Food, Culture, and Health

FOOD AND CULTURE
Ethic influences on the North American Diet

As cultures tend to mingle and assimilate throughout the world they blend with the so called American diet (cheeseburgers) and bring with them their ethnic uniqueness, for example, about 25% of all restaurants in the U.S. have an ethnic theme. To study these influences, we need to be aware of the nature of their traditional diets as well as how they have changed within the cultures due to migration to the new way of eating,

Native American Influences

“Studies have shown that the diseases that affected these societies differed significantly from the diseases in North American societies today. For example, Alaskan natives who sill eat the traditional diet have cardiovascular disease rates lower than those in the general North American population. Younger generations of Alaskan natives, however, who usually do not eat the traditional diet have developed cardiovascular diseases at rates similar to North American in general. This diet is often also called the “Western Diet”. It is also true of the Pima Indian tribe in Arizona compared to their counterparts in living in Mexico.” You can search Pima Indians on this blog from Food, Facts, and Fads.

Hispanic Influences

“Mexican cuisine today shows regional variety. In Southern Mexico, savory sauces and stews and corn tortillas reflect the native heritage. Yucatan cuisine follows Mayan tradition, with fresh produce adding color, flavor and nutrition to authentic Mexican dining. Traditional Mexican is healthful in that is high in complex carbs, beans, fruits and vegetables, particularly rich in vitamins A and C.”

Today true Mexican cooking bears little resemblance to the dishes usually found in “Mexican restaurants in North America. Usually it is based primarily on rice and beans. Restaurant Mexican foods tend to use large portions of meat as well as added portions of high-fat sour cream, guacamole, and Cheese to many dishes.”

Northern European Influences

Immigrants from Western Europe are responsible for the “meat-and-potates traditional manner of home cooking. This group contained large groups from The English, French, and Germans. A sizable portion of meat arranged with vegetables and potatoes that could be a dinner plate of boiled, mashed vegetables, sauerkraut, boiled or mashed still is the favorite of many Northern European dinners.

The traditional pattern provides abundant protein, starch, and dairy nutrients. However, the protein contains insufficient amounts of whole grains, vegetables and fruits or whole grains. Many people from these cultures eat less than healthy dishes combined with high-fat versions that contribute to the high rates of heart disease and obesity and cancers.

African Influences

The “soul food” of African Americans is the basis of the regional cuisines of the southern U.S. African American women. The combination of these foodways with Native America, Spanish and French traditions produced Cajun and Creole cuisines enjoyed today in Louisiana and through out the nation. Pork and corn products were the basis of soul food. Today we all enjoy it as barbecued meat since many enjoy the foods brought from Africa as well as yams, African sweet potatoes, okra, and peanuts. Corn was ground for cornbread, greens like collards, mustard, and turnip and kale. were usually cooked with a small portion of smoked pork as well as black-eyed peas. This diet is obviously high in unhealthy components as well as increased heart disease and cancer rates. For example, the South east states of the typical American or “Western’ diet” is often called “The Stroke Belt? indicating diets high in calories and/or sodium.

Asian Influences
More than 200 different vegetables are used in the Chinese cuisine, bok choy and other forms of Chinese cabbage are perhaps the most widely eaten vegetable in the world. Rice is the core of the diet in southern China, home to the Cantonese culture whereas in Northern China wheat is used to make noodles. China is the original home of pasta, bread, and dumplings. Stir fried includes hot pot stews containing many vegetable mixtures and protein sources like legumes, nuts and seeds.

Chinese migration to North America began with the California gold rush in the middle of the 19th century. Chinese workers brought with them food preparation that tend to preserve nutrients, as well as a variety of sauces and seasoning, used today in Chinese cookery.
North American restaurant versions of Chinese dishes are generally not authentic. Such food is often prepared with far more fat than true Chinese cooking which tends to use flavorful but fat free sauces and seasonings. The restaurant versions of Chinese dishes also contain much larger portions of protein.

