in a different galaxy.
Because the fruit and vegetables in grocery stores, including Walmart, have about as much flavor as a sheet of notebook paper. It's ridiculous! The only time this is not true is if the fruit or vegetables are in season locally (only a short time out of the year), you shop at the local farmer's market (which is also only seasonally available), or you go to Whole Foods or some other expensive, high end health food store. These high-end health food grocers are able to afford to fly in-season fruit and vegetables in from Brazil or some place because they will tack the cost of freight on the price you'll pay. No wonder so many Americans are fat. At least with the candy and junk food there is a good flavor and it's affordable. Not so with the fruit and vegetables in grocery stores; even though it's affordable you get no more satisfaction from the taste of it than you would from licking chalk.
My goodness aren't you making a lot of assumptions here? First of all, of course off season it is hard to get flavorful fruits and veggies but there is always some in season. There are winter and summer produce everywhere. Next, no they are not all tasteless. I would not use Wal-Mart as an example as to where to get fresh, good tasting produce. They are good for a lot of things, but not known for their produce.
Next you seem to think Americans do not eat fruits and veggies. How many homes have you been in where people do not enjoy fresh produce? I can assure you in our house we always have fresh produce as well as quality meats and seafood. Do we eat junk food? Not often, but of course we do sometimes.
Truthfully what you are posting makes little if any sense. I am glad you have your body under control from what you said in your second post: I am also surprised to hear you say produce in season at farmers markets is cheaper than the local stores. Though we do a lot of shopping at farmers markets from Apr through fall the price certainly is not cheaper. It is just better
There is reason to complain once you taste the difference between what is in the produce section and what comes from a local farmer's market or your own garden. I'd say the average person doesn't know the deal when they walk into the produce department. They are trusting the grocer to sell them real, nutrious food not junk that's been gassed up.
Farmers and others who grow their own food, those who have done their own research on food and nutrition, work for GMO food processors, or have a background in the field of nutrition know better and recognize that it's flavorless junk in the produce section when fruit and vegetables are sold out-of-season.
Have you looked at numbers? How many people live in NY? How do you plan to feed them with farm raised, local, fresh vegetables/fruit at prices they can afford? No, try DFW. Then tell me to grow my own in the back yard. How many people in a metro have a yard? I can tell you what it costs in water alone to grow basics - herbs, tomatoes, peppers, beans - for two in DFW on the Praerie side of town. For that I can buy decent food. With the nearest farmers market the better part of an hour's drive - who can spend two hours on the road for a basket of food? My small town OK has a farmers market which is being hailed as the best thing since sliced bread. Well, at 2$ a puny clove of garlic, 3$/pound of potatoes and 5$/12 eggs - go feed a family of four. Considering growing seasons based on plant needs/weather - salad greens have a span of about six weeks.
A lot of this taste and smell loss might be due to the person's age.
People are fat/obese because they eat more calories than they burn.
About the Organic thing- I have poo pooed it all my life. Just wash the produce! Then, when I was in Oregon because it is legal I smoked some marijuana. There were some organic veg-ta-bles for dinner. Wow, I thought. There really is something to this organic business! It was delicious! In a feeding frenzy I cooked and ate some of everything that there was in the house.
The next day, compared again. No difference. I'm going for a walk now.
You are right about not burning the calories we take in our body. That is the key to controlling weight and not only what we eat. It is harder to get decent produce when you live in certain parts of the country but it is always available. We just have to learn what is in season and depend on those fruits and veggies. We are lucky we do have so many choices. I can remember growing up when Asparagus was only available during he harvest season, usually about March to May or the same with avocados: mid winter. We live a tech world, we do not burn calories as easily as we did in years gone by because so many things that required physical out put and now done by machines. Families had 1 car so kids walked everywhere and often so did mom. We didn't have remote controls, auto vacumnss, dish washers, etc. Of course cereal wasn't sweetened either. I could go on and on, but I do not think our weight problems have much to do with produce not tasting good.
A lot of this depends on where you live, the affluence of your local area, and how much area residents value fresh food.
I used to live in a very affluent suburb of Indianapolis. Within a mile or two of my apartment, I had the following grocers:
1) Whole Foods
2) Earthfare
3) Fresh Market
4) Local butcher
5) Kroger "Marketplace" - this is a much larger Kroger around the size of a Target
6) Marsh (regional mainline grocery - now OOB)
7) Meijer
8) Super Target
9) Super Walmart
10) Aldi
Costco, Sam's Club, and Trader Joe's were also nearby.
Indiana is a big ag state. Even out of season, that number and diversity of stores meant that you could find a lot of things out of season that were still pretty good. Whole Foods and the local butcher were expensive, but you could find higher end items there. Mainline groceries were very inexpensive. Because the community was affluent, you had additional selections of wines, cheeses, prime cuts of meat, not typically available in most areas.
In season, you obviously had the corn and soybeans that Indiana is known for, but people who have not lived in the Midwest are probably unfamiliar with the wide variety of stuff you can get. We had Michigan watermelons that were delicious. Fresh berries galore. Virtually anything you wanted other than tropical fruits could be found there. As someone from the South, I was shocked at the variety of vegetables and produce, the low prices, and how much better the food (raw food, not necessarily restaurants) was in the Midwest compared to Tennessee. The farmer's markets were terrific.
I work in a small town in northeast TN of about 50,000. We have Walmart, Aldi, a regional grocery chain, and a dumpy Kroger. Prices are much higher. Selection is lower. Quality is poor. I like to keep frozen asparagus around. I can't find that exotic item at most of my local stores. I like to grate fresh horseradish into mashed potatoes. Most people around here don't even know what a horseradish root is. Only Publix carries jarred horseradish. I like "butter lettuce" in salads. You can't find that here. Hell, only two grocery stores in this entire city even have a salad bar! Meanwhile, the supermarkets are stocked with plenty of sweets, chips, sugary sodas, and other essentially nonnutritive items. Our farmers markets, particularly local meats, are also lacking. It's difficult to eat healthy here, and the more rural you go, the worse and less healthy the selection generally gets.
Go across the mountains to Asheville, NC and all this changes. The farmers market in Asheville is the best one I've ever been to. It's because that community values quality food. Mine doesn't.
Well, I've seen Costco containers under the produce stands at the "local" farmer's markets before.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallysmom
I’ve seen stuff like that out here, too. You’d think in California produce would be great.
This surprises me. Are your farmer's markets not certified? I don't know about where Mikala lives, but in California the certified farmer's market vendors are required to prove that they themselves grew the produce they are selling, in a stated location within the state of California. You can't ship produce in from other states or buy it at Costco and resell at the farmer's market!
This surprises me. Are your farmer's markets not certified? I don't know about where Mikala lives, but in California the certified farmer's market vendors are required to prove that they themselves grew the produce they are selling, in a stated location within the state of California. You can't ship produce in from other states or buy it at Costco and resell at the farmer's market!
Here in NWA the markets have a choice, they can hang the sign that does state they are local, which means no more than 50 miles from the farmers market I think or they can just set up a booth. When I learn or suspect the vendors are not growing their own produce I do not buy from them. Most, because we are so rural do grown their own.
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