I lived in a bubble of a world controlled by my father. All I knew was he did not believe in wasting money on certain foods such as soda, cookies, and the one thing that is always wet, juicy, and sweet…the Watermelon.
Every summer since childhood, I had months of envy watching other children eat from the large green with black stripes and red interior fruit.
They would sit on the curb and put their mouths on large slices of the watermelon and spit something out.
One day, I slinked away from the home base and got close to such dangerous and out-of-control adolescents (according to the hawk eyes of my grandmother).
“What is that you are spitting after you take a bite of the watermelon?” I asked naively.
“Oh, that is the black seed. You see, if you swallow one, you’ll get pregnant,” was the answer.
“Just one?”
The heads of the children bobbed up and down affirming the consumption of one single black seed would cause a person to become pregnant.
Yes, the evil black seed. That must be the reason why my father did not buy them. He did not want me to get pregnant!
Hey, when a kid is only five, they have no idea boys can’t bear children, especially at that youthful age.
Today, I guess some men have claimed equal rights to being pregnant. I will not discuss that issue any further, for my goal is not to insult any beliefs.
Now, as a free-thinking adult, I will wander into a grocery store and aimlessly look around for the forbidden fruit, the Watermelon.
One day, I discovered the Seedless Watermelon.
The first thought in my mind was the tale of pregnancy. Naw. None of my young friends were pregnant even if they did swallow one, especially the boys.
Of course, with my mind being as it has morphed into over the past sixty-plus years, I had to dig deeper into why this type of watermelon existed.
I looked around the produce section and saw my answer. There was the segregation of Organic and Non-Organic produce.
I realized we are in the era of Genetically Modified Foods. I thought, the produce section has large signs but what about all the other foods throughout the store? Are they all segregated? What about the ingredients inside which make up the whole being?
The Seedless Watermelon offered the same sweet, juicy taste, with less work. It reminds me of the new shoes you can slip into without tying the laces. (Such a hassle to tie laces. Isn’t it worth paying the extra dollars to not tie?)
The action of eating and spitting was no longer valid. Now, a person can eat and swallow.
I have to give some positive credit to the creators of the modified melon, for it does accomplish a very important fact… one of which would have given my father reason to buy one for us.
You get more melon for the money.
Think of it, the seed (no matter what color it is) takes up space. How many seeds were in a pre-modified watermelon?
Did a group of scientists receive taxpayer federal funding to sit and count the seeds in thousands of watermelons? This is not a ludicrous question. After all, our government is the most irresponsible spendthrift of our money which thinks is unaccountable.
These seedless wonders do much more than save space. They save the environment from landfills full of useless seeds.
Oh, did I write useless? My mistake.
That little black seed has vitamins, zinc, magnesium, potassium, and some calcium… essential vitamins to our health. To the government and businesses for profit, they are very important to eliminate from our diet.
I continue my shopping experience to discover yet another amazing product.
Pre-cut packaged rindless watermelon. Seedless of course.
How clever of stores to prepare food so we don’t even have to cut it. We pay more for that convenience though.
As I said earlier, my mind has turned into somewhat of a non-believer of whatever I am told.
That ugly green outer skin with black stripes? Is it trash? To a lot of people, it is, but guess what?
The outer layer contains low levels of calories, but high concentrations of vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin B6, potassium, and zinc, among others. Watermelon rind is also nutrient-dense with chlorophyll, citrulline, lycopene, amino acids, and flavonoids and phenolic compounds.
Hmmm, more essential vitamins for our body. They must go!
A lot of shoppers think they are getting a great deal with the Seedless Watermelon, but are they really? While this article may have strayed a bit from the topic of the Seedless Watermelon and its benefits in reducing possible pregnancy, it does lead into the question of why are we paying anything for healthcare?
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