The argument about Brussels sprouts is partly an argument between two different vegetables that share a name. In the 1990s the Dutch scientist Hans van Doorn identified the chemicals responsible for the bitterness: sinigrin and progoitrin. Once seed companies knew what to look for, they could cross old low-bitterness varieties held in seed archives with modern high-yield ones, and over the following years the commercially grown sprout became measurably less bitter. Popularity rose with it. That timing matters for how the poll splits. Anyone who formed their opinion of sprouts on a plate before roughly the mid-1990s was eating a more bitter vegetable than anyone who formed it after, and typically one that had been boiled rather than roasted. So a good share of the 29% who told YouGov they dislike or hate sprouts are reporting accurately on a food that no longer exists, while the 49% who love or like them are reporting on a bred-down replacement. It is one of the few food arguments with a documented cause and a decade attached to it.