White people conquered the whole world looking for spices and then decided they didn’t want to use any of them
Im of Scottish, Irish, and South German descent my ancestors didnt conquer shit beyond the whole bursting into flames under direct sunlight problem.
They conquered that?
How?
… you know, out of scientific curiosity.
Mineral zinc
As a Fitzpatrick skin type 1 living in Australia, zinc is my best friend.
I’m pale enough that you can’t even tell I’ve got white paste on my face, and I’m physically blocking the sun.
I have a 50 SPF moisturiser that I use daily before I leave the house, even in winter, and I reapply it several times a day in summer, but I still get sun burnt if I don’t also wear zinc.
Now that I’m older I’ve gotten a lot better at often wearing a wide brim hat and long sleeves in the summer, but it’s not always possible.
Zinc is also reef safe for beach wear, and doesn’t contain avobenzone so it will provide longer protection from UVA rays, and no risk of irritation if applied prior to swimming in a chlorinated pool. (avobenzone and chlorine are not friends)
I’ll be sure to pass this on to all my vampi… I mean, wow, that is a very fascinating thing to read, I’ll surely take what you said into consideration the next time I’m shopping for sunscreen.
Yet another vampire familiar wasting the day on Lemmy.
Well the scottish side have been here in southern California for about 150 years, the Irish for about 110 years, and the German for about 100 years. Also I can be under high UV and only start burning after about 2 hours.
We conquered that weakness, now if only we could get rid of the madness, actually nevermind on that one being able to go into a berserk fury by will alone is fucking useful. Good for cussing out shitty bosses and feeling high as a kite while at it, just gotta keep from trying to kill them.
Nova Scotia was going well until king Charles gave it to the French.
Darien was going well until… the everything… Ok, Darien was never going well at all.
I suppose there’s modern capitalism, public investing, and one of the most iconic holidays ever. Cultural victory?
You forget the legend of Gregor MacGregor and his conquering and settling of Cazique. And his freedom fought for the Republic of Florida.
Unnecessary racist comment but it’s OK since its against the one group that its OK to be racist towards. This wouldn’t fly if it was about black people and a similar gotcha line
Because you are designed to seek out salt and sugar as a survival trait; then decided to mass produce it and put it into everything. Now your tastebuds have been ruined, even the standard apple/banana has been genetically modified to have more sugar
Genetically modified? That’s a stretch.
Like many other cultures, bananas and apples were selectively reproduced to obtain fruits with more to eat. Corn, carrots, every single kale and cabbage, potatoes, oranges and even strawberries can go into this basket.
The wild banana has almost nothing to eat, being filled with large seeds and we can still find wild apples, by nature very tart but still edible. Every single cereal we plant and harvest today was originally nothing more than a wild grass.
But to call the work of millenia and who knows how many generations of farmers genetic modifications is a bit over the top.
GMOs are very recent introductions and normally for obtaining pest, drought or disease (more) resistant plants.
We absolutely genetically modified pretty much all of our food. We just did it by selective breeding.
The only difference with modern GMO is we’ve learned to do it directly much faster. We don’t need a random mutation to add a trait anymore.
Can we get a geneticist here?
Last time I was taught about biology, selective breeding was a process through which, over a long period of time, individuals with favorable traits were multiplied in order to increase the prevalence of such traits.
The genes were already introduced, hence, no modification. Already existing characteristics were allowed to further express and refine.
Genetic modification, to my understanding, implies introducing genetic information into the genome of an organism to produce another with traits previously completely absent in the species.
Selection vs manipulation.
I’ll concede there are a few cases where the lines blurr, like the golden rice, where a gene that codified the production of vitamin A in the grain was/is already inactive or so receassive, in order to have it express again would require gene manipulation but I think a selective production program was put forward in an attempt to bring out that gene again.
Selective breeding is just one of the methods used to genetically modify our food.
I think you two have different images in your minds. You say “genetically modify” as in “modify the food through choosing which genes are to prevail”, while the other means “modify genes directly to affect the food”, and in that sense selective breeding isn’t GMO because no genes have been modified, but rather encouraged. You modify the genetic structure of future generations through natural means, not the organism directly.
Don’t know what scientists say, I just see the other comment downvoted when they have a fair point.
I can’t agree with that.
The basic notion of genetically modifying an organism implies changes enacted at the genetic level, through artificial means, not biological.
I’m getting an error with the document.
Selective breeding and grafting modified the genetics
Bananas all being clones
There’s no reason to separate the terms
A skyscraper and a toolshed are both buildings technically speaking. So in that sense you are correct, only technically correct.
I would have said a skyscraper made of metal and a skyscraper made of cement are both skyscrapers for your analogy but sure
Let’s analyse that.