Italian Influences

Pasta is the heart of the Italian diet. Italians eat six times more of it than do North Americans. Although some components of the Italian diet contain substantial amounts of saturated fat, we now know that other components, such as pasta, olive oil, and vegetables can contribute to healthy diets. Italian traditional diets do combine healthy food along with fat in the diets and seem to handle the diet just fine. Italians lean to a diet pattern called the Mediterranean Diet. This is a plan based on food choices like those traditionally found in the simple cuisine of Greece and Southern Italy. It now allows up to 35% of total calories in Northern Italy, the more affluent part of the country, and is the principal producer of meat and dairy products, such as butter and cheese. Rice dishes such as risotto, are popular there. Fish is more important in regions near the sea and lighter foods, such as fresh vegetables are prepared with herbs, garlic and olive oil, are characteristic. The poorer regions south of Rome, as well as the island of Sicily, have a diet rich in grains, vegetables, dried beans and fish, with little meat or oil.
Olive oil is the preferred fat.

Note:
“It is impossible to define a healthy diet with the space found in this post due to the diversity of many combined cultures and regions. However, it can be simply stated with the seven words from Micheal Pollan, author of “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto:
Eat Food. Not too Much. Mostly Plants..” I would add Bon Appetit.
AMEN!!! (SJF)

Source: Gordon M. Wardlaw. Contemporary Nutrition, Issues and Insights . Fifth Edition

Stop diabetes!!

How to Reverse Prediabetes. It is surprisingly easy to stop this condition from developing into full-blown diabetes. By Jill Weisenberger, M.S, RDN , CDCES Nutrition Solutions Bottom Line Health Adapted from Food, Facts and Fads

More than 96 million American adults have prediabetes — Blood sugar levels lower than type 2 diabetes but higher than normal. However, there is good news. Decades of research tells us that reversing prediabetes by restoring your blood sugar to normal levels if possible by making a few lifestyle adjustments. Much comes the results of a program called the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), a – 3 year-long study with 3,000 ,participants. Prediabetes has no obvious symptoms, only a few metabolic markers that can tell us how progressive the disease may be in time. It’s more likely if you have excess weight, smoke, are inactive, sleep poorly, have high blood pressure, low (good) HDL cholesterol, or heart disease. These factors become suggestive that these risk factors should be tested and monitored for susceptibility to diabetes type 2. If you discover that you have prediabetes (preferably there are some things you can do: improve your diet, increase your activity, and lose a little weight (if overweight) all with the permission of your primary care physician and assessment of the above risk factors.Improve Your Diet There is no best diet to lower high blood sugar. Rather, you should eat nutrient-dense foods like fruit, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, lean meats, fish, and low fat and non-fat dairy (no surprises there!!!) However, there is one category you should avoid: sugar sweetened soft drinks, fruit drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks, sweetened teas, and coffee beverages with added sugar. Watch the snacks – our diets are often snack heavy which encourages the intake of highly processed foods loaded with carbs, salt, fat and sugar. Stay away from keto, low fat, low carb, low fat- all these “diets” require willpower or deprivation of some kind that encourages binge eating. Increase activity

Keep it simple – avoid gyms and exercise programs (unless you are highly structured and motivated. “Enjoy walking? If you do, set aside at least 5 minutes every day rather than longer periods just two or three times weekly. A daily behavior is more likely to become a habit. Gradually increase the daily time you spend walking, until you’re walking about 20 to 30 minutes every day.”

Lose a Little weight“

In one study, people at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes who lost just 5 percent of their body weight improved the function of their pancreatic beta cells and decreased insulin resistance. Use small dishes (9 inches) Eat from a dish – no reaching into boxes or bags” Sometimes just a few small changes can make a big difference.

How Did We Get this Old?

Concept Check: How DID We Get this OLD?

Although life span has not changed, life expectancy has increased dramatically over the past century,

With rare exceptions, life expectancy has been on the rise in the U.S. It was 47 years in 1900, 68 years in 195v0, and by 2019i it had risen to nearly 79 years. But it fell to 77 in 2020 and dropped further to just over 76 in 2021. (can you think Covid?) Harvard Health.

The causes of aging are still a mystery.Most likely, aging results from an interaction of genetic and the changes listed in the table below: The science of epigenetics also can offer lifestyle factors to further influnce the changes that normally occur with “normal aging”.

