In case you’re still a little wary of humans messing around with
food, I thought I’d show how some of your favorite fruits and
vegetables are actually the products of selective, targeted
breeding. What, you thought every non-explicitly hybridized
fruit and vegetable can trace a pure lineage back to the
Paleolithic? Ha! The stuff we enjoy, even the heirloom, dirt-
and-mud-encrusted ugly, but delicious, stuff we get from the
farmers’ market, is different from what Grok enjoyed. Plants
reproduce far more often than, say, humans, so evolution happens
faster. We’ve got a dog in the fight, too, and the means to
influence its outcome (hybridization, breeding, selection), so
changes happen even quicker. Almond fruits are drupes, and
delicious ones at that. Packed with magnesium, monounsaturated
fat, and full-spectrum vitamin E, a handful of almonds makes a
good snack – but it wasn’t always like that. Wild almonds
contain high levels of amygdalin, a potent glycoside that the
body metabolizes into hydrogen cyanide. An a