Cruel Games of the Gods: The Apple and Related Injustices

Cruel Games of the Gods: The Apple and Related Injustices

I like apples – usually I eat several a day (for the last few weeks, I’ve been buying 40+ at Maxwell Street, so we always have a lot around). Gimme a Fuji, Braeburn or better yet, one of the many non-standard, heirloom types they sell at Oak Park Farmer’s Market: Northern Spy, Mutsu, Cox Orange Pippin. Of all the apples in all the world, my least favorite are Delicious…because, usually, they’re not so delicious. So, today, I read this:

May 26, 2005 (WebMD) -- Canadian scientists say Red Delicious apples have more antioxidants called polyphenols than seven other apple varieties. The findings appear in the June 29 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, an American Chemical Society (ACS) publication. When taste and texture do not matter, choosing an apple with a high proportion of polyphenols in the flesh and skin can potentially produce more health benefits.

When taste and texture do not matter?! Why’s it gotta be like that? Why do the least flavorful, least appealing of all members of the apple family have to come out on the top of this particular pile?

How could a just and reasonable deity have created a world where stuff that’s bad for you tastes good (e.g., duck fries, Jack Daniel’s, Porterhouse) and stuff that’s good for you tastes bad? Maybe it’s some kind of sick test… or a sick joke.

And where’s Darwin in all of this? Would it not stand to reason that the more survivable, fittest members of the species would have evolved to the point where we’d prefer wheat germ to gyros, cottage cheese to camembert?

In the Garden of Earthly Deliciousness, the forbidden stuff tastes better. It’s not fair.

Hammond

Your pain is our pain. We suffer together.

BUT, on the bright side, these scientific studies have so often been reversed or countered or otherwise turned on their heads that I suggest you continue to eat what you like most. In five years' time, there will likely be published a study which demonstrates that polyphenols, though very good in some respects, also cause the development of webbed feet or some such nonsense.

Antonius

I have had some phenomenal Red Delicious Apples over the years. I have had some terrible Red Delicious Apples. I can say "DITTO" to all the other varieties also. This year, I have had some of the most miserable Fuji and Gala apples. And some great Macintoshes which is an apple I generally don't care for.

However, what really bothers me is some of the labeling. I was in Olympia, WA two weekends ago at the Farmer's Market where they were selling "FRESH FROM THE ORCHARD" organic apples for $1.89/lb. Unless they are importing them from New Zealand, wouldn't it be more proper to say, "Fresh from Cold Storage as I doubt that they were picked since October or November.

Another thing that drives me crazy is when there is a late frost that affects apple trees in April or early May and Jewel/Dominicks/Cub immediately raise the price of their apples 0.50/lb in response. Call that additional profit since what they are selling was picked last fall.

Just my pet peeves.

Mmmm, Honey Crisp.

gleam wrote:Mmmm, Honey Crisp.

gleam,

I do like Honey Crisp, and bought dozens last summer at Nichol's and several other OPFM vendors. But, when doing a back-to-back tasting, I honestly didn't find them that much sweeter or crisper than many others...I liked them, but I feel I might have been unduly swayed by the name (or maybe it was just the batch I had that day).

Hammond

Hammond wrote:

"How could a just and reasonable deity have created a world where
stuff that’s bad for you tastes good (e.g., duck fries, Jack Daniel’s,
Porterhouse) and stuff that’s good for you tastes bad? Maybe it’s
some kind of sick test… or a sick joke.
In the Garden of Earthly Deliciousness, the forbidden stuff tastes
better. It’s not fair."

Fellow LTHers, these are the kinds of questions that keep me awake at night. Now I know I am not alone! But I see that you are suffering. In the interest of providing some spiritual solace I humbly submit the following results of my insomniac musings:

The "Just and Reasonable Deity" has indeed provided sublime tastes in foods that are also good for you. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, (in fact, berries of any variety) are my number one support for this argument. Also, artichokes, asparagus, and mushrooms of many kinds. In these foods, the Deity urges us to become our best selves by teaching us as a good parent would, 1) to delay gratification-- due to seasonality 2) to develop skills to survive, propagate, and care for offspring by requiring the berries be carefully tended and gently handled 3) to persist in the face of setbacks--how many times has an artichoke thorn left you bleeding as you cleaned it? and 4) to rely upon reason in the face of instinctive disgust: fungi growing on logs--need I say more?

Come to think of it, these arguments work from a Darwinian perspective as well. Except for the mushrooms--they could be an agent for thinning the proverbial herd.

From a spiritual point of view, the life-giving Deity provides spiritual ecstasy embodied in the vivid taste impressions provided by these foods, which remain embedded in one's memory thoughout the long winter and hold the promise of a more delicious spring day to come. While some might argue that remembered tastes do not qualify as spritual sustenence, I, for one, can testify to hope restored, friendship reclaimed, and forgiveness granted by a good meal.

To the very defensible point that duck fries, Jack Daniels and Porterhouse are not as good for you, a theological perspective could be that the Deity does not expect us to be entirely rational and above temptation. Where would humanity be without the apple and the snake?