Aging occurs when:
Errors occur in copying the genetic blueprint (DNA)
Connective tissue stiffens. Parallel muscle proteins cross link.
Electron – seeking compounds (free radicals) damage cell.
Hormone functions change.
Blood glucose attaches to various blood and body proteins. Occurs in poorly controllled diabetes
The immune system loses some efficiency and fails to recognize foreign substances.
Autoimmunity develops. Immune function cells destroy “self”.
Death is programmed into the cell, e.g. each cell can only divide about 50 times; after that the cell dies and succumbs.
Excess energy intake speeds body breakdown and may even cause premature death. In research, underfed animals live longer by calorie restriction. Diet can slow down some of these processes?
Source: Gordon M. Wardlaw. Contemporary Nutrition: Issues and Insights. Page 518-520.
Edited for Food, Facts and Fads by: Sally J. Feltner, MS, PhD

WOW!!! What else could go wrong?

Healthy lifestyles may be found to alleviate some or all of these body processes.

Olive Oil : Mediterranean Style?

Kristen Rogers, CNN

Thu, July 27, 2023 at 10:45 AM EDT·4 min read

Sign up for CNN’s Eat, But Better: Mediterranean Style. Our eight-part guide shows you a delicious expert-backed eating lifestyle that will boost your health for life.

Including olive oil in your regular diet offers several benefits — such as protecting heart health or cognitive function.

The Mediterranean staple might also reduce your risk of dying from dementia by 28% if you eat just a spoonful every day.

This new finding is according to research presented Monday in Boston at Nutrition 2023, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition.

Whether olive oil is linked with risk of dementia-related death had never been studied until now, according to the authors.

“Our study reinforces dietary guidelines recommending vegetable oils such as olive oil and suggests that these recommendations not only support heart health but potentially brain health, as well,” said Anne-Julie Tessier, a coauthor of the research and postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in a news release. “Opting for olive oil, a natural product, instead of fats such as margarine and commercial mayonnaise is a safe choice and may reduce the risk of fatal dementia.”

Research participants included nearly 60,600 women who had participated in the Nurses’ Health Study from 1990 to 2018, and nearly 32,000 men who had been in the Health Professionals’ Follow-Up Study during the same time period. The former study investigated risk factors for major chronic diseases among women in North America, whereas the latter is looking into the same topics but for men.

The authors of the latest research assessed the diet of the participants — who were age 56 on average at the start of the study — every four years via a questionnaire. The team also reviewed diet quality using the Alternative Healthy Eating Index, which assigns ratings to foods and nutrients predictive of chronic disease. The higher people score on this index, the better.

Over a follow-up period of 28 years, regardless of diet quality, eating more than half a tablespoon of olive oil per day was associated with a 28% lower risk of dying from dementia, compared with participants who never or rarely consumed olive oil.

Additionally, replacing a daily teaspoon of mayonnaise or margarine with the same amount of olive oil was correlated with an 8% to 14% lower risk of dementia-related death, the authors found.

However, this research is early, so some experts uninvolved with it urge caution.

“These findings are simply being reported at a conference and have not undergone peer-review so there has been no examination of the study by independent experts,” said David Curtis, honorary professor at the UCL Genetics Institute at University College London, in a statement. “We do not know whether the results will end up being published in a journal. If the study does eventually result in a published paper, we do not know whether the published results will be the same as those now being presented.”

The 4,749 participants who died from dementia were more likely to have APOE e4 — the strongest known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease — according to analysis of DNA from participants’ blood or mouth cells. But having the gene doesn’t mean a person will certainly develop the disease, and the authors’ findings were still consistent after taking this factor into account, they said.

Regardless, “it is important to note that this is not causal, as the authors point out, only an association,” said registered dietitian Duane Mellor, a senior teaching fellow at Aston Medical School of Aston University in England. “More research is needed.”

Olive oil and dementia risk

The potential benefits of olive oil for brain health could be due to antioxidant compounds that can cross the blood-brain barrier, directly affecting the brain, Tessier said.

“It is also possible that olive oil has an indirect effect on brain health by benefiting cardiovascular health,” she added.

Though participants’ overall diet quality didn’t make a difference in the findings, those who consume olive oil may have overall healthier lifestyles.

“There are many, many differences between people who consume olive oil and those who do not, and it is never possible to fully account for all possible confounding factors,” Curtis said.

