Guest guest Posted November 26, 2002 Report Share Posted November 26, 2002 I found this information at the living-foods bulletin board. It was posted some time ago, and I don't have any point of reference that would indicate whether the author knew what s/he was talking about, but it seems authoritative enough and makes sense. Maybe those on this list who know more about Brix could tell us. I thought it was interesting, so I'm passing it along... " A refractometer does not measure the quality of food directly. What it does is measure the dissolved solids by measuring the change in how light passing through the liquid is refracted. Dissolved solids in our food are usually about 50% sugars. That's why higher brix readings taste sweeter. Carey Reams made a table of refractometer readings for various fruits and vegetables. He gave ratings for poor, average, good and excellent. The modern hybrid does not fit in to the tables he made. A hybrid is generally created to increase the sugar content while other nutritional values actually go down (so a crop can be produced in low fertility soil). Thus, you can't compare the refractometer reading of open pollinated corn with a super sweet hybrid. The hybrid may have a higher reading but be of lower nutritional value. I grow open pollinated cherry tomatoes (peace vine) that read from 9 to 11 with the occasional 12. Most store bought organic cherry tomatoes I buy read around 5. The poorest I ever measured was a store bought organic that read 3.5. The highest store bought are around 6 to 8. To be fair, any comparison with a refractometer should be made with the same species of fruit or vegetable. The higher reading will normally be the more nutritious. Seeing which crop an animal chooses is a much better guide to nutrition and soil fertility. I maintain the refractometer is nothing more than a guide to help us determine relative nutritional values. It is certainly not the whole story on nutrition, but it is a help. For instance, if you have the same variety of grape, say concord, from 2 different locations with brix readings of 10 and 18, I think you can be assured the reading of 18 indicates sweeter taste and a higher nutritional value. I don't think if one reads 17 and one reads 18 there is any real difference since grapes from both locations would have a range of brix values. " Nora Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 26, 2002 Report Share Posted November 26, 2002 Nora, It's pretty much the same thing Norm and I have learned. Right, Norm? The hand refractometer is a very simple construction. It's just a prism with calibration. The refractometer shows the percentage of soluble solids in the juice. We don't know what kind of solids they are but the demarcation line on the screen can give us a hint. A less-than-sharp demarcation line (blurry/fuzzy/diffused) on the screen is an indication of varied distribrtion--i.e., an excellent mixture of minerals. A sharp demarcation is an indication of INCREASED simple sugar and LESSER high-quality protein (and other life-enhancing substances) at any given brix level. Unfortunately most of the food I tested showed a sharp line on the screen. I did come across some fuzzy lines: the Frog Hollow peaches and nectarines (14, 14.5 fuzzy) black mission figs from WF (23 f), Persimmon (24 f), Lambert cherries from Lazey's farm (21f) and raspberries I picked during summer (10f) We only have reference for regular tomatoes on Reams chart. On David Pelly's chart shows reference for both cherry tomato and regular tomato and cherry tomatoes are expected to be a lot higher than the big ones. I checked some at the tomato tasting at U-district farmers' market. They were all around 5 and 6, average according to Ream's chart. Helen - " Nora Lenz " <nlenz <RawSeattle > Monday, November 25, 2002 9:20 PM Re: [RawSeattle] Info on Brix I found this information at the living-foods bulletin board. It was posted some time ago, and I don't have any point of reference that would indicate whether the author knew what s/he was talking about, but it seems authoritative enough and makes sense. Maybe those on this list who know more about Brix could tell us. I thought it was interesting, so I'm passing it along... " A refractometer does not measure the quality of food directly. What it does is measure the dissolved solids by measuring the change in how light passing through the liquid is refracted. Dissolved solids in our food are usually about 50% sugars. That's why higher brix readings taste sweeter. Carey Reams made a table of refractometer readings for various fruits and vegetables. He gave ratings for poor, average, good and excellent. The modern hybrid does not fit in to the tables he made. A hybrid is generally created to increase the sugar content while other nutritional values actually go down (so a crop can be produced in low fertility soil). Thus, you can't compare the refractometer reading of open pollinated corn with a super sweet hybrid. The hybrid may have a higher reading but be of lower nutritional value. I grow open pollinated cherry tomatoes (peace vine) that read from 9 to 