to think fruit and veg has changed dramatically in the last 20 years

[sPJPPp]

Fruit and vegetables are totally different to how they were a few decades ago. Broccoli has no bitterness and is quite sweet, mangos used to be mostly stone and now they have a tiny thin stone. Everything is sweeter or is it just me? I remember apples growing up that were sour, now they are like sugar bombs.

Anyway aibu to be worried about this?

Tomatoes used to be grim. Went from green to watery to mouldy in about a day. Apart from the ones my granny grew, which you could taste just by smelling them.
Lots of lovely shop bought tomatoes these days, DD lives on them.

Remember mum ranting about crap spuds, that went blsck in the back or fell apart when you boiled them, all the time. Mums Irish,you don't mess with an Irish lady cooking potatoes. Hardly ever happens to me now.

Are you all sure it's not your taste buds changing as you get older?

Does anyone remember how fantastic jacket potatoes used to be though about 40 years ago? Wonderful fluffy potato and the most amazing, tasty skin that seemed about a centimetre thick. I REALLY miss them.

And new potatoes that melted in your mouth and tasted of butter?

They only tasted of butter because they were coated in butter!

So some people are complaining that the fruit is now too sweet, some that it isn't sweet at all but tasteless...isn't it more likely that your tastes ahve changed AND you're remembering fondly but wrongly anyway?

But you can still get all these amazing flavours: just not all of the time. If you're buying strawberries just now and expecting them to taste of anything then you're going to be disappointed. New pots are still amazing - but only when they are new, not when they're the little baby ones that are grown all year. Broccoli is only bitter when it's overcooked IMO so it probably only tastes different because of they way you cook it.

You are obsessed by diet/food/chopped tomatoes in tins and post lots of threads complaining.

Yes, I've noticed that too, StillStaying

BlackDaisies, I remember those jacket potatoes! Huge, too. You don't see the same size today.

I get huge jacket potatoes but from the greengrocer. I cook them in the oven and the skins are thick. If microwaved I find them to be not as tasty.

I was talking about this to someone yesterday! Courgettes are far less soggy than they used to be.

This is a good thing.

YABU plants change through domestication and always have. Look at what corn used to look like.

Same with wheat.

Yesterday 20:02 eddielizzard

i agree. they have changed and not necessarily for the better. we don't need more sugar, we need more nutrients.

I totally agree with that, its all about appearance and shelf life. Taste and nutrition come bottom. I just read that seedless watermelons way way less nutrients than the original fruit.

I post two threads about fruit and I'm obsessed? Seriously if you don't like it and have nothing to input on the thread apart from a dig at me do us all a favour and stfu.

Is it really that the produce had changed that dramatically, or is it just that fashions in the way food is prepared (eg. broccoli is more likely to be served lightly steamed and a bit crunchy these days rather than boiled to mush) and the fact that your taste buds change as you get older?

Taste buds do change as you get older - you lose some of your bitter taste buds, apparently, so stuff that once tasted bitter no longer does so.

But I think the OP is right about fruit being bred for sweetness. And I also agree that some fruit and veg have lost flavour, tomatoes being a notable example. Homegrown tomatoes have much more flavour than shop-bought ones.

The thing with tomatoes is that most of them in shops come from one specific type, which is a bit boring in taste. Personally I only buy cherry tomatoes now because the bigger ones don't taste of much.
I agree about new potatoes though. Jersey potatoes used to be a real luxury and had a certain taste that they don't seem to have any more. As for stawberries, I only buy them in the summer months, but if you can go to a 'pick your own' place, because they really do taste a lot nicer.

Regarding nutrients in fruit and veg, no I don't worry about it ,OP. No one in our family seems to suffer from any vitamin/mineral deficiencies and we don't take any supplements either.

i think this is something to worry about if its true

I'm with you op

just look at the obesity levels.....we are told to eat 5+ portions daily,but if its being modified to be more sugary then its a vicious circle. worrying

Grow your own food and eat as seasonally as possible, that will help with flavours.

Strawberries from Waitrose in January will be tasteless regardless of cost. Strawberries from a pick your own farm in Kent in July will be amazing

If you buy out of season, imported fruit and veg, then yes this can be true.

I live in an area of the UK where fabulous fruit and veg is grown, and my local veg shop (not to mention the farm shops) will soon be full of locally grown, flavour packed produce.

The taste buds change with age. So does the mind, and some not for the better. Worried? Get a life.

C'mon 26. People aren't getting obese because they're eating fruit and veg...

they are from eating so much sugar though.....sweetening everything is just encouraging a leaning towards sweeter foods

Cadie I bought some Duchy carrots from Waitrose and OH said "oh they taste like carrots"

Its a rum do when you are surprised carrots taste of what they should do

I disagree 26. Foods in season are naturally sweet - the long berry growing season in Scotland is about allowing the fruit to ripen (just another word for sweetness); heritage carrots just picked will taste incredibly sweet because they haven't been sitting around for weeks on pallets, allowing the sugar to turn to starch. If we ate naturally sweet foods, we wouldn't need artificially sweetened.

Mind you I don't believe sugar is the devil, or addictive, unlike many seem to these days. I don't see any connection between a beautifully sweet, just-pulled carrot and a big Mac with a bucket of juice.