I’m genuinely curious. Years ago, I was a chubby young pothead who lived on fast food. Taco Bell, McDonald’s, KFC, you name it—I ate it. Back in college, fast food probably made up at least 50% of my diet. And it wasn’t just because it was quick and cheap—I actually enjoyed it.
But these days, I find myself craving it less and less. Besides being more health-conscious, it just doesn’t hit the spot like it used to. It’s more expensive than ever, mostly bland, and I feel terrible after I eat it. So what’s changed? Is it just part of the enshitification of everything? Have I just gotten old, or has fast food really gone downhill?
The other day I ordered a burger and they put tomatoes on it even though I asked them not to. I was about to complain, but decided to take a bite anyway and…huh. The tomato had no flavour whatsoever. I used to not like the taste of tomatoes but how could I object to this?
So what does this mean? Are my taste buds not functioning like they used to? But I spent lunch looking it up and apparently, there is a fair consensus that tomatoes, along with a host of other fruits and vegetables, really are blander today than when I was a kid. For something I never liked, this kind of works out but…
My wife, a keen gardener of heirloom tomatoes, says it’s because the varieties that sell commercially are bred for long shelf-life and nothing else.
Ah that would certainly explain it.
My working theory had been that maybe they were being selected for size à la strawberries, which have grown almost comically huge in recent years. But it’s as though nature can only provide a set amount of flavour per fruit, and by growing it larger, it only gets diluted over a greater volume? But I haven’t been able to determine whether fast food tomatoes are behemoths since they are already cut up.
Not quite, but close! Molecular plant breeder here.
There is no set “limit” to flavour but it’s a complex trait that is easy to lose if you don’t select for it. If you breed for size, and don’t track taste, it’s very easy to leave the flavour-producing aspects unchanged, thus resulting in a “dilution”. Furthermore, you’re often actively selecting against flavour, indirectly and unintentionally, by selecting for shelf life - if something doesn’t ripen, it won’t over-ripen and spoil.
This is what has historically happened to a lot of produce but it doesn’t have to be the case - modern breeding lets us breed for flavour and nutrition too! Heirloom varieties can offer some reprieve, but for all their taste they tend to be quite unproductive and sickly (ofter “heirloom” means inbred and that does not produce very fit organisms).
Good news is, new varieties are being bred that have it all - yield, taste, and nutrition! It’s just hard to convince consumers and businesses to switch over to new varieties, as you don’t really buy according to the flavour, just the looks.
Greetings from the UK ;)
Thanks for such an in depth answer. Is there a good place to buy seeds for newer strains like this?
Hydroponic tomatos are cheap, big, and never have any flavor. Those are what most fastfood uses.
Denying the plant to have genetic variance causes issues you say!?!?
😆
Look into bananas if you wanna know why banana flavoring doesn’t taste like our current bananas
The fact that you don’t like tomatoes in of itself is proof that the problem is with your taste buds. Tomatoes are high glutamic acid (umami), and I’ve never heard of a person who didn’t like savory foods.
There’s a reason why MSG is making a comeback: because it tastes good (and because people are finally starting to figure out that its stigma is deeply-rooted in racism. It’s better for you than salt).
Just because people don’t like a certain food doesnt mean their taste buds have a problem. Liking food is all subjective, that’s what it means to be human
I’m only partially serious. Sorry, I have a weird sense of humor that doesn’t really work well in text. Just pretend that I’m smiling and playfully punching your upper arm when you read half my comments.
That said, Umami isn’t subjective, though. It’s one of the five basic tastes. So you have to admit that not liking a food that’s loaded in it is a bit odd.
Yes
Both?
Yes it has gotten worse and time is a relentless asshole.
It’s gotten worse. I don’t bother eating any of it because I make better food at home.
Brand names have gotten worse, that’s not you. Cost saving measures upon making sizes smaller while still raising prices. I swear, KFC mid-2000’s was amazing compared to the bland oily ones of today. That said, you probably have gotten desensitized to them in general as you grew older too.
Local fast food is still really good for me, but I’d just avoid major brands like Mcdonalds. They’ve become synonymous with trash food.