Another important point to keep in mind is that about half of dementia cases are caused by vascular disease, Curtis added.

“Anything which improved cardiovascular health, such as not smoking, would be expected to reduce dementia risk,” he said. “It has been shown that olive oil consumption is associated with better cardiovascular health, so one would expect that it would also be associated with lower dementia risk.”

Olive oil is a staple of the Mediterranean diet, which has been found helpful for health of the brain, heart, bones and more. Besides cooking with olive oil, you can also use it to make salad dressings or vinaigrette, mayonnaise, pesto or bread dip. And people should also remember that when it comes to food and brain function, it’s not just about what we eat, but how we eat, Mellor said. We see examples of longevity when we study the populations living in the Blue Zones. (SJF).

“Remaining sociable around mealtimes and eating with others can benefit our mental health in the short term and cognitive function as we age,” he added.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

American Plate: 1960s

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/food-at-woodstock_n_6793300

The above link about Woodstock tells the story most vividly about what the sixties were all about.

“The decade started graciously enough – by the end of the decade we were given a health-food movement based on partly by Rachel Carson and her book, Silent Spring and environmental pollution (DDT) and the hippie lifestyle of communal, back-to -nature living. The hungry and disenfranchised made their plights public with lunch-counter sit-ins and the Poor People’s March on Washington. These acts began the civil rights movement in 1960; CBS profiles the plight of migrant farmers in California.

Our cultural past changed when the Immigration Act of 1965 begins the influx of millions of people from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Eastern Europe, the Philippines, India, the Middle East, Africa, Mexico, and Central and South America.

On the other side, humor was in full force. “Happiness is …finding two olives in your martini when you’re hungry,” writes Johnny Carson in Happiness Is a Dry Martini (Doubleday, 1965).

There were other notable events that formed this decade. From Bon Appetit, Sept. 1999.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/food-at-woodstock_n_6793300

The above link about Woodstock tells the story most vividly about what the sixties were all about.

On the other side, humor was in full force. “Happines is …finding two olives in your martini when you’re hungry,” writes Johnny Carson in Happiness Is a Dry Martini (Doubleday, 1965).

There were other notable events that formed this decade. From Bon Appetit, Sept. 1999.

The White House: The Kennedy Years

“From the moment Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy moved into the White House in 1961, the world could see that a new generation had arrived. With their keen interest in history, literature, the arts, food and entertaining, the youthful, scholarly, charismatic Kennedys roused stodgy Washington by setting new standards in everything from clothing to table decor and cuisine.” The First Lady hired a French Chef and the “Kennedys hosted legendary dinners with dance, concerts, poetry readings, performance of Shakespeare, and other entertainment that showcased the best America had to offer.”

The Kennedy years were often referred to “Camelot” sadly came to an end with the assassination of the President on November 22, 1963.

The French Cooking Invasion – From Bon Appetit, September, 1999

“In the 1960s, Americans learned to cook French food and Julia Child was their teacher.. With her distinctive voice and down-to-earth manner, Child rose to national fame as the host of “The French Chef” television series….an unpretentious graduate of the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris…Julia is at ease in front of the camera, taking some delight” in her own goofs in the kitchen. Please pass the butter!!!!

One more thing:

The Beatles invaded the U.S. in 1969 with their music. Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison, became rock and roll legends by doing everything else in a new way. Just in one decade – The World was alive again!!!

In one decade – The World was alive again!!!

Sources:

Bon Appetit

The Century in Food

Huffington Post

Wickipedia

Are Sitting Patterns Related to Diabetes?

Adults are sitting more than ever, and few pay attention to how they sit throughout the day.

Take a moment to think about all the reasons we sit. First off, you’re probably sitting while reading this. Some of the most common sitting activities include eating meals; driving; talking on the phone; using a computer, television, or small device; and reading. Now take another moment to think about all the sitting done across your lifetime.

Older Americans spend a lot of time sitting.
Matthew Mclaughlin/Figshare, CC BY-SA

The fact is, the amount of time spent sitting has increased over time. And with innovations such as Alexa, delivered groceries, and pre-made meal services, we expect many older adults will sit longer and will do it more often. As of today, the average older adult spends between 56 percent and 86 percent of their waking day sedentary. That’s a lot of sitting.

