Several weeks ago, I picked up one of those health magazines they give away free at a lot of food coops. Let's face it, I'll pick up any reading matter if it's free, and this stuff always is, because the driving force behind the magazines is to get you to buy more herbs and supplements that just happen to be sold at the stores giving away the magazines.
Well, this issue had an article that told us, "Fifty years ago, Americans used to eat plenty of whole grains with fresh fruits and vegetables."
Huh? What planet is this author from? Fifty years ago is 1958. I can remember 1958, and we sure didn't eat a lot of whole grains with fresh fruits and vegetables. The 1950s were when TV dinners and instant coffee were considered the epitome of chic.
Whole grains weren't on the menu at my house. We ate red meat, potatoes, and one frozen vegetable with most meals. Maybe some salad. Fish was rarely served. Chicken sometimes. Dessert was always full-fat ice cream. Children drank whole milk. Fruits were only eaten in desperation, if we were hungry before dinner, when we weren't allowed to eat anything but a piece of fruit or a piece of white bread with no butter.
Casseroles were considered sissy food, and my father kept saying he was a "meat and potatoes man," where meat meant red meat, preferably well-marbled steak or roast beef. I recall my sister sighing and saying, "Oh no! Not steak again." Pasta was considered an exotic foreign food.
My mother did once acquire a cookbook featuring casserole recipes, and her first attempt was something called "ham and oyster pie." It was not received with great enthusiasm.
I don't remember what we had for breakfast, or if we even ate breakfast. For lunch we came home from school and had sandwiches on white bread with Campbell's soup. I don't recall a lot of fresh fruits or a lot of whole grains in Campbell's soups.
I thought perhaps my memories were warped, so I was interested in the decriptions of meals in Bill Bryson's memoir of growing up in the 1950s in the Midwest, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.
His list of "foods that we didn't eat" included "bread that wasn't white and at least 65% air," "fish that wasn't any shape but rectangular and not coated in bright orange bread crumbs," and "soups not blessed by Campbell's."
Low-fat cheeses were not on the menu: ". . . any cheese that was not a vivid bright yellow and shiny enough to see your reflection in had either not yet been invented or was yet unknown to us." What was on the menu did not include a lot of whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables. He says the state fruit was Jell-O.
Potluck suppers included "tubs and platters of buttery mashed potatoes, baked beans and bacon, creamed vegetables, deviled eggs, corn breads, muffins, heavy-duty biscuits, and a dozen types of coleslaw."