Cost cutting has made fast food restaurants worse in ways that aren’t essentially shrinkflation. Restaurants like Taco Bell cutting their beef with cheaper ingredients (though apparently it’s only 12% fillers). Chipotle giving you more of the cheap ingredients like rice, and less of the good stuff like guac. Even slower service and longer lines because they don’t want to pay as much staff during peak hours.
Smaller (especially privately-held) chains have been able to buck the trend, but cutting quality has been a popular option as of late.
The answer is probably “yes”
- Food is probably worse.
- Your taste buds might have changed.
- Your gut bacteria might be different.
I have a couple reasons for believing each.
- Nutrient concentration in food has decreased over time (Veritasium talked about a fascinating explanation for this) and the desire to find low cost alternatives like HFCS over cane sugar changes the taste of food.
- “Children prefer higher levels of sweet and are more sensitive to bitter tastes until adolescence.”
- Your gut microbiome literally changes over time.
The feeling bad part is aging.
Quality has absolutely gone down, though, while cost has gone way up.
I stopped eating fast food during covid and never got back into it.
The one time, post covid, I was out and stopped to eat, it was gross. But it’d been so long, I genuinely don’t know if it had always been gross and I lost my acclimation to it, or if it was actually more gross than it used to be.
Anecdotally, I’ve heard complaints online that the quality has gone down while the prices went up, so it probably has gotten worse.
Taco bell has turned to ass. Even their bean burrito tasted off and most of the menu items I see are crazy shit that doesn’t resemble anything in terms of Mexican food.
I worked in a “European” US bakery for a hot minute around 2012, and one of the things I remember most was them trying to find new providers with cheaper products. This lead to a difference in taste because obviously in this case the cheaper products are actually a sub-par product.
A big part of it has been the consolidation of the businesses who sell food to restaurants. They all pull from the same places, and so the variety has gone down and the filler gone up.
It’s not just fast food, it’s all restaurants that are suffering this plague.
I never did anything better than learning to cook at home. My home-made pizza tops any delivery, and I always get to eat it hot out of the oven.
My home-made pizza tops any delivery, and I always get to eat it hot out of the oven.
What state/country do you live in?
i freakin love fast food, and as soon as covid hit i had to start a ‘blacklist’ of places that have gotten so bad (chipotle/tacobell/bugerking), its just not even kind of worth it.
fiveguys is one of my favorites as it did not change in any way.
fiveguys is one of my favorites as it did not change in any way.
Besides that price haha
20 bucks you can get a proper burger at a pub
Yeah. But their fries go hard. Lmao.
They used to load up… We get two burgers and mid fry to split with partner. Last time they shorted me on the fries on 30 bucks order for two.
Haven’t been back since
Oh fuck. That’d give me pause too. Haven’t experienced a lack of fries yet. But for 2 burgers at 30 bucks. I’d expect enough for both of you lol
I think the taste and texture may have become noticeably worse after the ban on artificial trans fats. It definitely impacted some of the junk food I used to buy in the grocery store. (I’m not saying the ban was a bad thing, just that a lot of us noticed the change).
Whatever the cause, I have noticed it, too.
im in my 40s and feel the same as you. things like fast food dont hold the same appeal, just nostalgia wishing for the ‘old taste’
Depends on the company and where you live, I feel. Some has gotten worse, some has improved.
But they have all gotten more expensive. So goddamn expensive. These days I can order a well made, flame-grilled burger at a burger joint for the same price as fast food slop.
The only thing I’ll say there is that with burgers you can sometimes get out over your skis and take a tumble. A lot of sit-down places think some giant watery meatball is a good burger. While photogenic, it is not necessarily good, and a short-order smashed patty or (smashed patties) generally taste a lot better and are easier to eat.
The best burgers are almost certainly not fast food burgers, but the worst burgers aren’t either.
And about the same speed. Most places take call in orders too now so call ahead and it’s basically ready when you get there
Genuinely shocking to me how disgusting fast food places have gotten. But I’m also not sure if it’s just my perception
It super isn’t. Pizza is still alright in my experience, but everywhere that has fried chicken tastes significantly worse than it used to.