Selective breeding increases the frequency of a given set of genes, already present in a species, in order to better manifest specific, more advantageous - either nature or human chosen - traits.
Random mutations can occur when biological reproduction happens but unless extreme and radical - which often prove fatal for the offspring - are not relevant for the species in the immediate.
These principles are applicable to both plants and animals.
Now grafting takes a part of one plant - usually a small branch - uses another plant to provide the root system - usually something that grows much faster than the graft - and this process multiplies asexually the plant from which the branch was oroginally cut. No genes are carried over between the two plants.
This is valid to get a bunch of trees out of a single one in a very short time but it will not introduce new genes into the crop.
Quince trees are often used as root stock to graft other trees, like pear and apple. If the seeds from those grafted trees were to be sprouted, planted and nurtured to maturity, apples or pears would grow but of completely new varieties. The quince trees used to provide the root for grafting would provide zero genes to the new varieties.
Can you expand on why you consider grafting as a tool for genetic manipulation?
it will not introduce new genes into the crop.
Under normal circumstances new genes would be, but the new plant isn’t considered a new species (like tigons not being a species)
GMOs are very recent introductions and normally for obtaining pest, drought or disease (more)
Those bastards!!!
resistant plants.
Oh…ok…
How dare people and companies make plants that help people eat. Most disgusting thing ever.
deleted by creator
The wild banana has almost nothing to eat, being filled with large seeds and we can still find wild apples, by nature very tart but still edible. Every single cereal we plant and harvest today was originally nothing more than a wild grass.
I cannot help thinking about the first proto-human that started munching on the tips of wild grass.
- “Hey Unk, check out Krug over there, chewin on the grass. That shit’s messed up.”
- “I dunno Greg. Looks pretty tasty to me.”
Our ancestors were primarily leaf eaters, so moving to grass wouldn’t be that unusual. But let’s picture the first proto-human that decided to go for the carcass of another animal, either killed by a predator or by fire or lightning. That would have been an event.
I’m pretty sure most primates are omnivores so they’d have been hunting as well just more in an opportunistic way
iirc the modern banana is actually a less flavorful variety than centuries past, but not for selective breeding reasons. The more popular variety, the Gros Michel, was susceptible to a certain fungus that wiped it out by the 60s. Those apparently tasted closer to the artificial banana flavoring that is still used today and in fact are what that flavoring was based on (albeit probably quite a bit more sugary and concentrated since it’s still a candy flavoring).
And then you have other produce like apples and tomatoes being bred for size and yield, since that will both net more profit and feed more people. This often necessarily means that the produce will lose flavor in the process, as well as nutritional value by weight since the size/yield increase is mostly just the crop taking up more water. (I think the genetic modification you mentioned is in some part meant to correct that inverse relationship between yield and nutritional density, but I’d have to read up more on the subject.)
So I think you can just as much argue that it’s not our tastebuds being ruined so much as produce itself being considerably less appealing to them.
You can buy Gros Michel bananas still you just have to put in some effort. If you are in the USA and have the cash the Miami Fruit Co ships them when they grow them. I haven’t checked but I believe they are in banana season.
Whoa, looks like a really cool company in general! Thanks for the tip!
Never forget, wars were fought for spice. people died to not have to consume bland food.
and yet you pass the spice aisle every grocery visit, shame.
;)
The spice must flow
Because who buys spices at the regular grocery store, it’s like $4 for a 50g bag. You gotta go to the Asain grocer or Indian market for those delicious half kilo bags for $6.
Then put them in an old pasta sauce jar and shove them in your pantry and let them get old and off gas their aroma until they’re just bland sawdust…but act like you’re still better than other white people because you own spices.
The obscure and unassuming the specialty store is, the more incomprehensibly low their prices are
I still don’t understand why the cooking skill of my parents sucked this bad. I started cooking on my own when I moved out and even after just a bit of practise and good recipes you can cook tasty meals. How do you go on 50 years failing this, I don’t understand. If I see another bowl of dry rice, canned peas and ready marinated chicken from some discounter I’m going to throw up.
Boomers came up as fast food franchises and convenience foods began to dominate. The equal rights movement meant more women in the workplace and less in the kitchen and instead of spreading the burden, capitalism filled in the gaps.
Another explanation is that American cuisine got wrecked by the Great Depression. Everything that had flavor was expensive. People’s inability to purchase and make certain foods stopped generational transfer of knowledge on how to make certain things. Thankfully, after several generations it’s finally recovering.
“Ethnic” food (non European) wasn’t as affected as much.
I heard an interview about a book on it a few years ago but now I can’t find it.
