Original subtitles

[Zooey] You know what's awesome about today's food label?

Information.

We have so much data,

and it's right there so you can make informed decisions about everything.

Well, not everything.

What are we supposed to do about fruit?

It's arguable the most beautiful part of the grocery store,

but it's also the section that elicits the most questions

and the least information.

We find ourselves wondering,

"Is organic actually worth it?"

"How long 'till my fruit goes bad?"

"Should I buy fruit from overseas?"

"Are the nutritional differences between fresh, canned, and frozen?"

I know, it's a daunting grocery list,

but when we're done, we'll be able to navigate

the produce section without a map

One of the biggest conundrums at the store

is whether or not to buy organic,

especially when it's almost always more expensive.

And since the price of fresh fruit has gone up 10%

in the last year alone,

it really does beg the question,

"Is organic worth the money?"

I sent my friend, Dariany Santana,

to Harry's Berries in Oxnard, California, to find out.

You guys are fully organic?

Yes, we are. Want to tell her about it?

We started using organic practices

in about 1998.

We got certified organic in 2013.

For many years, we grew without using pesticides,

using organic fertilizers.

We've been that way for almost ten years now.

-Look at this field. -[Molly laughs]

-This is a strawberry field. -[Dariany] Strawberry fields forever!

[Zooey] To be a certified organic,

a farmer must deal with weeds, diseases, and insects,

without using synthetic pesticides or fertilizer

and they need to pass inspection every year.

Long term exposure to pesticides,

which most conventional farms use,

can contribute to a wide variety of ailments

ranging from asthma and depression

to Parkinson's and cancer.

Not only do I smell strawberries, but...

There's so many beautiful flowers.

Oh, there's a ladybug!

-[Dariany laughs] -[Kristopher] Yeah, that's why we have them.

These flowers are what we call a beneficial insect habitat.

The good bugs, essentially,

are attracted to these types of flowers.

What it's doing to the poor little aphids is not great,

-[Dariany] Oh. -[Kristopher] But it works out better for...

-The strawberry. -The strawberry plant.

-[Dariany] These bugs are working. -[Molly] They really are.

[Kristopher] We have like half a million

extra employees out there.

[Dariany] You know, I just started gardening two weeks ago,

which is the bug I should be looking at?

For your home garden, if you've got aphids,

-ladybugs are the most common used. -[Kristopher] Ladybugs.

[Molly] And they will eat them.

[Kristopher] They really help. Yeah.

There are some fruits they say that you must have organic,

do you feel like strawberries fall under that category?

Definitely. Yeah.

Strawberries are essentially little sponges.

Anything you're gonna apply to them,

it's just gonna get soaked up in the pores.

So, yeah, you definitely wanna eat organic strawberries.

-[Dariany] You do it, yeah. -[Kristopher] Put your thumb there.

[Dariany] Put your thumb here.

There, you did it! First try.

Take a bite.

-I don't even have to wash it? -Nope.

It is a wonderful thing to eat a berry

straight out of the field, warm in the sun.

They just have the most flavor that I've ever had in a strawberry.

They're so juicy, so sweet.

We have old people tell us that's how they tasted like when they were children

before all the flavor was bred out of them.

It sounds so crazy.

To take out the flavor. Why else are they here?

It's about profitability, and you need to have

something that's gonna last longer.

I say like two generations of Americans

have never tasted what a real strawberry should taste like.

[Dariany] So as a future strawberry grower,

what's like the number one tip you would tell me

to grow beautiful strawberries?

-Let us do it for you. -Okay, great.

-Thank you. -[Molly laughs]

That is the confidence I needed.

-Thank you so much. -[others laugh]

Organic strawberries? Worth it.

But does that advice apply to all fruit?

Or are there some non-organic options out there

that can help us save a few bucks?

Browsing the produce aisle

is a lot like being a judge in one of those prestigious dog shows.

