Almost a year ago a friend and I were having a conversation about how fruit tasted when we were young. In this discussion we were making a comparison of the taste, size and color of the fruit that we remember from growing up. We came to the conclusion that while the fruits are bigger and the colors brighter, the taste isn’t as delightful as they were in the past. Nowadays, it has become more difficult to find fruits that are naturally sweet and rich in nutrients. Just recently I went to the grocery store to grab some fruit, but was disappointed in the taste. The mangos were not sweet, apples too soft and the oranges dry. I decided to test the quality of the nutrients in the oranges and the results were shocking. They scored D!

I came up with this information by using an instrument that a friend of mine located during our search for answers on how to measure the nutrients in produce. I used two things, the Brix chart and an instrument called the “Refractometer” .What is the Brix? It is the measure of the richness of the juice of fresh raw produce and the Refractometer is the tool used to get your reading. If you want to learn more about the Brix and Refractometer, checkout this website:highbrixgardens.com

To test the orange I used the following procedure:

1. Cut the orange in half.
2. Extracted the juice from one half of the orange into a clean glass
3. Cleaned the Daylight plate and main prism of the Refractometer
4. Let the Daylight plate and main prism air dry for 30 seconds
5. Looked directly through the Refractometer in the direction of the light source to focus the eyepiece and clearly see the graduations
6. Used my dropper to extract orange juice from the glass
7. Dropped about two drops of juice in to the main prism, close the daylight plate and checked the reading.
8. Referred to Brix Chart to check score

The Orange scored a 6 which is Poor (letter grade D), according to the Brix chart (Excellent score 20, Good 16 and Average 10). Why this is important?

Well as you know the body needs nutrients to perform its functions properly. Likewise the best way to get nutrients is from the foods we eat. So when I spend my hard earned money on produce I expect to get nutrients from them. The test brings up a number of questions…. Could it be that all of the produce in the grocery stores are low grade produce? Are the produce at the farmers markets more nutrient dense? I will continue to look into this topic and let you know the results…until then….to be continued.
P.S. If you are interested in this, I would recommend getting yourself a Refractometer to test your produce. I am sure you will see the benefits in knowing what grades of nutrients are in your food. It’s best to look into it yourself, don’t just take my word for it.