Because they did cook well at one point. It took hours, it involved a lot of cleanup, and 4 year old you whined and complained for some chicken nuggets and the fucking candy bar your aunt gave you without talking to your parents first.
So they gave up. The tantrums, the rejection, the effort. None of it was worth it. Like pretty much every skill in life it atrophied.
Too many people order shitty delivery so that they can save 15 minutes cooking while spending 3 times more
And damage the organs with the much higher salt and sugar content.
deleted by creator
Practise is a verb, practice is a noun.
I like to remember it with the following sentence.
“The doctor had to practise his surgery skills before he could open his own private practice clinic”
Verb, S=surgery. Noun, C=clinic
It’s funny that you offer correction. UK English makes this distinction, US English doesn’t and uses practice for both. Internationally where many English speakers mix neither usage can really be said to be incorrect. Pedantry fail.
Eh, I’m not that invested as to feel I’ve failed. To fail you need to try. I just like fighting fire with fire when I see people correcting other’s spelling online.
At the end of the day, as long as you’re communicating your message effectively whatever you’ve written has done it’s job. I’m dyslexic, people offering unnecessary spelling advice irks me, so if they make a “mistake” (at least, as far as prescriptive English goes) I’m going to annoy them the same way their comments annoys everyone else. If they’re not annoyed by it, well who cares, nothing gained nothing lost.
Practise is correct UK spelling.
What does the UK know about English?
My mom after feeding me canned green beans for years watching me wolf down green beans at my house
“You hated veggies when you were a kid.”
…sure, mom
I looked my mother in the eyes after a long day once and responded to a similar statement with “No, I hated your chilli when I was a kid.”
She really does make the absolute worst chilli I’ve ever tasted. It’s so bland. There is almost no chilli powder in it, just some salt and a little bit of pre-ground pepper from a packaged salt/pepper shaker. The recipe amounts to “throw some hamburger and tomato sauce with canned beans in a pot and cook it for an hour and then add random amounts of all THREE seasonings”
It’s a wonder I survived to be able to cook on my own.
Was the chili really that bad you had to hurt your mother’s feelings about it? I feel you hated more than just her chili…
For lazy people like me: air fryer works great for asparagus and broccoli, taste good even with only salt.
As a lazy person who grew up with a parent who’s method of cooking vegetables was just “boil it till its grey!”, if a vegetable can be eaten raw, I will be eating it raw.
Raw broccoli dipped in garlic greek yoghurt is delicious, nutritious and fast/lazy to prepare.
I’m on the hunt for a vegan alternative that is decent, but until then, crunchy carrots and sugar snap peas are my go-to lazy veggies.
Raw broccoli and a good hummus is a great alternative. It’s a salad combination i use quite frequently.
Raw broccoli…Oh man I do not want to smell your farts. I mean you don’t even have to boil them but give them just a hot dip to reduce the raffinose
Or just steamed a bit. I hate mushy broccoli with a passion.
Maybe it’s because I’m on prescription probiotics and digestive enzymes, but I haven’t noticed a drastic change in my farts from the broccoli. They used to absolutely reek before I went low-dairy and started being a little more mindful of FODMAPS.
Now pea protein powder? that amplifies my flatulence to war crime levels.
I’m lazy so here’s lazy delicious veggie tip:
Get a rice cooker. Get rice and FROZEN pre-processed (chopped) veggies. These are still very inexpensive, require no preparation, last forever in the freezer, and are actually FRESHER than “fresh” veggies, since they are picked when ripe and then flash frozen rather than picked prematurely and sprayed with a ripening agent. Your rice cooker should come with a veggie tray so you can cook the rice and veggies simultaneously. Drop them in there and fire it up. Get yourself some “simmering sauce” and heat it up in a pan for ~15 minutes and baby you got a stew goin’.
Can you elaborate on where the stew is going?
It’s chasing after their refrigerator.
Is Stew alright, like in the head?
Veggy tray? Do you mean the steam “table”?
Sure, let’s go with that.
and are actually FRESHER than “fresh” veggies
As an adult who thought that they hated pretty much all veggies (especially broccoli and corn) and found out that I absolutely love them when prepared fresh and that the bagged versions tasted like ass, I’m gonna call bullshit on that.
It might work for you, but nothing beats freshly-prepared corn, whether grilled in the husks or cut and sauteed.
You can call bullshit on whatever you want but it’s a scientific fact.
The foodtuber Adam Ragusea happens to have two videos addressing these specific topics:
The superiority of flash frozen foods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_PMnCpaJiQ
Food starts rotting the instant it’s harvested, and continues doing so while it’s packaged, transported, and stored on the shelf. Modern flash freezing techniques preserve foods perfectly, halting the microorganisms that cause decomposition, and avoiding the damage caused by large ice crystal formation that’s inevitable with slow domestic freezers.
