Fruits are getting sweeter. Is it a "sweet gift" or a "sweet crisis"? | Ronggeluoke

Fruits are getting sweeter and sweeter. Is this a "sweet gift" or a "sweet crisis"? Hello, I am Rong Ge from the China Science and Technology Museum. Welcome to Rong Ge's Science. Do you feel that fruits are getting sweeter and sweeter? When I was a child, fruits were not so "bold". Apples were a bit sour, watermelons were sweet and refreshing, and persimmons were even astringent. But now, the fruits sold in the market, especially the "Internet celebrity varieties" on social media, are only pursued for sweetness. So, how did fruits become so sweet? Do we have a better choice besides sweetness?

First of all, the sweetness of fruits is not mainly due to the gift of natural selection, but the result of science and technology. In the final analysis, it is human intervention, from genes to planting, every link is "sweetening". Scientists and fruit farmers will select "seed players" with high sweetness from thousands of fruits. These gifted and outstanding "sweet seeds" are selected and cultivated from generation to generation through breeding technology to produce a sweeter next generation. The Sunshine Rose grapes that everyone loves are absolutely sweet enough to make people fall in love with them at first bite, and its breeding process is the result of nearly 20 years of continuous efforts after carefully selecting "sweet genes".

In addition to breeding, agricultural technology is also constantly "sweetening", such as water and fertilizer management is more skillful and targeted, there is a trick called "water control to increase sweetness". During the period before the fruit matures, appropriately reduce the water supply to make the fruit a little "thirsty", and they will work harder to accumulate sugar. Water and fertilizer management can also be combined with light, temperature, and humidity. Greenhouse cultivation is a common application for us. In addition, it may also be combined with the application of some "plant hormones" to become a fruit growth accelerator and improve the quality of the fruit, of course including the accumulation of sugar.

Fruits are getting sweeter and sweeter. Is this our choice? Humans are born to love sweetness. Since ancient times, sweetness has been regarded by humans as a sign of high energy. In the era of food scarcity, sweetness means calories, which means survival. Therefore, even though food is now abundant, people's love for sweetness is still hidden deep in their genes. At the same time, our choices are also influenced by the market. Modern consumers not only love to eat sweet food, but also like to "test sweetness". In the promotion of social media and e-commerce, not only candy apples, rock sugar oranges, but even watermelons, merchants have to use "saccharimeter" to test them. If they are not sweet, they will not pay. If they want money, of course they want sweetness.

However, being sweet all the time will lose its original flavor. Sweetness is the main theme of fruits on the market now, and sour and astringent flavors are gradually relegated to the second line, which makes many old varieties lose the opportunity to show. In addition to the combination of sweet and sour, the aroma of fruits is also unique and makes people feel sweet, but this is not the sweetness brought by the sugar content. A typical example is strawberry, which smells sweet. Some varieties of strawberries taste sweet, which is more related to their own fragrance composition. This fragrance is actually the "fruity taste" that people miss. After all, human senses are a comprehensive system. Otherwise, we have to add imagination to say that color, fragrance and taste are all good. However, compared with the sweetening of fruits, which is mainly adjusted from the breeding of sucrose, fructose and glucose, the composition and proportion of the three sugars, sucrose, fructose and glucose, the control of aroma is much more difficult. There are more than 300 basic characteristic aromas of strawberries alone, so it is too challenging to cultivate fruits with more "fruity taste".

People have different tastes. Although adding sweetness caters to most market demands, there are also many people who like sweet and sour flavors and miss the taste of their childhood. A considerable proportion of people also need to control their sugar intake. Fortunately, modern breeding technology is developing in the direction of "diversification". The pursuit of diversity by scientists and consumers is not contradictory, but the priorities are different, and sometimes they are a little out of sync. For example, the tomatoes we talked about before have been improved to be big, round, red, and hard. They are good-looking, easy to transport, and not easy to spoil, but they are not very delicious.

In Rong Ge's opinion, "good fruit" will be redefined in the future. It should not be limited to "sweetness" but should have a variety of flavors. After all, having choices is the real freedom of fruit.