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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.
I speak from experience because I'm very big on eating fruit and veggies both raw and cooked and have done so for over a decade. I travel a lot due to work so I shop at farmer's market in the summer and fall all over the country. I've been to apple orchards and picked fresh apples to eat and cook with. Same goes for pumpkins, onions, tomatoes, green beans, corn on the cob, English peas, carrots, grapes, and so forth.
I'm height and weight proportionate, although I'd like to lose about 10-13 lbs and currently my BMI is 24.0 which I want to get down to about 22. The majority of my extended family and friends are obese but mobile as are some of my friends. I've been preaching to them about eating healthier all this time and it just dawned on me why so few will do it. The church I attend had a salad pot luck. I made a huge container of salad for the event and brought home the leftover. The salad had all fresh ingredients: green lettuce, red lettuce, celery, yellow pepper, tomatoes, red onions, carrots, mushrooms, and a can of English peas (long story how I got the can of peas but I didn't want them to go to waste so I added them to the salad).
The next day for lunch, I ate the salad by itself with no other entree or sides and then noticed something...my astonishment at the lack of flavor. Only the texture was different from veggie to veggie but basically NONE of them had flavor. When I returned to two different supermarkets, one of which was Walmart, I noticed that even I as approached the produce section, there was not a scent at all. Standing right in front of the apples, holding it close to my face to inspect it, and not a scent at all. Unreal! In fact the entire produce section smelled as sterile as a hooker's clinic.
News flash: real, live, raw fruit should have a scent. Real, live, raw vegetables should have a scent. Real, live, raw food goes bad in a few days. Except the crap they sell in stores doesn't adhere to any of these realities. I've bit into an apple at work and left it out on my desk. Hours later the apple hadn't even turned brown. The fact that the fruit and veggies we buy don't have a scent and don't get old in a few days means there is a problem. They're picked way too early and gassed up to develop the color but the flavor and probably the nutrients too are missing.
For all of you fit people who are telling fat people to just eat MORE fruits and veggies and stop with the junk food, like I've done for years, think about what you're really telling them. You're telling them to eat more notebook paper in the shape of a fruit or vegetable. Then you wonder why they don't eat it but instead will chose junk food or sweets which does have LOTS of flavor. It's because grocers are so intent on chasing a dollar that they've cheated us out of natural flavors in foods that should have them. If the flavor is gone, I question how much nutrients are really there as well.
I live in a place where fresh vegetables of a wide variety of types are available year-round. My understanding, though, is that getting good fresh produce during the winter months of a four-season climate has always been a problem. A hundred or seventy-five or fifty years ago, there were even fewer fresh fruits and vegetables available in New York in the winter than there are today. There were potatoes, onions, carrots, apples--things that tolerate long-term storage. Oranges could be shipped in. There were canned beans and peaches. Not a lot of options. But most people weren't obese. The lack of tasty fresh fruits and vegetables during January, February and March can't be the real problem.
I think the expectation that people should be able to live in a snowy climate and get fresh, tasty, and cheap tomatoes and peppers during the winter is an unrealistic one. Of COURSE those vegetables were grown thousands of miles away and bred for durability rather than flavor. They have to travel halfway around the world to get to you. What else do you expect?
Wait until summer and get those same items when they are locally in season and it will be a totally different experience. Don't waste your money on them now.
I'd love to live somewhere I had access to more/better fresh veggies and fruit year round.
I try to make veggies most of my diet, but certain times of the year it is hard to maintain. And I don't even have anything like Whole Foods within an hour of me.
There are still better choices out there than pure junk food, though.
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.
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.
That's not even the half of it. I live in Florida, and I at one time had fruit trees galore, but then here comes the county with a letter demanding that my trees be cut down because there is some disease outbreak in the area. They took almost all of my trees save my mango and avocado trees. Many places are putting up laws that prohibit residents from growing edible gardens on their homestead without a license. Talk about the USA becoming more and more communist by the day.
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. .
You are absolutely right. We grow our own vegetables when we can here and they are SPECTACULAR compared to the stuff in the grocery store. First time I tried our own peppers and onions on our tacos we normally cook for dinner, I was like I NEVER KNEW TACOS CAN TASTE SOOOOOOOO GOOD. It's crazy. Buy from your local farmer's market, people--you will be overwhelmed like I was by the difference. Your vegetables/fruits will actually TASTE GOOD.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Back to NE
Does fruit and veg from farmers markets taste better? marginally
.
Either your grocery store has better produce or your local farmers don't grow them well. Our are literally night and day compared to the grocery store. I never knew tomatoes could taste so good and I loved them before I tried the ones from our farm. Once I tried those however, the ones from the grocery store tasted so bland, I don't even bother to buy them anymore, just wait until we grow our own because now they really don't taste that great.
I live in a place where fresh vegetables of a wide variety of types are available year-round. My understanding, though, is that getting good fresh produce during the winter months of a four-season climate has always been a problem. A hundred or seventy-five or fifty years ago, there were even fewer fresh fruits and vegetables available in New York in the winter than there are today. There were potatoes, onions, carrots, apples--things that tolerate long-term storage. Oranges could be shipped in. There were canned beans and peaches. Not a lot of options. But most people weren't obese. The lack of tasty fresh fruits and vegetables during January, February and March can't be the real problem.
I think the expectation that people should be able to live in a snowy climate and get fresh, tasty, and cheap tomatoes and peppers during the winter is an unrealistic one. Of COURSE those vegetables were grown thousands of miles away and bred for durability rather than flavor. They have to travel halfway around the world to get to you. What else do you expect?
Wait until summer and get those same items when they are locally in season and it will be a totally different experience. Don't waste your money on them now.
I go to farmer's market in the summer. Not only is the food better tasting but cheaper the way it's sold. For example a bushel of huget carrots for $1.50. You're right, it's a waste of money to buy most fruits and vegetables now because they're out-of-season and flavorless.
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I hit up farmers markets in summer