Our research team studies healthy aging and is interested in how sitting too much might contribute to heart disease and diabetes. Our recent study suggests that the way older adults accumulate their sitting time might be important for aging without diabetes.

“…the way older adults accumulate their sitting time might be important for aging without diabetes.”

What happens while sitting?

When you sit for long periods without getting up, the large weight-bearing muscles of the legs remain dormant. With no action, these muscles are unable to efficiently use the sugars and fats that float around in your blood – and in theory, this could lead to weight gain and metabolic diseases such as diabetes.

At the same time, reduced blood flow in your arteries leads to hostile conditions that promote injury to the blood vessel walls. Over a lifetime, this injury likely contributes to heart disease and to peripheral artery disease. Furthermore, when your leg muscles remain shut off for long periods, blood collects in your veins which leads to an increased risk for blood clots, or deep venous thrombosis. Standing up and moving around can stop these processes, but all too often, we just keep sitting.

Blood flow can become ‘turbulent,’ causing damage to arteries.
www.pexels.com

Sitting patterns

Sitting patterns describe how people sit throughout the day. Some people commonly sit for long periods at a time, rarely getting up. They are said to have prolonged sitting patterns. Others rarely sit still. They regularly get up after sitting for just short periods. These sitters are said to have interrupted sitting patterns. Where do you fit on the sitting pattern spectrum?

Sitting can be accumulated in different patterns.
John Bellettiere/figshare.com, CC BY-SA

Are sitting patterns important for metabolic health?

Emerging evidence suggests yes. From observational studies, we learned that adults with prolonged sitting patterns had larger waistlines, higher BMI, and in their blood had less good fats, more bad fats, and higher levels of sugar compared to adults with interrupted sitting patterns.

To test whether problems with fat and sugar metabolism were being caused by sitting patterns, researchers around the world conducted experiments. They brought adults into a laboratory at least two times each, having them sit continuously for about eight hours (an extremely prolonged pattern). On the second day, the participants were asked to get up every 20-30 minutes (a highly interrupted pattern). The interruptions lasted for two to five minutes and included standing still, light walking, simple resistance exercises or moderate-intensity walking, depending on the study.

When researchers synthesized evidence from most of the laboratory studies, the results were clear. On days with prolonged patterns, our bodies are not able to metabolize fats or sugar as well as they are on days with interrupted patterns. Blood pressure and fatigue were also higher on days with prolonged sitting compared to days with interrupted patterns.

These groundbreaking laboratory studies provided strong evidence that sitting patterns had an immediate effect on how the body processes fats and sugar, otherwise known as metabolism. This led to the idea that prolonged sitting patterns over a lifetime could contribute to metabolic diseases such as diabetes in later life. Since diabetes can take a long time to develop, this question cannot be feasibly tested in a laboratory. Instead, we turned to an observational study of the population to help answer the question.

Are sitting patterns related to diabetes?

We recruited over 6,000 women aged 65-99 from the Women’s Health Initiative and measured their sedentary patterns for seven days using research-grade activity monitors. We also had over 20 years of detailed health records, which included information on whether the women had ever been diagnosed by a physician with diabetes.

As expected, the group with the most prolonged sedentary patterns had the most women with diabetes. The group with the most interrupted patterns had the fewest women with diabetes.

We used advanced statistical procedures to account for differences in other factors such as dietary habits, physical activity, medication use, weight, age, alcohol and cigarette use, and overall health, giving us more confidence that the sitting patterns were, in fact, driving the findings. We should caution, however, that since we did not measure sitting patterns before the women were first diagnosed with diabetes, we do not know whether the sitting patterns contributed to diabetes or whether the diabetes changed their sitting patterns. We ran additional statistical tests to try to untangle that, which indicated that sitting patterns contributed to diabetes. However, additional studies specifically suited to answer the question of causation are needed.

While this was the first study of sedentary patterns and diabetes exclusively in older adults, our results were remarkably similar to recent findings in a younger cohort. Researchers from the Netherlands studied 2,500 adults ages 40-75 and found that prolonged sitting patterns were associated with Type 2 diabetes and with metabolic syndrome.

Conclusions and words of advice

Based on the findings from our study and those of the Dutch researchers, when viewed with the earlier epidemiologic data and findings from the laboratory experiments, it seems that sitting patterns may contribute to the growing international diabetes epidemic.

