There are several fruits that we love to enjoy not only because of their awesome flavor but their health benefits too. But while you take such fruits for granted, have you given it a second thought where they originated?
Bananas to juicy mangoes, thirst quenching watermelons to apples, many crops and veggies were consumed and grown in an entire different way by our ancestors. But now gene tampering is a regular feature in such practices proving how early fruits and vegetables were different than today.
So the next time you dig your teeth into that lovely red apple or devour the sweet pulp of a water melon, just remember that fruits and vegetables were different in taste and appearance than they do today. Foods such as bananas and eggplant are genetically modified to carry fewer seeds and tastier flesh. Various fruits and veggies undergo the same. Moreover selective breeding means a farmer selects and focuses on crops that have related consumer preferences.
Bananas once had harder seeds and there were more of them than you get in the banana of today. Wild watermelon too, had innumerous seeds. The first bananas might have been cultivated 7000 years ago even 10.000 years ago in Papa and New Guinea. They also grew in Southeast Asia which came from the wild Musa acuminate and Musa Balbisiana. They looked like this.
Image Source: www.sciencealert.com
Today, several plants have evolved to meet the requirements of human intervention making them drastically different from their earlier counterparts at a time when Paleolithic man consumed them.
Watch the intriguing video that highlights this incredible change where fruits and vegetables were different at one time.