Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I see what's happening here (sigh). Serious Eats has gone the way of the numbers. If you actually go to the article it plainly states that 'pre-packaged' fruit is the problem.

Another title meant to generate traffic. (sigh) This is happening way too often nowadays. Same thing has happened at Slashfood. Sometimes your like: "Are they just posting this to have a post?" Sad.

IMHO

Wow, that's some pretty amazing animation! Glad to see one about pie :)

~Tablebread
http://tablebread.blogspot.com

These are so cool! I love food art. It's the advanced version of playing with your food :)

~Tablebread
http://tablebread.blogspot.com

I am personally happy that McD's is bringing coffee to the States. I lived in Italy for several years and they always had a full coffee bar inside. Starbucks coffee is just a sad shadow of it's former self and it needs to go away. Bring in Seattle's Best coffee if you're hankering for something from the rainy city.

~TableBread
http://tablebread.blogspot.com

I'd like all of my burger consumption to be accompanied by hot dogs.

This is genius!!!

"Dr. Tom Sanders says that breakfast cereals served with semi-skimmed milk, are low energy meals that provide about one fifth of the micronutrient requirements of children and should be encouraged. Portion size as it is being eaten but not dry weight nutritional facts should be considered. Dr. Sanders is professor of nutrition at King's College London, leading scientist of the OPTILIP trial and acting as a consultant to the cereal manufacturers, says that traffic light labels misclassifies unfairly breakfast cereals."

These people are S-C-U-M...
sold soul to the devil...this is why i hardly ever read the Guardian now...

Many good comments have already been made whether in reference to problematic nutritional analysis or the difference between the pre-sliced, peeled apple slices ninety days old and fresh fruit grown with natural fertilizers, peel and core intact. (FYI, I've heard the stuff about antioxidants debunked, too.)

Let me add this: concerns about obesity dominate nutritional advice to an extreme. Consequently, you'll read about all the benefits of oranges (here: http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c20Vk.html) qualified by the degree to which sugars govern calorie intake.

If you look at Harvard's survey of Food Pyramids, you'll see that recommendations favor vegetables which you're encouraged to eat in abundance, whereas you should consume 2 1/2 servings of fruit a day. Why? Much higher percentage of sugar? More calories? The greater likelihood you'll find protein and a variety of nutrients in vegetables than fruits? Or our nutritional classification system (vitamins, minerals, fiber...) to blame for slighting fruits? After all, nutrition is a product of culture, not nature.

Here's the link: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/pyramids.html

There is something to be said for the fact that fruit is delicious and probably better for me than many other options when I long for something filling and sweet.

A blanket statement like that is sure to be mostly wrong. Nutritional value varies greatly from one fruit to another. Most importantly though, as always, is the method of cultivation, and the point in the ripening process at which the fruit was harvested, and how much time elapsed from harvest to consumption.

Fruits and veggies grown on industrial farms have very little nutritional value other than sugars, starches and fibre. When it comes to flavor and nutritional value, it's all about the soil. The soil they are grown in has been over extended and depleted of nutrients, and synthetic chemical fertilizers are used to promote vegetative growth. While these fertilizers are designed to optimize the growth of the plant and it's fruit, they do very little to adding the nutritional value we seek and expect. An old traditional method of farming was to rotate crops, so that a field never was growing the same crop one season to the next, and would usually be left to grow wild for one season every three or four years. Also, planting legumes every few years actually replenishes the soil in nitrogen, as legumes can grab nitrogen out of the air which is then put into the soil through the plants roots. Nitrogen is an essential component to all life. Plants use it to form chlorophyl which as we all know is the engine in photosynthesis.

Fruit is generally harvested under-ripe, and ripens in transit to the warehouses and ultimately to the stores where they are sold. Vitamins and minerals are for the most part water soluble and degrade over time and exposure to oxygen, so if a fruit or veggie is cut up into pieces and/or sits around for a while ripening in the back of a semi or in a warehouse, it will lose significant amounts of whatever little nutrients it already had to begin with.

As always, buying organic and local makes a big difference. The best solution is to grow your own, but that is not always feasible. You get what you pay for. But yeah, even supermarket factory farmed fruits and veggies are better than none at all. Robyn, your summary is misleading and I think should be re-written, as the article linked clearly makes the distinction between whole fruits and prepared and prepackaged fruit.