Older people have a famous complaint: they say that fruits and vegetables no longer have the taste and flavor they used to. Is this really the case? For example, compared to 40 years ago, has the quality of tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, corn, beans, or any other garden produce declined, or does a person's taste change as they age?
Eyyub Huseynov, chairman of the Free Consumers Union, told Medianews.az that the fastest changing entity in the world is humans, especially their sense organs and perceptions change very rapidly: “There used to be people on Earth who could feel horse riders coming from somewhere by putting their ear to the ground. Such people no longer exist.
As an older person myself, I also believe that a person and their sense of taste have completely changed. Some say that when their grandmother used to bake in a tandoor, the aroma would go far and wide... In fact, the smell of bread is still there, but we cannot perceive it fully. Therefore, I do not agree with the idea that ‘the former taste and flavor is gone’.
It is true that the varieties of fruits and plants are changing. For example, in the past, the 'round maul' or 'kolkhoz maul' we called a particular fruit could not be eaten in more than two slices – it was so sweet that it would cause the corners of one's lips to crack. So, varieties do change. But that is not the main issue. The most changing factor is the person themselves. In this regard, there is some truth to complaints about the taste and flavor of fruits and vegetables, but a person must first accept that they themselves have changed.
The example I mentioned about people who could feel horse riders by putting their ear to the ground also proves this. There are traits which are lost over time entirely from the human race. Because in the past there was a demand for those traits and they existed. But now it is a completely different era and different traits are necessary. Currently, a new generation of humans related to artificial intelligence is emerging. The characteristics of past generations will probably seem very exotic to future ones.”
Therapist Gunay Latifova told Medianews.az that she agrees with the opinion that fruits and vegetables no longer have taste and flavor: “Of course, as people age, their taste receptors also deteriorate. But so many foreign substances and fertilizers are used on fruits and vegetables that there is almost nothing like taste left in them.
The weakening of receptors, the loss of a person's own taste in the mouth, plus the excessive addition of foreign substances to foods have almost deprived people of the pleasure of taste and flavor. Foods, including fruits and vegetables, have lost their naturalness. Therefore, many of them can be considered artificial. Artificial food cannot provide the true taste.”
Naila Gasimova,
Medianews.az