Nutrition Confusion: The Roaring Twenties

”Mary Pickford, Theda Bara, and Rudolf Valentino, the era’s movie idols, promoted the idea of being thin.  This replaced the “plump” image of the previous decade, exemplified by Diamond Jim or Lillian Russell, a couple of decades ago.  

Home economic classes and a plethora of women’s magazines helped America on its new ideal of body image – the war against fat.

“American women were ready to cut their hair, step out into jobs, and have a good time.” But, at the same time, American women were becoming dependent on their own cooking and household skills. The result was that between 1921 and 1929, the home appliance industry tripled its output. The kitchen was considered the workstation whereas; eating was almost always done in an adjoining breakfast room or dining room.

“The May issue of Women’s Home Companion publishes an article that includes the lines, “with the revolution in clothes has come a revolution in our attitude toward avoirdupois (weight). Once weight was an asset: Now it’s a liability, both physical and esthetic.” This reflects a new attitude of women with a new body image.

In January 1920, Prohibition goes into effect, although drinking will continue and will lead to underground establishments known as “speakeasies”. Prohibition leads to an increase in sales of coffee, soft drinks, and ice cream sodas. Many bars convert to soda fountains or tearooms to stay in business.

Looks Good Enough to Eat

By 1927, there were 20 million cars cruising over 600,000 miles of roads connecting U.S. cities and towns. All those drivers needed to eat somewhere, and to get their attention on the open road, restaurants took on a whole new shape – literally. Diners and coffee shops were built to look like doughnuts, ice cream cones, coffeepots, hot dogs and yes, pigs. While these establishments provided only mediocre food, they supplied plenty of atmosphere and maybe even more important, offered quick and consistent meals. The whimsically shaped spots would pave the way or the drive-ins and chain restaurants of the future.

Fast Food

The first White Castle hamburger stand opens in 1921 in Wichita, Kan. The white of the stones suggest cleanliness; the castle facade suggests stability. The little burgers cost 5 cents apiece and are marketed with  the slogan “Buy ‘em by the sack.” Paper napkins come on the market in 1925, and the White Castle locations follow by developing folding paper hats that can changed often. “Program-mic” hot dog-shape kiosks and cone shape stands architecture becomes the rage in restaurants.”

Flappers

“No one knows how the word flapper entered American slang, but its usage first appeared just following World War I. The classic image of a flapper is that of a stylish young party girl. Flappers smoked in public, drank alcohol, danced at jazz clubs and practiced sexual freedom that shocked the Victorian morality of their parents. Many pictures depict them wearing a tight-fitting cloche.

However, the good times were all about to change – in October, 1929, the stock market crashed and the country was faced with the worst economic trial of its history.

Source:

Beverly Bundy. The Century in Food: America’s Fads and Favorites, Collector’s Press, Inc. 2002

The American Century in Food. Bon Appetit, September, 1999.

A Hungry Nation on the Move

The decade reflected high living, high prices, the introduction of income taxes, women’s suffrage, World War 1, an influenza pandemic that killed between 20 million and 50 million people and prohibition. “Secretary of State Williams Jennings Bryan, a Prohibitionist, served grape juice instead of wine at a 1913 dinner for the British ambassador. By 1919, the Temperance League had won out and the sale and distribution of alcohol was banned. In 1920, saloons were shuttered, and distilleries closed.”

Cooking For Health???

Coca Cola had entered the food market in 1910; at the same time, Nathan franks entered the culture that now included, railroads with deluxe dining, grocery stores, frozen foods and refrigerators.

By 1912 an organic substance (later named vitamin) is discovered by American chemist, Casimer Funk. 

In 1894, the USDA published its first food recommendations through a Farmers’ Bulletin, suggesting diets for males based on content of protein, carbohydrate, fat and mineral matter. In 1916, Caroline Hunt, a nutritionist, wrote the first USDA food guide, Food for Young Children. Milk and meat, cereals, vegetables and fruits, fats and fatty foods, and sugars and sugary foods made up five food groups. Then How to Select Foods addressed recommendations for the general public based on those five food groups in 1917. (Can you believe the fat and sugary foods groups ???

Crisco Sandwich? 

“Proctor and Gamble introduced Crisco, the first solid vegetable shortening. The product is hard to sell to women who had been taught to cook with lard and/or butter. To promote its produce, the manufacturer suggested glazing sweet potatoes with brown sugar and Crisco and spreading sandwiches with Crisco mixed with an egg yolk.” YUM!!!

Convenience: Self-service Grocery Stores

In 1912, change began to replace the grocery store with self-service “supermarkets”.  Previously, a shopper would hand a list to the clerk to retrieve the items from shelves behind the counter – a time-consuming process. George Hartford established the first Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co. which he called the A&P “Economy Store”. A clerk still took the orders, but the store did not offer credit or delivery and saved costs with lower prices. In Memphis, Clarence Saunders continued the trend in 1916 when he began the Piggly Wiggly chain. Customers followed a serpentine route past all 600-plus items on shelves (a huge selection for the time) but there were still long lines. Still, this process began the key factors  in the emergence of distinctive packaging, advertising, and brand recognition. Everything from pasta to tamales went into cans, the technology for electric refrigeration was developed, and the frozen-food industry got its start.

People Were Talking About….

Clarence Birdseye, who after spending a winter in Newfoundland, noticed that fish caught and left in the frigid air froze immediately and tasted good after being thawed and cooked. This inspired him to pioneer the commercial frozen food industry.

George Washington Carver and the 300-plus products he developed based on peanuts and the 118 products based on sweet potatoes. His research gave southern farmers ruined by boll weevil infestations a reason to plant crops other than cotton.

Luther Burbank and his 12-volume work, Luther Burbank: His Methods and Discoveries and Their Practical Applications. Burbank’s  extensive cross-breeding of plants led to the development of the Burbank,  or russet potato, which would make Idaho famous.

Household Appliances

This decade was the era of household appliances.  “Middle-class households were used to having at least one live-in servant. As household help began to leave for better jobs, housewives had to do for themselves – a monumental task. For example, the laundry which was a two-day affair. The arrival of mechanical help is heaven sent. An item as mundane as a porcelain range – no more blackening, no more polishing removed one two-hour chore. By 1911 electric chafing dishes, skillets, grills, toasters, percolators, waffle irons, and stand-up mixers were introduced along with the very welcomed electric ranges, and basic refrigerators, invented in 1915.”

Must have been a very Merry Christmas for these ladies!