I mean, just because a mini schnauzer

crushes the showmanship competition,

doesn't mean he's a shoe-in for the obedience round.

The same goes for picking a perfect piece of fruit.

Especially if you're choosing between organic

and non-organic options.

Take avocados, for example.

Let's put one of America's favorite fruits to the test.

First up, health and safety.

Now the judges can assume

that organic avo is gonna crush the competition.

I mean, it was grown in soil,

on a tree untouched by prohibited substances

for three years.

Talk about pedigree.

But this round's not over yet.

A 2022 study

of 46 non-organic produce items

by the Environmental Working Group,

found that avocados carried the lowest levels of pesticides,

and that's thanks to its thick protective peel.

By the way, you can apply this same logic when you're shopping for other fruits

with thick skins and peels, like cantaloupe,

pineapple, papaya, and mango.

For these types of fruit, their thick skins means buying organic

isn't really making you that much safer.

However, if you're concerned about exposure to pesticides,

you may want to consider going organic

for fruits like strawberries,

which the Environmental Working Group

found to have a higher rate of pesticide residue.

So let's call this round a tie.

Now onto price.

From working moms to starving college bros,

everyone has money on their mind.

And this round goes to non-organic. Easily.

Organic farmers have to spend a lot more money

to produce their products.

Those costs are passed along to you, the consumer.

And now, the final round.

One that the true connoisseurs follow closely.

Environmental impact.

The USDA standards for organic are intense.

Organic farmers are almost never allowed to use synthetic pesticides,

they're required to grow cover crops

which can protect the soil from erosion,

and they're not allowed to heavily till their soil

which helps it retain water more effectively.

Because we know organic farmers must meet these standards,

we give this round to them.

So who's the overall winner here?

Well, when it comes to choosing between

organic and non-organic fruit,

the answer is us, the informed consumer.

If the fruit has a thick skin or rind,

non-organic is cool, and you'll save some cash.

If it has a soft skin,

organic is better for our health and the environment.

So...

Just like the judges in a kennel club show

don't always pick the dog with the best pedigree,

you can't expect to pick the best produce for you

simply by relying on the label.

Juicing's a trend that's become big business in the last few years,

I like fresh juice just as much as the next girl,

but I do have some questions.

Is that fancy bottle of juice as packed

with nutrients as we think?

And is it worth the high price tag?

We sent Carlos Parisi

to meet with a licensed dietician to squeeze an answer

to that age-old totally new question:

To juice or not to juice?

Juicing has been like this fad that I know a lot of people have gotten into.

[Lauren] Very trendy at the moment.

-Yep. -Super trendy.

Eating fruits or vegetables in their whole form

is kind of our body's natural way of portion control.

I would say if somebody's having a difficult time

eating fruits and vegetable in their diet

and juicing is gonna get them fruits and vegetables

and the nutrients from those foods,

that would be a good way to start to get those nutrients.

When I'm picking out fruits and vegetables

for juices, I'm thinking of different colors,

because different colors means different antioxidants and different nutrients.

So what I like about these berries that we're looking at in particular,

is we've got seeds then those are gonna add a little bit of fiber.

[Zooey] Fruits like apples, bananas, strawberries, and raspberries

are a great source of fiber, which promotes weight loss,

helps lower cholesterol,

and even helps prevent diabetes and heart attacks.

Citrus is great, obviously, for vitamin C,

and then we are going to get sort of those orangey, yellow colors.

So that's going to add to that sort of rainbow that we're trying to create.

Press it to feel how it is.

-See how soft it is. -Yeah, I want it a little soft.

Like this is a good one.

It's like not super hard.

-And then that's it? -Yeah.

-We can go make juice? -[Lauren] We're going to make juice.

All right, cool, cool.

I think this first juice we'll make

is gonna be sort of like a summer fruits juice

So we're gonna go all fruits with this one

and leave the vegies out for now.