Most foods make perfect sense in an environment of general deprivation. It's only in our world of plenty that they become a problem.

Josephine Hyde wrote:In these foods, the Deity urges us to become our best selves by teaching us as a good parent would, 1) to delay gratification-- due to seasonality 2) to develop skills to survive, propagate, and care for offspring by requiring the berries be carefully tended and gently handled 3) to persist in the face of setbacks--how many times has an artichoke thorn left you bleeding as you cleaned it? and 4) to rely upon reason in the face of instinctive disgust: fungi growing on logs--need I say more?

The genius of philosophy can find benefit in any seeming evil (pain builds character, what doesn’t kills us makes us stronger, etc), and I’m appropriately amused by your medieval search for lessons in nature…actually, I think they’re probably there (behold the snake, etc.…).

One bit of “body wisdom” that I always follow is that when I’m very much “in the mood” for a food (whether it’s watermelon or chocolate or apple), I always make a point of eating this longed-for food as the first opportunity. I think the body is smart enough to know when it’s deficient in some vitamin or mineral or other nutrient, and it presents this need to the mind in the form of a craving. So, in the words of St. Olivia, listen to your body talk.

Of course, one can go overboard in this regard, but properly managed, the satisfaction of craving can prove salubrious. For what it’s worth, I’ve never actually had a craving for duck fries, Jack Daniels and Porterhouse – which may mean I get enough of these things on a regular enough basis so that I have no real need for more.

I’m also a big believer in not depriving oneself of things that taste good but that we feel will make us somehow less healthy. I think that when you say No to corn dogs and rich cheeses and other things you may like, that you sometimes reward yourself with other “treats” that may be no less (and may perhaps be more) damaging to body and soul.

Thus endeth the lesson.

Hammond

I guess it is a do you want to "live" or live longer sort of deal. Do you want to "live" eating what you want and like or do you want to live longer by stomaching stuff that tastes bad that is good for you.

Just because the other apples do not have the most does not make it bad though. Just eat more of the ones you like. Apples are good for you so eating more is not bad. Eat 2 of one you like instead of 1 red delicious with more polyphenols.

WHY THE RED DELICIOUS NO LONGER IS
from The Washington Post (Registration Required)

Washington Post wrote:Consider the fate of America's favorite apple. It emerged from an Iowa
orchard in 1880 as a round, blushed yellow fruit of surpassing sweetness.

But like a figure in a TV makeover show, it was an apple that its handlers
could not leave alone. They altered its shape. They made it firmer and more
juicy. They made it so it could be stored in hermetically sealed warehouses
for 12 months. Along the way, they changed its color and hence its name --
to Red Delicious.

The only problem was the American consumer, whose verdict on the made-over
apple has become increasingly clear: Of the two words in the Red Delicious
name, one can no longer be believed.

Link to full article

As I stated before, I don't think that the isue is the variety of the apple as much as it is the STORAGE and HANDLING of the apples. I hate eating apples in the summer months as the apples are coming out of 8-9 months of storage. Why not buy FRESH fruit while it is in season and wait until the harvest of the new apples?

There are really only a few months when you can't enjoy good apples here in Chicago (assuming you don't want New Zealand or Chile), roughly late April--late July.

Some of my favorite apples are the early summer apples. I especially like the early transparent, which can be really transcendent.

These are also excellent apples for open-faced tarts, I find. When I can stand to turn on my oven, that is.

Yellow Transparent apples (really pretty green until they are almost over ripe) have been available in farmers markets for several weeks now. This isn't a big commercial variety but used to be planted around most farm houses to provide apples for pies to feed workers in the wheat and oats harvests. IMO Yellow Transparent is a lot better for apple sauce than pies. I like them raw as well, but then I like tart apples. These are the little green apples known for giving kids stomach aches when too many are eaten.

There are other early varieties. mostly green or with just a little red blushing. If you see Gravenstein or Anoka later in August, buy some. The best apple sauce IMO uses Gravenstein, chunked up without peeling, cooked with the absolute minimum of water, and then run through a food mill. The sauce has a lovely pink tinge, tastes great and freezes well.

Just thought I'd give the Gods a break.

From the LA times (registration required). Excerpts

LA Times wrote:Waiter, Extra Olive Oil Please, I Have a Headache
Some gourmet varieties carry levels of an anti-inflammatory compound that works like ibuprofen, researchers report.

The throat-stinging squeezings of the pulped olive — the only vegetable oil that can be consumed without processing — contains a compound that has the same pain-relieving effect as ibuprofen, scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia reported in research published in the journal Nature.

The highest levels are found in the olives grown in Tuscany and the lowest in many California olive groves.

Author Calvin Trillin, considered one of the first champions of American regional cuisine, said, "There may be a problem if you figure you can cure your headache with a plate of pasta with olive oil…. It may only be a matter of time before there is extra virgin Advil and first pressing Motrin."

Full story here