My wife and I shop at a local grocery store. They have good prices overall, but the produce section has (on average) the worst tasting fruit I’ve ever eaten. Peaches can look great and feel mostly ok, but when you eat them they just taste like sand. I’ve had every kind of tasteless fruit there, cherries, plums, apples, peaches, Clementine’s, etc.
My question is, are these fruits just as nutritious even if they taste terrible? Does the absence of a full ripe taste indicate improper growing and maturing levels before being picked and therefore be less beneficial for the consumer?
Since I’m dumber than a box of rocks I keep finding myself buying fruit there to give them one more chance. If I bite into a tasteless plum, should I continue to eat it at least for the nutritious value or just throw it away?
Hmm. Well, I don’t know for sure in your case but I do know that in general, the nutritional content of produce reflects, to some degree, the environment the plant was grown in. Plants produce more of certain chemicals in response to stress, but are unable to produce enough of others since “stress” to plants basically means “can’t get enough resources” (water, nitrogen, etc.) That can affect the final content of their parts that you eat.
In addition, produce picked very unripe and then gassed for color and “flavor” (think supermarket winter tomatoes) would, I’d imagine, produce fewer of their final phytochemcials and antioxidants as those who color in while still on the plant. But “some” is still better than “none,” and even if they’re flavorless, those peaches probably still have the same amount of fiber, at least, as juicy, sweet, succulent morsels of peachy goodness.