So if I don't have like one of these super fancy machines at home,

-what can I do? -You technically need a juicer.

'Cause this is using a cold spin system...

-[Carlos] Okay. -...to cold press the juice.

Let's give this juice a try.

Got it?

-Thank you. Mmm, smells good. Cheers. -Cheers.

-Whoa, that's sweet. -[Lauren] Yeah.

That's really sweet.

-It's got a lot of sweetness to it... -[Carlos exclaims]

-...'cause it's basically all fruit. -[Carlos] Oh, my God.

It hurts.

-It hurts to drink. -So sweet it hurts?

This is already sweet on its own

and then commercial juicers are probably going to add sugar as well

because sugar, salt and fat sell food.

We're gonna pull back on the fruit in this one,

it's gonna be a little less sweet,

but in a good way because that was painful to drink.

-[Carlos] All right. -[Lauren] So we've got about half fruit,

half vegetable in this one.

Oh, come one, get in there, kale.

That's the other thing about juicing.

So much of the vegetable or the fruit gets lost

because we're reducing the texture down.

We're losing a lot of the fibers.

And then we'll do half of a banana, please, sir.

I'm going to throw these kiwis in while you're doing that.

I'm just throwing them in whole because we're juicing.

We've got this half fruit, half vegetable juice.

So let's try this one.

-Texture's about the same. -Yeah.

But the flavor's so much less painful.

This is the original all fruit juice,

and then this is the half fruit half vegetable juice.

So 394 calories on this guy,

227 calories on this one.

So we've shaved off around 150 calories.

Ninety-nine grams of carbohydrates in the all fruit,

-50 grams of carbohydrates in this one. -[Carlos] Okay.

-So it cut that down in half. -Yeah.

But more importantly that has one has 71 grams of sugar

within those carbohydrates.

-And this one has 25 grams of sugar. -Oh, wow.

I have very few circumstances as a registered dietician

where I can recommend a juice over solid fruits and vegetables,

or solid foods, right?

-So the trend of juicing then? -Yeah.

-It's a fad? -Yeah, and that fad

arguing that juicing is a way to detoxify or cleanse the body.

Our bodies have our own detoxification and cleansing systems built in.

All you have to do to activate that

or to make sure it can do that

is to make sure it has everything that it needs.

-Makes sense. -That brings us to a smoothie.

-All right, well, let's make a smoothie then. -All right.

When I'm telling my patients how to build a smoothie,

I'm telling them they need protein, they need carbohydrates,

uh, they need healthy fat,

uh, and I always ask them to add vegetables in.

So we're using a lot of the same ingredients

that we used in our last juice.

For this particular protein powder that we're using,

it's just a plain protein powder.

So we can kind of like really get the flavors of the other ingredients.

For the healthy fat, but it also kind of doubles up a fiber ingredient too,

we're gonna do flax seed meal, we're not gonna do whole flax seed,

'cause that goes out the same way it comes in.

-[Carlos] Oh, yeah. -[Lauren] And you can see it pours a little bit thicker.

-So what do you think? -That's pretty good.

Flavor's nice, it's refreshing,

it's not too thick

So we've got fresh ingredients here...

-Yes. -...if I do canned or frozen,

is there something wrong with that, is that fine?

Canned is obviously going to sit there the longest.

I would say frozen's probably your next best bet to fresh.

Okay, so fresh.

Fresh, frozen, canned.

Now I have a really good smoothie for me to start my day with.

Awesome.

I have a confession to make.

Though I always aim to be a conscientious consumer,

there have been occasions

where I have bought fruit at the store

and it's gone bad before we could eat it.

There, I've said it. I've been a food waster and I feel terrible about it.

I know I'm not alone in this food faux pas

so I wanted to learn some ways to avoid

wasting any more of nature's candy.

To get some pointers on avoiding fruit waste,

and score some totally free produce in the process,

I'm meeting with two of my favorite fruit evangelists.

the duo behind fallenfruit.org.

