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Interesting item on Radio 4

H

hanadr

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There's a discussion on about the nutrient poverty of modern varieties of crops compared with their ancestors. Modern wheats have fewer minerals and more starch that ancient ones. Perhaps that's why we can't agree on whether to eat cereals or not. If we all ate ancient varieties, we might not have trouble with them.. Maybe the Spelt Geeks have a point 8)
Hana
 
A similar thought is about fruit.
As I try to lo-carb I keep getting asked why I don't eat fruit as it is natural and unprocessed.

I think the answer is that fruit has been altered over the years to become sweeter.
Compare a shop bought strawberry to a proper wild one.
The wild one is tiny, not very sweet and almost nutty in flavour.

Maybe this kind of change has happened to a lot of fruits but the truely wild ones no longer exist?
 
It's hard to get seed for old varieties, but I grow a few. I have tiny alpine strawberries, which I grow for my granddaughter. I'm going to grow more stuff with her next year, when she'll be 2 and I'll go for the old types. Garden crops aren't as bad as commercial varieties. I don't buy Elsanta Strawberries, because they are tasteless.
Even with a very small garden, It's possible to get salad crops and runner beans in pots
Hana
 
We have a 100+ year old walled garden some distance from the house. Here the fruit trees,apple, damson, mulberries etc have had to care for themselves , and now produce the fruit they should, tarter, less shapely and infinitely better tasting than the modern version. Bliss! How lucky am I?
Val
 
Ten years ago when we moved here there were no raspberries, and then one day there they were in the wilder bit of garden. Clearly dropped by the birds or something, and they are much smaller than the shop ones and far less sweet (although not tart) and I was able to eat the back-end of the crop when it coincided with my starting on the low carb regime. I couldn't have coped with having to waste them all! So I think you have a point there.
DG
 
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