With that said, as with all science, these first few studies are only the beginning of the story. Much more work lies ahead. For the time being, there is a possibility that changing your sitting patterns might provide protection against diabetes, especially if long sitting bouts were always broken with light activity or even better, moderate-intensity activity, as recommended by the American Diabetes Association.

Recommendations from the American Diabetes Association.
Matthew Mclaughlin/figshare.com, CC BY-SA

The authors wish to sincerely thank Dr. Jonathan Unkart for his help with this story.

John Bellettiere is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California San Diego studying Family Medicine and Public Health. Andrea LaCroix, PhD, is Professor and Chief of Epidemiology, Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California San Diego. She received her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular disease at The Johns Hopkins University. Matthew Mclaughlin is a PhD student at the University of Newcastle in Australia and a research assistant at Hunter New England Population Health.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Eating Processed Food?

Is Eating Fast Food a Dementia Risk?

The health risks of eating ultraprocessed foods —including sausages and burgers as well as pizza and ice cream — are well documented. They have been shown to raise the risk of obesity, diabetes, and cancer among other ailments. (CNN.com).

In a new study, researchers followed more than 10,000 Brazilians with an average age of 51 for more than 10 years. They found that people who consumed more than 20% of their daily calories from ultra processed foods had a 28% faster cognitive decline compared with those whose intake was less than 20%. Unfortunately, that 20% is not a high threshold: just 400 calories out of the 2000 calorie diet. And most Americans are well over that, getting on average a whopping 58% of their calories from ultraprocessed foods.

“The sample size is substantial and the followup extensive,” says Dr. David Katz, a nutrition specialist who was not involved in the study. While short of proof, this is robust enough that we should conclude ultraprocessed foods are probably bad for our brains,”

Source: The Week. December 23, 2022, Volume 22, Issue 110.

Snacks: Try Walnuts?

Snacking has become a national pastime in the U.S. The snack aisles in the supermarkets have expanded to include major parts of the store that act as a huge vending machine from one end to another. Nuts have had the reputation of being unhealthy due to their fat content; now they are considered healthy for many reasons.

Although they are so many varieties, walnuts often stand out as an example of how nuts can be easily incorporated into a healthy diet.

Most nuts contain healthy antioxidant compounds called polyphenols, which improve cholesterol scores and help lower rates of oxidative stress and vascular disease. But of all nuts, walnuts pack the greatest punch of polyphenols according to a 2011 study from the Royal Society of Chemistry journal, Food and Function. Also, they come in first when it comes to their stores of polyunsaturated fatty acids, essential for improved metabolism, satiety, and prevention of Type 2 diabetes.

It is interesting to encourage walnut consumption when possible to support your brain, thanks to those antioxidants, various vitamins and other nutrients, and a type of plant-based omega-3 fat called alpha-linolenic acid.
In a recent published study, Lenore Arab, a professor of disease prevention at UCLA and her colleagues examined diet and lifestyle habits of thousands of adults. In terms of memory, concentration and “information processing speed”, the people who ate more walnuts signficantly outperformed their counterparts that eat less walnuts. These results held solid even after the results controlled for age, ethnicity, exercise and other lifestyle factors.

Note: I use chopped walnuts, dried cherries or cranberries on salads. There are two common kinds of walnuts – the English from California and the black walnut, which is native to America. They differ slightly in their nutrition – the English has slightly less protein and slightly more fat. Both are great! Time Special Edition, The Science of Nutrition)

Note: Walnuts are ironically shaped like a brain. Look carefully and you will see the resemblance (similar examples are “kidney beans are shaped like a kidney”. “The Doctor or Signatures is a concept in herbalism that’s been around for centuries based on the idea that God marked everything with a sign which was a signature or indication of the item’s purpose. In this particular case certain foods had a purpose and resembled the food itself.(The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth, Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS.)

The American Plate: The 50’s

The Decade of Conformity

“The 1950s was an era of great upheaval in the United States. By the millions, Americans who had just survived two decades of economic depression and war left the cities for the greenery and open spaces of the suburbs. Suburban towns sprang up like crabgrass across the country. With these instant communities came a new American lifestyle that included suburban malls, fast-food restaurants, TV dinners, drive-in movies, and an oversized, gas-guzzling car in every garage.