Tell me how you got into this amazing project, Fallen Fruit.

We knew that there were a couple fruit trees in the neighborhood.

but we discovered there were over 100 fruit trees in five city blocks.

We mapped these fruit trees that sort of existed

in public space or hanging over the sidewalk

-in maybe someone else's yard. -[Zooey] Right.

And then sort of we were questioning like who has the right

to these fruit trees that are growing

right over the sidewalk.

You really don't need 300 pounds of plums

-all in the same week. -[Zooey] Yeah.

The truth is a mature fruit tree typically will make 200 to 500 pounds of fruit.

-[Zooey] That's a lot of pounds. -So, sharing that is,

is not just a nice thing to do, it's actually kind of remove the burden.

[Zooey] Harvesting fruit on public land rescues overlooked produce

that could otherwise go to waste,

And can help ease our guilty conscious for letting food go bad in our fridge.

Just check your local rules and regulations first.

You're gonna get 300 or 500 organic apples per tree.

-Maybe it becomes-- -Make apple sauce, you freeze some stuff,

-share it with your friends. -Make some jam.

Oh, I love some jam.

-You want to pick some fruit? -[Zooey] I do.

Are these mandarins?

-Bitter oranges. -They look delicious from here.

Heads up.

Fruit pickers are awesome.

This is amazing because it really came off the tree so easily.

Oh, wow, so it must be really ripe.

-Should we-- -[David] It might be a bitter orange. Let's find out.

[Zooey] Let's see. Wow, it's very easy to peel.

-Bitter orange-- -What is a bitter orange? I've never had one.

-It's so tart that it's actually not very tasty. -Care for a try?

-[Austin] But it makes great jam. -Okay.

-[Austin] Because of the tartness. -Try?

[Austin] Thank you.

Mmm-hmm.

-That is bitter. -Mmm.

-Mmm-hmm. -[laughs]

[Austin] That is is some intense flavor.

But, but we are gonna pick some of these

because they honestly make the best jam in the world.

[Zooey] It's almost as sour as a lemon.

But you know, it leaves a nice lingering flavor.

I bet you it would be great as a flavoring for lots of things.

[David] And you really can't buy bitter oranges

in the grocery stores, it's very hard to find.

-I know why. -[all laugh]

-We're gonna show you how to make some jam. -Okay, great.

-I'm excited. -I'll show you how we make jam.

I wanna know how you guys make jam.

One of the things that's exciting about jam

is you really don't have to follow a recipe.

What's important is that you follow ratios.

So what we're gonna do is just kinda measure out about four cups of fruit.

We're gonna start with the lemons.

-[Zooey] Okay. -We just want to cut off the white part.

Because when you cook the white part, it's called pith,

it has a tendency to get bitter.

[Austin] It's so easy to make this and give it to your friends.

And it's a way like fruit at a certain time

that maybe isn't around all year long.

Last a little bit longer.

Go ahead and dump all that fruit in here.

[Zooey] What's this here?

[Austin] That's the pectin.

Pectin is a natural product.

It's commercially made out of apples.

[Austin] It's a binder.

If we put that in with the raw fruit,

after it boils one time,

-then we put the sugar in. -[Zooey] Okay, okay.

While this boils, we can prepare some stuff to dehydrate.

-Amazing. That's exciting. -Okay, cool.

Why would you choose to do dehydration over making

jam or something else?

If you have extra fruit around the house and it might be going bad,

turning it into dehydrated fruit is a healthy snack

that doesn't rot, it doesn't go bad,

and you didn't add any preservatives or sugar.

And then the scraps you can put in the compost and it's all good.

We have a dehydrator right here.

-[Zooey] Yeah. -[David] And the way it's designed is so easy to use.

They're just stackable trays.

If you don't have a dehydrator, is there a way to dehydrate at home

without one of these?

There are guidelines for using just a conventional oven...

