By: Evelyn H.
I remember as a little kid, I loved bananas. I would eat them as a snack whenever I could. But I would always refuse to eat those little bruises on the bananas. In my mind, it was the most disgusting thing ever; I was convinced that the banana was rotting, and that eating the bruise would mean eating a nasty banana. So I would always cut off that chunk of the banana and throw it away.
Now, of course you would expect this behavior of a little five-year-old kid. But the truth is, Americans waste nearly a pound of food per person, daily. In fact, a study in 2018 showed that 39 percent of the 150,000 tons of food wasted in America per day was composed of fruits and vegetables! Considering the fact that some 795 million people in the world are malnourished, this is a big problem. It has been discovered that wasted food is more common in households or establishments with higher-quality menus; something that those of us in America sometimes take for granted.
I admit that I sometimes look down at my plate of greens and think, “Yuck,” because what I’m eating looks like a droopy, soggy, half-shredded piece of broccoli. I’ll end up picking at my vegetables and nibbling at them a little, but then I just dump them into the trash bin as soon as dinner is over. This is because I, like many of kids my age, am stubborn. But this is something that needs to change. Our generation is full of people in this mindset of, “If the fruit/vegetable is not pretty, then it’ll taste awful.” But really, this is the same close-minded thought process as five-year-olds not eating bruised bananas. For example, later on, I realized that strange-looking vegetable is called broccolini, and it doesn’t taste half bad!
There is one fruit that comes to mind as a fantastic example of how awesome “ugly” fruits and veggies are. It’s a type of tomato (hence the previously stated “vegetable-fruit”) that you’ve probably seen at a grocery store before. It’s called an heirloom tomato. If you’ve never seen one, look it up! They look like mutated tomatoes, and sometimes they have warts. That sounds totally disgusting, right? Well, heirloom tomatoes are actually more expensive than regular tomatoes! They have a very wonderful flavor, and make regular tomatoes taste kind of watery and plain. Who knew that such a weird-looking tomato could be so delicious?
So, in conclusion, fruits and vegetables won’t always look perfect, but that’s no reason not to eat them. They can taste awesome despite what they look like! So, next time you don’t want to eat a nasty-looking veggie or fruit, just remember: it has the potential to be the best thing you’ve ever tasted.
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