The Meaning Of "Fresh"

Isadora

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This is in continuation of the discussion that started in a previous thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1431

So we find out that toxins are an issue, that our precious amino-acids tend to be decarboxylated into less desirable compounds called biogenic amines (of which histadines are just one class, derived from one of the 19 essential amino acids, called "histidine"). Basically, the world of bacteria outside our bodies wants and gets access to "our" food and we need to not waste any time between the moment "we" harvest or kill our future food and the moment we eat it.

Now, this sounds like common knowledge, somehow, we always knew that.

But, is that the case? Did we really pay enough attention to the science behind the recommendations of the "fresh is best" type, or were we considering "safe" a whole world of foods we've been digesting through the years, based on FDA approvals and good faith, mostly?

With the notable and very rare exception of those who grow their own fruits and vegetables and animals, from now to be considered by me the last true aristocrats of this planet, most of us have been eating garbage for the most part of our lives.

Am I going too far?

I'm sure you have tasted occasionally fruit directly from a tree and you wondered at its taste and freshness. Supermarket stuff can never be truly fresh. Radiation is not OK, so there is that, too.

Eating animals that have just been sacrificed may be easier than eating vegetables that have just been picked or unearthed. Frozen fruit may be better than "fresh". Canned must be the worst. When in doubt, best avoid veggies, concentrate of the animal foods, whose chain is more controlled, by necessity. Also, because the "biogenic amines" at work there leave their mark very fast -- as if bacteria, too, had a preference, go figure! Ring a Peatoid bell?

I'll do more research and post results. What do you guys know about this?
 

Jenn

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Sometimes canned food is higher quality, picked riper and processed faster. Peaches come to mind. I prefer fresh picked off the tree, then canned. The store bought peaches have no smell/flavor, the frozen are worse. One year I walked into a store and smelled the peaches before I saw them, I bought two cases.
 
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Isadora

Isadora

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Jenn said:
Sometimes canned food is higher quality, picked riper and processed faster. Peaches come to mind. I prefer fresh picked off the tree, then canned. The store bought peaches have no smell/flavor, the frozen are worse. One year I walked into a store and smelled the peaches before I saw them, I bought two cases.

Oh, THAT type of "canned"! :) Jenn, I think most people here understand by "canned fruit" the store bought variety, and I am willing to bet that the worst quality fruit "made it" into those cans, and after every other possibility for their marketing was excluded for one reason or another... I know there are small producers who do it differently, I see them in the markets here sometimes, and their prices are commensurate with the difficulty of doing that work on a small scale. That stuff can get VERY EXPENSIVE -- and then again, you have to trust them they did it right.

As I said, for the big manufacturers of processed agricultural foods, I doubt the "ripeness" and "freshness" are the number one concern... I'm afraid we are entitled to lots of broken DNA and "FDA-approved" toxins in those cans. :|

I agree with you for the smell being a powerful indicator of freshness in fruits and vegetables. Theoretically, the supermarket stand containing tomatoes should send out wafts of this powerful, pleasant (to me) odor... The best I ever get is to faintly sense something when I approach the vine to my nose, if they are in season! I could never understand vegetarians who don't have their own gardens. And what you are describing, fresh fruit in the supermarket aisle, is the exception, rather than the norm. Yeah, we should jump on those if we get lucky...:)
 

pboy

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I'd say meats that weren't previously frozen, but smoked fresh right after catch then immediately packaged well are probably better than 'fresh' meats that are days old freezing/thawing/refreezing and/or exposed to oxygen. Same with cut fruit / veggies. A lot of fruit and veggies are not fully ripe or of poor quality due to economic and/or handling reasons...so I think fresh bottles juices in glass made on the spot near where the ripe fruit is being harvested, and actually harvested at peak maturity, might often be better to than 'fresh' in the produce section. In fact...as it turns out, besides occasional near local in season fruit...and citrus, the high quality (not from concentrate, in glass) fruit juices are almost always a better option. I don't eat a lot of meat so its hard for me to compare, but I know wild caught fresh smoked fish (the prepackaged kind) is almost always better than previously frozen store bought fish or restaurant fish even when it is spiced and cooked fresh. Id be willing to bet eating anything soon after catch or harvest, before any kind of transport / aging, would probably be the best tasting and healthiest although we rarely get those opportunities these days unless you actively seek them out
 

jyb

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pboy said:
I'd say meats that weren't previously frozen, but smoked fresh right after catch then immediately packaged well are probably better than 'fresh' meats that are days old freezing/thawing/refreezing and/or exposed to oxygen. Same with cut fruit / veggies. A lot of fruit and veggies are not fully ripe or of poor quality due to economic and/or handling reasons...so I think fresh bottles juices in glass made on the spot near where the ripe fruit is being harvested, and actually harvested at peak maturity, might often be better to than 'fresh' in the produce section. In fact...as it turns out, besides occasional near local in season fruit...and citrus, the high quality (not from concentrate, in glass) fruit juices are almost always a better option. I don't eat a lot of meat so its hard for me to compare, but I know wild caught fresh smoked fish (the prepackaged kind) is almost always better than previously frozen store bought fish or restaurant fish even when it is spiced and cooked fresh. Id be willing to bet eating anything soon after catch or harvest, before any kind of transport / aging, would probably be the best tasting and healthiest although we rarely get those opportunities these days unless you actively seek them out

What's the problem with freezing? It sure preserves vitamins.
 

pboy

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I think its good but the store bought stuff might have been frozen, unfrozen, frozen, unfrozen, and be displayed in light without oxygen protection for a week or more before being bought
 

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