WHAT'S REALLY IN YOUR FOOD? How to Use a BRIX Meter

[@NaturesAlwaysRight]

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[@walterlodzinski6847]

iPhone 15 without a meter in it. Fail haha. Key info. The government doesn’t want you to know what’s in the food or how healthy it is or isn’t 😜

[@julieheath6335]

Legendary agro-ecologist Nicole Masters uses a garlic press to extract liquid from leaves, etc. Brix measurements do vary with time in a given plant and are also sensitive to stresses, etc. They are great as a tool to see "hey, something changed". Also, to see if some type of foliar, etc will give the plant what it needs to ramp up its photosynthetic capacity. Since you've been flying blind until now, you should give yourself a pat on the back for the several "excellent" ratings. For those that aren't matching your expectations, you can try some different foliars (fish emulsions, milk, molasses, etc) and lose the refractometer to see if they improve your Brix. To those who say "this only measures sugar content": this is technically true, but misses the point that plants make sugars to feed the soil microbiome... then said microbiome brings back nutrients to the plant. Those nutrients improve plant health and... wait for it... plant nutrient content. So Brix directly correlates with nutrient availability.

[@stevehatcher7700]

Though there is a good correlation between sugar content and nutrients the Brix meter is reading mostly the sugars. This tool, as a proxy for measuring nutrients, would be far more useful on the not so sweet veggies, or just the leaves of the fruit plants or sweeter veggies.. Sweet veggies and most fruits, who's job it is pack on sugars during that last stage of ripening, are probably refracting 99.8% sugars. So the spike from 10 to 20 on ripening grapes during their last couple weeks has doubled the sugars but probably only increased nutrients/vitamins by mere fractions. But those micro-greens- a move from 4 to maybe 5 or 6 is probably a massive increase in nutrients and not quite so much sugars, since they're not in a sugar production and storage stage of their life. Winemakers and brewers use this tool specifically to measure sugar levels to get an idea of potential alcohol they can expect once the yeasts convert those sugars to booze. That all said, after seeing this video, I'm buying a refractometer to test leaves on my tomato and pepper plants!!! The electrospctrometers that will be coming as an attachment to our smartphones are still a few years off. They will/should give us measurements of actual nutrients - % iron, magnesium, potassium, boron, zinc, nitrogen, etc, etc. My understanding is that is the tool the Bionutrient Association is working on. It'll be a game changer for the AG industry.

[@davemi00]

Steve Hatcher - but the cloudier the fluid the presumed More nutrients there are.

[@davemi00]

Dude has 3 staches

[@bambi3886]

Where can i read more on this

[@glendonrhoades4716]

If your produce are collecting sugars well, they are very likely to be collecting nutrients well. For a more detailed breakdown of nutrients, a plant sample would need to be analyzed. This is a good "hip pocket" tool for getting more information from your produce, though.

[@gcoates7]

can you provide evidence to support that "there is good correlation between sugar content and nutrients"

[@elijahwu4168]

It would be interesting if you did a comparison of your produce and the average supermarket's

[@NaturesAlwaysRight]

Ooo love that idea for a video, thanks Elijah.

[@GoalOrientedLifting]

It would be cool, but doubt there would be any major difference, as major nutrient deficiency is easily noticeable on vegetables and fruit. But I could be wrong

[@ramonnieves1951]

@@GoalOrientedLifting hey I'm new to this world, but very interested, and your comment caught my attention. How can you tell if a major nutrient deficiency is on a vegetable or fruit like you stated? I don't know and trying to learn.

[@laualee1]

Wow I really appreciate your video! I put in search for food grown by Brix growing method. .. and this came up. I am studying RBTI and my textbook contains your first chart. Dr Reams discovered a formula for transforming soil and later discovered his calculation could be used for human health as well. THANK YOU for being first to instruct me on using my meter for the purpose of checking how nutrient dense my food is! I love it!

[@jacklegminercanada3866]

I'm 2 years on my no-till beds, definitely going to check this out!!

[@anti-popfpv4638]

Partial till has been proven to be more beneficial. If you are interested in more information on the topic and in depth on Brix, i found this new lecture Very helpful. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJ-xgKl3aMmcerc

[@Jerry-rf8bn]

Thank you. I just added that Brix meter to my Amazon shopping cart.

[@nancymweasel6561]

Excellent soil and a great job of raising foods

[@johnandleighs.9193]

Hi Stephen enjoy the video . Another way to use the refractometer meter is to check the effectiveness of foliar sprays on your crops by checking foliage before and 1 hour and 2 hours after application. Your Brix readings should go up if not you're not getting the effectiveness that you need from your sprays. All of your sprays should be applied at half rate using very clean water such as rain distilled or reverse osmosis water.

[@PermaPen]

Thank you so much for walking us through that! I'll be buying a Brix meter very soon to see if I can predict whether seedlings will be attacked by slugs and other pests by testing their leaves' sugar levels (I've noticed slugs won't eat some seedlings even if they've slimed all over them but will eat their neighbours). Re your tomatoes - I would expect some varieties to be less sweet because...they're less-sweet varieties.

[@anti-popfpv4638]

If you have time. This explains why certain pest only attack leavs with a defined low sugar level. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJ-xgKl3aMmcerc

[@johnandleighs.9193]

Hey Stephen was just wondering about your Tennessee trip if you're still planning to go. One good source of information would be to call the County extension services for whatever County you're interested in and ask for the contacts name and numbers for the Farmers Market managers IN that area. They usually Supply a list of local markets and the contact people that way you can question them individually for each area . I hope this.