-Okay. -...and you put it on the lowest setting.

-You have leave the door cracked a little bit too. -[Zooey] Right. Okay.

Because you want the temperature to be low

and you want to have it have ventilation

-so it doesn't actually cook. -Right.

Typically this takes eight to 10 hours

-to dehydrate the fruits. -Right.

-So we brought some that we made... -Oh, amazing.

-...if you want to check it out. -Okay.

There's some apples here

-that are the same that we already cut. -[Zooey] Mmm, yum.

The great part about dried is it retains

-over 99% of it's nutritional value. -[Zooey] Mmm.

And it's like a really good way to snack on the go.

-Yeah. -Going out for a hike or whatever.

-Should we check on the jam? -Yep, let's do it.

So what we do is we seal it really fast and turn it upside down.

[Zooey] And what does that do?

The heat gets transferred to the lid

and it sterilizes and vacuum seals the jar automatically.

-Oh, so you don't need to like put it in the dishwasher? -[David] Exactly.

-Mmm, oh, my God. Mmm. -Oh, it's fantastic.

It's so good.

So now we have options to keep our fruit

and all its nutrients from going to waste,

which is important when you think of just

how much goes into getting fruit to our tables.

Whether it's from farms like Harry's Berries,

or from trees that could be thousands of miles away.

If you think flying sucks,

try being a piece of fruit.

Sure you have to deal with endless security lines,

screaming infants,

the lady who listens to her astrology podcast at full volume

in the seat to your left,

and the guy who uses both arm rests on the right.

But that's nothing compared to what our produce endures

on their frequent international journeys.

Since we ship so much fruit,

we can eat it pretty much any time of year,

if we live near a supermarket.

I mean, we can eat berries in December

which would seem like witchcraft to our great-grandparents.

but all this travel isn't always a pleasant experience for the fruit

which suffers some serious indignities before they reach our tastebuds.

The process starts early,

for example some farmers will choose to harvest

the most durable varieties of their fruits

rather than the most flavorful

to ensure that they survive the flight.

Then many are picked before they're truly ready

so they can ripen on their long journey.

Talk about a rude awakening.

Now if you thought going through a metal detector was bad,

try being a mango.

The USDA calls for them to be dunked in 115 degree water

before they're shipped

to prevent invasive fruit flies from taking the trip with them.

Once they make it on the flight,

fruits may be preserved

through something called controlled atmosphere technology.

This is a process where the levels of carbon dioxide,

oxygen, and nitrogen in the fruits container

are manipulated to slow the ripening process.

Each step in this process could prevent the development

of certain flavors we love,

or introduce others that we don't.

So even though we get the chance to eat them year round,

we're not really enjoying their fullest flavor.

The solution?

We need to remember the fruits that grow near to us

can be picked later and don't have to travel so far

and may just taste better for it.

There's no denying that having access to fruits

from all around the world has its benefits,

but for my tastebuds, nothing beats fresh and local.

So far we've learned

when and when not to spring for organic,

that fresh and frozen fruit smoothies can be more nutritious than juice,

dehydrated and jam are great ways to preserve,

and a lot of our fruit travels a really long way to get to our stores.

But what if you local store doesn't have fresh fruit?

More than 40 million Americans live in areas

where healthy nutritious food is hard to come by.

So how do you know if you live in a food desert?

And what can we all do about it?

To find out, Dariany Santana

is headed to Inglewood, California

where a group thinks they might have the answer.

Hello.

Hey, Dariany.

-[Dariany] How are you? -I'm great.

[Dariany] I love it in here. What's happening today?

Today we're super excited to show off our community,

-with a produce giveaway. -You're just gonna give away a bunch of free produce?

Yeah, we're gonna give free fruits

and vegetables to the community.

This is Dariany.

-[Nicole] Hi, Dariany. -[Dariany] Hi.

I'm Nicole, nice to meet you.