11 with the occasional 12. Most store bought organic cherry tomatoes I buy read around 5. The poorest I ever measured was a store bought organic that read 3.5. The highest store bought are around 6 to 8. To be fair, any comparison with a refractometer should be made with the same species of fruit or vegetable. The higher reading will normally be the more nutritious. Seeing which crop an animal chooses is a much better guide to nutrition and soil fertility. I maintain the refractometer is nothing more than a guide to help us determine relative nutritional values. It is certainly not the whole story on nutrition, but it is a help. For instance, if you have the same variety of grape, say concord, from 2 different locations with brix readings of 10 and 18, I think you can be assured the reading of 18 indicates sweeter taste and a higher nutritional value. I don't think if one reads 17 and one reads 18 there is any real difference since grapes from both locations would have a range of brix values. " Nora Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 26, 2002 Report Share Posted November 26, 2002 So fuzzy is good. Interesting! Thanks for sharing your knowledge! Nora Helen wrote: > Nora, > > It's pretty much the same thing Norm and I have learned. Right, Norm? The > hand refractometer is a very simple construction. It's just a prism with > calibration. The refractometer shows the percentage of soluble solids in the > juice. We don't know what kind of solids they are but the demarcation line > on the screen can give us a hint. > > A less-than-sharp demarcation line (blurry/fuzzy/diffused) on the screen is > an indication of varied distribrtion--i.e., an excellent mixture of > minerals. A sharp demarcation is an indication of INCREASED simple sugar and > LESSER high-quality protein (and other life-enhancing substances) at any > given brix level. > > Unfortunately most of the food I tested showed a sharp line on the screen. I > did come across some fuzzy lines: the Frog Hollow peaches and nectarines > (14, 14.5 fuzzy) black mission figs from WF (23 f), Persimmon (24 f), > Lambert cherries from Lazey's farm (21f) and raspberries I picked during > summer (10f) > > We only have reference for regular tomatoes on Reams chart. On David Pelly's > chart shows reference for both cherry tomato and regular tomato and cherry > tomatoes are expected to be a lot higher than the big ones. I checked some > at the tomato tasting at U-district farmers' market. They were all around 5 > and 6, average according to Ream's chart. > > Helen > - > " Nora Lenz " <nlenz > <RawSeattle > > Monday, November 25, 2002 9:20 PM > Re: [RawSeattle] Info on Brix > > I found this information at the living-foods bulletin board. It was posted > some time ago, and I don't have any point of reference that would indicate > whether the author knew what s/he was talking about, but it seems > authoritative enough and makes sense. Maybe those on this list who know > more > about Brix could tell us. I thought it was interesting, so I'm passing it > along... > > " A refractometer does not measure the quality of food directly. What it does > is measure the dissolved solids by measuring the change in how light passing > through the liquid is refracted. Dissolved solids in our food are usually > about 50% sugars. That's why higher brix readings taste sweeter. Carey Reams > made a table of refractometer readings for various fruits and vegetables. He > gave ratings for poor, average, good and excellent. The modern hybrid does > not fit in to the tables he made. A hybrid is generally created to increase > the sugar content while other nutritional values actually go down (so a crop > can be produced in low fertility soil). Thus, you can't compare the > refractometer reading of open pollinated corn with a super sweet hybrid. The > hybrid may have a higher reading but be of lower nutritional value. I grow > open pollinated cherry tomatoes (peace vine) that read from 9 to 11 with the > occasional 12. Most store bought organic cherry tomatoes I buy read around > 5. > The poorest I ever measured was a store bought organic that read 3.5. The > highest store bought are around 6 to 8. To be fair, any comparison with a > refractometer should be made with the same species of fruit or vegetable. > The > higher reading will normally be the more nutritious. Seeing which crop an > animal chooses is a much better guide to nutrition and soil fertility. I > maintain the refractometer is nothing more than a guide to help us determine > relative nutritional values. It is certainly not the whole story on > nutrition, but it is a help. For instance, if you have the same variety of > grape, say concord, from 2 different locations with brix readings of 10 and > 18, I think you can be assured the reading of 18 indicates sweeter taste and > a higher nutritional value. I don't think if one reads 17 and one reads 18 > there is any real difference since grapes from both locations would have a > range of brix values. " > > Nora > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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