“The decade was a time in which the roles within the “ideal” American family were clearly defined. The father was the breadwinner. Five days a week, fifty weeks a year, he donned his gray flannel suit, hopped into his car or on a commuter train, and headed off to earn money to support his wife, his ever-growing family, and their materialistic lifestyle. Meanwhile, his “little woman” remained home and raised the kids. Life was simple and ordered, and the cornerstone of society was authority. Teachers, police officers, politicians, and clergy were respected, and their pronouncements went unchallenged.

During previous generations, young people had been required to take jobs as soon as they were able, in order to contribute to the family income. Now, their parents indulged them with toys, games, and clothes. Girls collected dolls and stuffed animals, while boys amassed shoeboxes filled with baseball cards. The 1950s, like all other decades, saw its share of fads. In mid-decade, children wore coonskin caps. At the end, they played with hula hoops. When they became adolescents, they bought records; they also sipped malts and downed hamburgers at the local ice cream parlor. Teens and young adults dated, paired off, and “went steady,” which were preludes to becoming engaged, marrying, and beginning families of their own.

However, the decade was not without its nonconformity and rebellion. Parents were none too pleased when their adolescent children embraced rock ‘n’ roll music. Not all teens were clean-cut preppies; greasers sported longish hair and leather jackets and exuded a disdain for authority. On a more telling note, blacks, who had been systematically excluded from the burgeoning middle class, began demanding equal opportunity. But to the majority of Americans in the 1950s, adolescents with attitude and complaining minorities seemed little more than a ripple on the national landscape. There seemed to be no end to the nation’s prosperity.”

Life Was Good

If Happy Days taught us anything, it’s that life was better in the fifties. People left their door unlocked at night, kids respected their elders and a guy who lived above his best friend’s garage could still be cool so long as he owned a leather jacket. (AUTHOR UNKNOWN) – BUT TRUE!!! If you were alive, just remember Fonzy.

Note: from SJF. Women were still thought of as “being in the kitchen” “During an interview for college, the so-called counselor said: “home Ec is always good for a girl.” Needless to say, I switched to Arts and Sciences.”

However, kitchens featured all new appliances and refrigerators loaded with convenience products from the new supermarkets. Westinghouse unveils the first fully automatic defrosting refrigerator-freezer. In Corbin, KY, Colonel Harland Sanders closes his fried chicken restaurant and goes on the road with his secret blend of 11 herbs and spices, on his way to building a new chicken global empire, designated as “finger-licking good.

Men found their cooking skills at the barbecue in the backyard, some with swimming pools at suburban ranch-style homes. In 1952, George Stephen, decided to develop a new type of BBQ grill that is not an open grill. His sales go well and at the end of the decade, he buys out the BBQ division at Weber Brothers Metal Works and creates Weber-Stephen Products Co. Weber grills are still popular today.

TV Dinners

After WWII, America’s economy boomed, women entered the workforce as never before and food got a little strange. Housewives spent less time in the kitchen, so food companies came to the rescue with a buffet of processed foods. Foods were purchased in a can, package or pouch. Soups were available as liquids or in dry form. Tang landed on supermarket shelves and frozen dinners laid on trays in front of TV sets. TV dinners were introduced in 1953 by Swanson and with a flick of a wrist you could turn back the foil to display turkey in gravy, dressing, sweet potatoes, and peas ready in about 30 minutes – all with no dishes to wash.

Better Living Through Chemistry

“Better Living through Chemistry” was the slogan of the times along with “I like Ike” referring to the popular Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 5-star general from WWII winning the U.S presidency from 1953 to 1961.
This change in processing came from the demand of the Army during WWII to provide needed ready-to-eat meals. The food industry responded by ramping up new technologies in canning and freeze-drying to feed the troops. The marketing of these foods presented a challenge, however. At first, many of them were less than palatable, so food companies hired home economists to develop fancy recipes and flooded magazines, newspapers and TV with ads to broadcast their virtues. Actually the first cake mix was available in 1931, but was met with disdain due to the use of dehydrated eggs, e.g. Women later would respond more favorably if they could crack their own eggs into the batter so they would feel like they were doing something positive in the kitchen.