I'm so excited to hear more about this Social Justice

-Learning... -[both]... Institute.

We are helping to improve the education, health and well-being

of youth and communities of color.

It can be really difficult for people to get access to healthy food,

to have a safe place to like be outside with their family,

to access healthcare.

Just all those things that make it so you can live a long and healthy life.

It shouldn't be harder for me and my community to do that

than in other communities.

So, organizations like mine do the due diligence

of working with our community to educate them,

and to create access for them.

My name is Nicole

and today we are here at Hank's Mini Market, one of my favorite places.

We rescue food from the produce district.

This is food that restaurants and grocery stores

go down-town to pick up, but maybe somebody changed their menu,

or they were supposed to pick the peppers up last week,

but they didn't to them 'til this week,

so now they won't work for the store.

Whatever the case,

the produce is great, oftentimes organic.

We're able to grab it, bring it in to our community,

gather with wonderful folks like y'all,

-and give it to people for free. -[man] Thank you.

What does it mean to you to have a place like this

that you can get healthier foods and fresh vegies and fruit?

I feel that it's really great to have something like this for the community.

So we can eat much more healthier.

The urban community, we don't have a lot of access

to fresher fruits and vegetables

and sometimes I have to drive way further

to get fresh produce.

[woman] I share with my friends

'cause they don't have work.

You guys have no idea how tight it is right now.

I keep hearing the concept of a food desert.

Do you consider this neighborhood to be a food desert?

So, we call it a food swamp.

If you notice in this neighborhood, there's food.

Right, fast food, and pizza,

and more fast food, and more pizza.

They don't give people an easy way to get healthy foods,

but 40% of all the food grown in this country gets thrown in the trashcan.

-[Dariany] Yeah, like this is an "ugly" apple. -Right, exactly.

-Exactly. -No, all apples are beautiful.

Right, all apples matter.

So, we're able to go and grab that food,

bring it in to our community and give it to people for free.

We are working on legislation to make this accessible to everyone.

There's no reason why across the country, there can't be funding

to rescue food,

because waste happens everywhere.

And it's a win-win situation because, yeah, you're feeding the community,

-but you're not wasting food. -[Nicole] Exactly.

And, of course, while we would prefer organic

just because we that know nothing has been added to it,

or sprayed on it that can be harmful for people,

you're gonna get the same amount of nutrition

from a conventionally grown fruit or vegetable

as you would from an organic one.

Again, just wash 'em.

You know, a little bit dish soap, a little bit of white vinegar

to wash everything off and you're good to go.

-White vinegar is like the cure for everything. -Right?

Frozen fruits and vegetables are really, really healthy as well.

So I encourage people to use fresh and frozen,

and then if canned is the way to go too,

that's an option as well.

We just encourage people to rinse it, you know,

find things that are not in syrup, find things that are in water.

And then rinse them as best you can to get as many

preservatives and sodium off of them.

But get your fruits and vegetables.

Get it in how you can get it in. [laughs]

Now the produce section isn't so intimidating anymore, is it?

But there's one question we haven't answered yet.

How do we know the best way to get our fruit?

Fresh, canned, or frozen.

Now I know what you're thinking, "That Zooey,

she's gonna say fresh and local is always best."

In many cases, that's totally what I would say.

But I've got a little curveball for you.

The best way to consume fruit

may actually be frozen.

Why? Fresh fruit is often picked when it's not quite ripe.

So it can withstand the long journey to our table,

but frozen fruit is usually picked at peak ripeness.

So it develops more flavor and nutrition.

All of which are locked in immediately when it's frozen.

So if you're lucky enough to live where fruit grows,

then absolutely go fresh and local.

But if you're one of the million Americans who doesn't,

then frozen fruit may just be your new best friend.

Hey, you ever wish you could eat a yummy bowl of cereal

without feeling a little guilty about the sugar?

Me too. I may be able to help you out.

Next time.