Thomas E. Billings wrote:
> No, because humans like a variety of tastes, not just sweet.

Are you truly saying that a child who has not been mis-programmed by mis-guided
elders would instinctively go to bitter, sour, or salty rather than sweet?  As I
said, I don't wish to invalidate anything that you offer, but I have never
personally witnessed what you are speaking of.

A healthy plant uses high sugar to produce the taste factors that draw us to its
bounty.  But sugar is not what we are after.  The sweetness is simply a marker for
the minerals we need.  For instance, I can take a glass of standard junk commercial
orange juice and adulterate it with teaspoons of sugar.  It does *not* improve the
taste.  Quite the contrary, added sugar can mask the taste as evidenced by such as
the cheap jellies and jams on supermarket shelves that actually have no fruit
flavor unless the adulterators add some chemical phony flavors.

> Sweetness and nutrition are two different things. Greens are mineral rich,
> but are not sweet. Bitter is OK; pomegranates are often bitter. Toxicity
> cannot be inferred purely from taste.

Au contraire, Tom, au contraire---the high Brix greens that I grow are quite
sweet.  For instance, there is simply no comparison between the 3 or 4 Brix
tasteless, yes bitter, junk lettuce from commercial farms using artificial
fertilizer and the sweet 12 Brix delicacy that the plant is capable of being.
Similarly, I have seen children that seemed incapable of gagging down a typical 4
Brix green bean, even smothered with salt and butter, turn around and happily munch
away on *raw* 10 Brix beans.

And the next time someone hands you a bitter pomegranate, grab your refractometer
and notice a minimal Brix.  Conversely when you get a sweet one, notice the high
Brix.  There is a perfection here.

> Pineapples can produce seeds. See "Fruits of Warm Climates" by Julia F.
> Morton, for further info.

Thanks and I will research.  Right now I am wondering if the seeds, if any, are
true to type.

> Wild precursors of some cultivated fruits, are
> not sweet and may border on being inedible.

Exactly!  And they remain just that if indeed they don't become extinct.  What
animal would care to help spread the seed of an inedible fruit?

> Sugar and nutrition are two different things; greens are mineral rich but are not
> sweet.

Indeed I look forward to the day someone shares a bowl of delicious, and noticeably
sweet, 12+ Brix spinach salad with you.  What a treat that is when compared to the
insipid 3 or 4 Brix junk the average green grocer touts as "sweet."  Actually,
there is no comparison except that both are green.

How sweet it is that we live in a world of potential perfection.  How sweeter it
will be when we beat back the growers of bitter junk fruits and start feeding our
children Nature's designs: sweet, highly mineralized, and utterly tasty.  These are
the foods that make raw make sense.

Regards,
Rex Harrill