Rex Harrill <[log in to unmask]>: >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. Tom: You keep repeating your claims about sugar and sweetness. These are all ASSUMPTIONS by you; you ask for proof but provide none. Did you know that sugar is addictive? That it impacts opoid receptors (opoid = opium) in the brain? And yes, I can give references for that. Perhaps you might start providing references/proof for your assumptions? P.S. sweet is not as popular in other cultures as it is in the US. The example of pungent taste - not popular in the US, popular elsewhere, is an example of how taste preferences are heavily influenced by CULTURE. Rex Harrill <[log in to unmask]>: >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 Tom: Wild greens are mostly bitter (often very bitter) - so much for your UNnatural greens bred for bland taste. Rex Harrill <[log in to unmask]>: >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. Tom: Not perfection - just a higher sugar content. Tom: >> Wild precursors of some cultivated fruits, are >> not sweet and may border on being inedible. Rex Harrill <[log in to unmask]>: >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? Tom: Inedible to humans does not mean inedible to other species. You have forgotten what I wrote re: fruit toxins - to determine which species eats the fruit. Many fruits toxic to humans are eaten - and the seeds spread - by birds. Your whole philosophy of sweet=natural is totally false and has no basis in reality. A bit of research may help cure you of these mis-conceptions. :-) Rex Harrill <[log in to unmask]>: >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. Tom: How wonderful it will be when people open up to reality, to nature as it is, and stop trying to force simplistic concepts such as "sweet=natural", on nature. Nature simply IS; nature is not interested in our conceptions or mis-conceptions. Wild=natural fruit, is only rarely sweet. Nature is not a sugar addict, but modern humans are. Regards, Tom Billings [log in to unmask]