The Dorito Effect

“Have you ever wondered why those perfectly red tomatoes from the supermarket taste like tap water? And did a simple roast chicken always require half a pound of seasoning? It’s no illusion. The flavor of the food we eat is changing, and has been for more than half a century. Tomatoes, chicken, strawberries — everything we grow is bigger and cheaper, but blander than ever. At the same time, technology now lets us produce in the lab the very flavors that have been lost on the farm. And the result is that we have utterly transformed what, and how much, we eat.”

-introduction to The Dorito Effect authored by Mark Schatzker

Hopefully this grabbed your attention, for it certainly grabbed mine. I’ve been following Dr. Andrew Weil’s work for several years and for the past 2 years subscribed to his monthly newsletter.  Andrew Weil, MD is a western trained, Harvard educated physician who 40 years ago began approaching health and wellness through diet, exercise, and mindful practices which fused the best of Eastern and Western medicine. His recent article about author Mark Schatzker’s book The Dorito Effect intrigued me.

The term “the Dorito effect” refers to a flavor phenomenon that began in the 1960s and which many people believe has contributed to the trend toward obesity in America.  Author Mark Schatzker describes how Frito Lay invented its new corn chip and how it’s overly salted, heavy taco flavoring began a trend toward adding increased amounts of flavoring to our food.  According to his theory, over time our palettes became accustomed to foods that were overly salty and flavored, or indulgently sweet, making good, healthy food, seem bland.  He cited the example of tomatoes, which when home grown are both delicate and abundant with flavor, but which, after decades of genetic modification to make them tough enough to stand up to both mechanized agriculture without bruising, and being shipped hundreds of miles without spoiling, arrive at our grocery stores tough and watery.

His example really connected with me, as I’ll never forget the day (over 30 years ago) when I bit into a BLT made by my Mother-in-law with homegrown lettuce and tomato from her garden.  While my own Mother shopped in a small organic market close to our home  I had never tasted something so delicious.

Then this past summer, when exhibiting for the first time at the Fancy Food Show, which filled Javits Center in New York, I was amazed to see aisle after aisle jammed with companies exhibiting under the category of  “flavor.”  Now, thanks to Mark’s book, I know how these two experiences are connected, and I think it is worth our time to consider how “the Dorito effect” has impacted our diet, and what we may want to do as at least a partial antidote. 

So when Jane and I attended a workshop at the Chicago Botanic Garden about tomatoes I was excited to learn how each distinctive variety can impact a finished product almost like a fine wine or crafted chocolate. By starting with more flavorful food ingredients, and choosing the ones best suited for the dish we want to prepare, we can more easily bring to the dining room table a flavorful meal that doesn’t rely on artificial seasonings (we, obviously, have no issue with natural spices, but the more that the flavor comes from the food itself, the better). 

With all that in mind I asked Lisa Hilgenberg, manager/horticulturist of Chicago Botanic Garden’s Edible Garden to share a little insight into some tomatoes. Lisa’s shares her thoughts below.

“Eating well is eating food grown close to home. Fostering gardens allows us to grow unusual varieties that aren’t available at grocers. Homegrown varieties yield nutritious, high quality, better tasting tomatoes.

Plucked from a home garden or local farmer’s market, heirloom tomatoes are often linked with nostalgic stories of seeds being passed down through generations of gardeners. They are open pollinated by wind or insects or are self-pollinating. Heirloom tomatoes are true to seed, which means they reliably reproduce themselves year after year, often having been in cultivation for at least 50 years adapting to climate and soil conditions, as connoisseurs say, developing terroir. Seed savers know that when planted the following year heirloom seeds will produce plants with the same delicious characteristics as the parent plants. 

Hybrid varieties are plants that have been bred for specific traits such as disease resistance, early maturity or color. Hybrids typically grow uniformly in the garden, producing consistent crops but many believe them to be less flavorful than heirloom tomatoes.”

This month Jane will be exploring ingredient pairings from The Flavor Thesaurus so sit back, relax and look forward to a delicious start to your Fall.

Author’s note:  On a personal note I’ve started a 30 day whole food journey with my friend, Pam Gross, founder of The Bread and the Buddha – and feel FANTASTIC! I look forward to sharing my experience with all of you in the New Year!

Zen Special

In an effort to encourage all of you to pull out your slow cookers and enjoy the delicious fall flavors we are offering one of our Zen Specials. For every 2 blends you purchase we will add our Marinara Blend for free.  As a reminder, our premium spice blends feature non-irradiated spices.  All of our blends, with the exception of our Smoky BBQ blend which contains a minimal amount of smoked sea salt and light bright sugar, are sodium free. 

Zen Moment

“You are defined by your ingredients, by the way you touch them, by the flavors you draw from them.”

-Graham Elliot