People rushed to buy appliances, houses, cars, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers and backyard barbecue grills and new home freezers. They also bought television sets in record numbers and watched shows that represented their new idealized lives like Ozzie and Harriet and Leave It to Beaver. Beaver’s mother, June Cleaver was depicted as a housewife freed from household chores and often was serene and perfectly dressed with pearls and high heels pushing a vacuum cleaner and putting meals on the family table, all before solving the family problems.

Fast Food Nation

The birth rate soared and created what is known as the Baby Boomer Generation. Fifty million babies were born from 1945 to 1960. Food marketing shifted to kids with Tony the Tiger and fish sticks leading the campaign. Fast food had its beginnings strengthened in 1955 when Ray Kroc bought a hamburger stand from the McDonald’s brothers in San Bernadino, California. Disneyland opened in 1955 and was so popular they ran out of food on the first day.

The Seven Countries Study

In 1958, the American scientist, Ancel Keys started a study called the Seven Countries Study, which attempted to establish the association between diet and cardiovascular disease in different countries. The study results indicated that in the countries where fat consumption was the highest also had the most heart disease. This suggested the idea that dietary fat caused heart disease. He initially studied 22 countries, but reported on only seven: Finland, Greece, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, United States, and Yugoslavia.

The problem was that he left out:

Countries where people eat a lot of fat but have little heart disease, such as Holland and Norway and France.
Countries where fat consumption is low but the rate of heart disease is high, such as Chile.

Basically, he only used data from the countries that supported his theory. This flawed observational study gained massive media attention and had a major influence on the dietary guidelines of the next few decades, i.e. cut the fat out of our diets.

The First Artificial Sweetener

In the diet world, Saccharin was manufactured in granules and became a popular sugar substitute for dieters. It was first produced in 1878 by a chemist at Johns Hopkins University, but became popular after sugar shortages in WWI and WWII. In the United States, saccharin is often found in restaurants in pink packets as “Sweet’n Low”. It was banned later but it remains on the market today. The basis for the proposed ban was a study that documented an increase in cancer in rats being fed saccharin. The “Delaney clause” of the Food Additive Amendments to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act states that no substance can be deemed safe if it causes cancer in humans or animals. In suspending the proposed saccharin ban, Congress ordered that products containing the popular sweetener must carry a warning about its potential to cause cancer. The FDA formally lifted its proposal to ban the sweetener in 1991 based on new studies, and the requirement for a label warning was eliminated by the Saccharin Notice Repeal Act in 1996.

1954 Employee Gerry Thomas from the C.A. Swanson Co, has an idea (although fellow workers nearly laughed him out of the Omaha plant): package the left-over turkey, along with some dressing, gravy, cornbread, peas and sweet potatoes into a partitioned metal tray, sell it frozen, and consumers could heat it up for dinner. His name for the leftover meal: TV Dinner.

1955 Milkshake-machine salesman, Roy Kroc tries to persuade Dick and Mac McDonald (owner of the original McDonald’s in California) to franchise their concept. They aren’t interested but tell Kroc to go ahead and try his hand. Kroc opens his first restaurant in Des Plains, ILL., and eventually buys out the McDonald’s.

1958 Eighteen- year-old Frank Carney sees a story in the Saturday Evening Post about the pizza fad among teenagers and college students. With $600 borrowed from his mother, he and his fellow Wichita State classmate, opens the first Pizza Hut in Wichita, KS.

Nutrition was beginning to gain some attention as healthy eating became new a topic of discussion. Gaylord Hauser. Author of Look Younger, Live Longer, who promoted such “wonder” foods as yogurt, wheat germ and brewer’s yeast… Adelle Davis and her book Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit but claims she can cure cancer – she died of bone cancer at age 70.

1955 President Dwight D. Eisenhower had a heart attack. His doctor suggests he follow a low fat diet.

Citations:

Bon Appetit. September 1999. America’s Food and Entertaining Magazine, Text by Katie O’Kennedy.

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

The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink. Edited by Andrew F. Smith Oxford University Press, 2007.

Eating Processed Food

Is Eating Fast Food a Dementia Risk?

Source: The Week. December 23, 2022, Volume 22, Issue 110.