[@TheOratane]

great video man, thanks! epic garden

[@nickp.2432]

This is my favorite tip to share with people who don't know. That produce sitting on the shelves in the regular supermarket are not nutritional! Get one for yourself and don't take my opinion. Great video, great information..

[@davemi00]

Measuring throughout the day can be Very Interesting. Since Sunlight gradually increases Plant Sugars.

[@argentosebastian]

Piece of advice. I bought a refractometer a few days ago and made a mistake and had to return it. There are 3 different types of optical refractometer and is important to know what you are planning to measure. The one in this video goes from 0 to 30 brix and seems to work fine for veggies and fruits. If you are planning to measure for example honey, mustard, soy sauce and stuff like that, you need a "full range" refractometer and the scale goes from 0 to 80/90 brix. BTW, my urine is 5 brix 😁 and wish you luck you don't buy the one I returned

[@ChefMikie]

had a 0-30 in my amazon cart and then saw your comment, thanks for posting this

[@skidwarfarebo2171]

Hey the normal brix of urine should be 1.2-2.0 it’s possible you might have diabetes just looking out :)

[@moonsharn]

Brix is testing sucrose, micro greens and cucumber are supposed to be low in sucrose. You’re doing great 👍

[@purplethumb5585]

Do know the most beneficial brix range for hemp(cannabis)

[@Sunny-it6or]

I live this. Also your brows are on point.

[@alyamacdonald5618]

This is super cool! I wonder how much the levels would change depending on how quickly you test the produce after picking it.

[@bigbuddhabelly]

You’re the best! I’m trying to learn how to do all of this. Nutrient dense foods!! Soil cultivation! Subscribed and looking forward to learning more from your trekked path!

[@lindasoaft9303]

Excellent information! Thank you.

[@kicknadeadcat]

Could you explain how I can measure leafy vegetables for brix count? It's opaque and the meter will not read it

[@fluterampal]

Hello, do you have a small study as to the effects of picking fruits ahead of its time? Doesn't it still mature properly even if away from the tree?

[@David-kd5mf]

I think a garlic press would yeild better juice for refractometer

[@heyitsagoodlife]

No way! This is rad. Thanks!

[@amberamodei484]

I love your lessions...but I really...really...really need help and your guidance on pest control.

[@p0c0q25]

Where is the link to printout... couldnt find it in description?

[@RealFoodComesDirty]

Very interesting! Thank you!

[@Menji_x]

So for the lower numbered veggies what can you do to increase the score? Would changing the soil levels help I wonder.

[@NaturesAlwaysRight]

Healthier soil, so more healthy fungal and microbial life, more minerals in balance. Adding more compost, worm castings, rock dust, compost/worm teas with help all those things.

[@Menji_x]

Nature's Always Right that’s good! At least there’s a solution!

[@joebrian5580]

Check out phosphorus plus zero

[@doughunter3967]

measures sucrose...God bless...doug

[@MyStarPeopleExperiences]

Doubt this would be useful for cannabis. Anyone had success with this meter for bud?

[@lataguhilot1949]

vere good info Thanks

[@richstone2627]

Good stuff mang. Thanks

[@anti-popfpv4638]

I believe you need to be testing the leaves and not the actual fruit to determine what the sugar levels of the plant are. Maybe you're doing something else idk.

[@bllplayer87]

Just bought one too! But accidentally bought the salinity one first 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@NaturesAlwaysRight]

Oh woops haha ya it's confusing. Hope you enjoy using it!

[@ppacal1098]

Dude put a link to the product in comments

[@stanleychavez9679]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Some labs say that you cant grow high Brix food organicly. If you know of a lab that does teach the organic way to do it please share the name and phone number. Have a great day.

[@RyanL41K]

So according to this thing the more you dry out your food the more nutrients they have?!? great grapes are a 20, but great raisins are a 80. that's a super duper grape. You are only measuring sugar content, not nutritional value.

[@NaturesAlwaysRight]

Yes I understand it is measuring sugar content but in a fresh fruit or leaf more nutritional value is correlated with higher brix. It's obviously not exact but a relative measure we can use. A grape with a brix of 20 vs 10 will have more nutritional value in general, there are exceptions of course. They have compared brix to nutritional analysis to show this.

[@michaelcisneros9735]

Imagine having a phone in A year..... Still waiting Good video 😊

[@NWinnVR]

If you use a meter like this in a store or market be _very_ careful to either get explicit permission to do so each time or buy the produce first. Otherwise they can actually charge you with theft/shoplifting. It may seem like a silly matter but, when I worked in a big box store I saw this happen to a very nice old man that just wanted to test the nutrient content of his food. He spent a week or so in jail and was finned *thousands* of dollars on top of his legal/ attorney fees. Be careful! Stores do NOT care about your reasoning to them it's purely theft. I don't want to see anyone have to go through that! God knows what all that undue stress did to his health..

[@feltingme]

But you can buy tiny amount firt and test it while near the store before deciding, if you want to buy more.

[@lisaalbarras3029]

I grow pigs, can I test them with that thing? 😂

[@bobthrasher8226]

Use a garlic press for brix....

[@Alf_4]

11:15 "this apple has been sitting in my fridge" the temperature will through your readings off

[@topbloxph1289]

no way thats my name lol

[@habaristra6248]

a must have tool for moonshiners

[@michaelcisneros9735]

Frozen vs fresh vs store

[@darknectarcooperative7242]

The numbers listed on that sheet are somewhat BS. Average numbers for lettuce are 3, anything above 5 is excellent. Most organic lettuce you buy in the store will be less than one.

[@RM-yf2lu]

Does it test eyebrow thickness😂

[@eleodoroangeles2584]

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