The selective breeding and genetic engineering of sweetcorn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIVG54wNPd0
Interestingly with the sweetcorn, it used to be that it had to be eaten immediately after harvest, so much so that you’d have the water boiling before even picking them. However with modern developments they can remain fresh much longer.
Also don’t boil your vegetables. I was raised in boiled broccoli and sprouts, and steaming baskets changed my life!
Never “just” steam your veggies. Do a quick stirfry in oil with garlic then use the residual steam to finish it up!
“Oh my God!”
Who is God’s God?
Dog
The author.
The infinite regress of creator’s creators.
Steam broccoli and cauliflower together in a microwave or steamer of your choice with butter and whatever seasonings you like. Toss in a wok with ripping hot olive oil until golden brown on the edges. Make sure to be rough with the broccoli and cauliflower, you want it to be crushed a bit. Shit slaps and it so easy. Idk if it’s healthy anymore after all the butter and oil but whatever. you can adjust the butter levels as needed but make sure there’s enough oil in the wok
Butter isn’t bad for you per-se, it’s the quantity that gets you. It’s a pretty calorie dense food, and it has a lot of other things in it that, when taken in large quantities will clog up your cardiovascular system.
Used in proper moderation and it’s wonderful. Throwing a whole stick of it into a single serving at every meal is probably too much.
Disclaimer: I am neither a health professional, nor a nutritionist.
Yeah of course but I use a shit ton
Image Transcription:
A four-panel Mr. Lovenstein comic titled “THIS COMIC MADE POSSIBLE THANKS TO EELS OF WOOD”
The first panel shows an angry pink humanoid standing on a green circle, holding a bunch of asparagus spears and speaking to a yellow-skinned, bearded humanoid barely in the panel. The pink humanoid is saying “HEY GOD, WHY DID YOU MAKE HEALTHY FOOD TASTE BAD?”
The second panel shows the yellow-skinned, bearded humanoid in more detail. It has a halo and is wearing a white robe. It’s rolling its eyes angrily as it responds “OH MY GOD! DO I HAVE TO SHOW YOU EVERYTHING?”
The third panel shows the still-angry yellow-skinned humanoid cooking the asparagus spears in a frying pan over the open flame of a gas stove as the pink humanoid watches on amazed. The yellow humanoid is saying “SAUTÉ 'EM AND DON’T FORGET THE SEASONING! STIR AND TASTE AS YOU COOK!”
The final panel shows a close-up of the pink humanoid holding a half-eaten asparagus spear with its mouth full and eyes wide in awe as it says “IT’S… DELICIOUS!” A response from off-screen replies “OF COURSE IT IS!”
[I am a human, if I’ve made a mistake please let me know. Please consider providing alt-text for ease of use. Thank you. 💜 We have a community! If you wish for us to transcribe something, want to help improve ease of use here on Lemmy, or just want to hang out with us, join us at [email protected]!]
Anybody trying to tell me that sauteed veggies taste as good as a hamburger has lost from the beginning.
Honestly fresh veggies sautéed right are better than any hamburger, and I love to eat meats
Top tier, fresh, sautéed, and properly spiced asparagus as pictured in the comic over a conventional burger? Count me in.
Or a good artichoke. Yum.
I feel too many people grew up eating overcooking mushy veggies that weren’t properly seasoned.
Canned veggies ducked everything up for kids
Insanity.
I’d take those over some greasy burgers any time of the day
Greasy burgers? Sure.
Good, craft burgers? Naw
I’m also a meat eater but have to disagree with you there. I prefer variety because eating the same salty slop gets boring. Maybe you have abused your tastebuds . If you take a break from certain foods it recalibrates the taste buds.
Maybe you just need to find the right veggies or the right seasoning. I wouldn’t say I love veggies more or less than a burger, but they add much needed variety.
Sauté it in what, God?
…
Sauté it in what?
In the pan, duh.
Seriously though I’m amazed at how many people don’t understand basic cooking and how easy and necessary it is to take interest in self health and basic nourishment. But then get shocked when their organs start to shut down before 50. Like “omg they are trying to kill us all with salt and sugar in fast food” shouldn’t be a shock anymore. It’s capitalism. That’s how it works. They don’t care about your body.
Ok but why sugar taste so good
Because natural foods are sweet when they’re the most nutritious.
Fruit, for example, or carrots (which convert it’s starches into sugars to avoid freezing.)
Prior to modern food preservation and heavily processed foods, getting calories was hard enough on its own, so we’re primed to seek calorie rich food.
We’ve evolved- technologically- to the point that’s no longer true, but our biology hasn’t caught up yet.
Because it’s seasoned with diabetes
CALORIE
