tim-from-pa
Member
A past reflection and present lament and commentary on eating right from the food groups....
I remember back in elementary school days watching 16mm films about health and eating right (for those old enough, remember when threading them wrong the sound and picture did not match – shows my age!) Back then, they stressed the basic food groups, and had no political food agenda. Junk foods that they warned against almost entirely consisted of sugary candy or cookies and it's liquid counterpart soda pop which they warned could give cavities. To a lesser extent, there were bagged or boxed foods such as potato chips and similar snacks, but certainly not the whole array of junk we see today. They were seen as having low nutritional value but extra calories.
So, what did the 1950's boy from Wisconsin eat? He would go out to his garden --- they always stressed vegetables, such as root plants carrots and onions. Also, he'd grow things such as tomatoes and peppers. I don't remember the boy having any fruit orchards, but mother would dutifully make sure he'd have some fruit along with his meals such as apples or peaches. That's two food groups.
Coming from Wisconsin, they were BIG on diary. Whole milk (not the skim junk they feed even little kids these days), butter, cream, eggs, and cheese were big on the boy's list, and along with a serving of meat at each meal. (That's another two food groups). Cereal and breads were usually pushed (which I'm not as big of a fan of), but usually only at the boy's breakfast with a bowl of cereal and a piece or two of toast (and always with BUTTER). Father may have had a piece of bread with his meat, potatoes and hot vegetables at night, but otherwise, I do not remember a BIG push on “whole grains†to the point of placing them on the bottom of the food pyramid. They were sensible about eating bread (not to mention it did not have the additives and corn sweetener in them like today). Even a piece of mom's apple pie for dessert after the evening meal was OK. Again, they were sensible, and moved around to work it all off. So that's some servings from all the basic food groups.
Now, today, comes the later generations, who grew up on macaroni and cheese, pizza, and Ding-Dongs while their baby-boomer parents were out finding themselves and just gave the key to the kid to fend for himself. These generations who took over somehow understand that it's the sugar and fat in junk foods that are bad, but then breaking such processed foods down to component nutrients wrongly assume ALL foods containing them are bad. So along with junk, they list “bad†saturated fat foods for example along with their junk, and stress staying away from red meat, limiting eggs, banning butter and cutting salt. They seem to have lost the idea of (natural) food groups. Proof of this is in the lame-brained food-police rules in NYC. And get used to it! Because the Federal Government will do the same thing. Look at the tax they placed in butter in Denmark! (Thankfully that's being repealed after an outcry so there's some hope for this world lacking commonsense). And it's all because these 40-ish or younger crowds were improperly trained on eating right and are “educating†others how to eat right when they themselves had no pleasure of meeting the red-headed boy from Wisconsin. I doubt they had even one healthy meal in their entire lives, but are telling everyone else how to eat.
BTW, the red-headed boy from Wisconsin is alive and well today in retirement enjoying his garden yet. He does not have any health issues last I heard. So, he's available to inquire about eating right, that is, if this know-it-all generation can escape themselves long enough to ask him. But I would not hold my breath. Instead, they will probably mandate some more dietary laws and tell him how to eat right! (And yet he'll outlive them).
I remember back in elementary school days watching 16mm films about health and eating right (for those old enough, remember when threading them wrong the sound and picture did not match – shows my age!) Back then, they stressed the basic food groups, and had no political food agenda. Junk foods that they warned against almost entirely consisted of sugary candy or cookies and it's liquid counterpart soda pop which they warned could give cavities. To a lesser extent, there were bagged or boxed foods such as potato chips and similar snacks, but certainly not the whole array of junk we see today. They were seen as having low nutritional value but extra calories.
So, what did the 1950's boy from Wisconsin eat? He would go out to his garden --- they always stressed vegetables, such as root plants carrots and onions. Also, he'd grow things such as tomatoes and peppers. I don't remember the boy having any fruit orchards, but mother would dutifully make sure he'd have some fruit along with his meals such as apples or peaches. That's two food groups.
Coming from Wisconsin, they were BIG on diary. Whole milk (not the skim junk they feed even little kids these days), butter, cream, eggs, and cheese were big on the boy's list, and along with a serving of meat at each meal. (That's another two food groups). Cereal and breads were usually pushed (which I'm not as big of a fan of), but usually only at the boy's breakfast with a bowl of cereal and a piece or two of toast (and always with BUTTER). Father may have had a piece of bread with his meat, potatoes and hot vegetables at night, but otherwise, I do not remember a BIG push on “whole grains†to the point of placing them on the bottom of the food pyramid. They were sensible about eating bread (not to mention it did not have the additives and corn sweetener in them like today). Even a piece of mom's apple pie for dessert after the evening meal was OK. Again, they were sensible, and moved around to work it all off. So that's some servings from all the basic food groups.
Now, today, comes the later generations, who grew up on macaroni and cheese, pizza, and Ding-Dongs while their baby-boomer parents were out finding themselves and just gave the key to the kid to fend for himself. These generations who took over somehow understand that it's the sugar and fat in junk foods that are bad, but then breaking such processed foods down to component nutrients wrongly assume ALL foods containing them are bad. So along with junk, they list “bad†saturated fat foods for example along with their junk, and stress staying away from red meat, limiting eggs, banning butter and cutting salt. They seem to have lost the idea of (natural) food groups. Proof of this is in the lame-brained food-police rules in NYC. And get used to it! Because the Federal Government will do the same thing. Look at the tax they placed in butter in Denmark! (Thankfully that's being repealed after an outcry so there's some hope for this world lacking commonsense). And it's all because these 40-ish or younger crowds were improperly trained on eating right and are “educating†others how to eat right when they themselves had no pleasure of meeting the red-headed boy from Wisconsin. I doubt they had even one healthy meal in their entire lives, but are telling everyone else how to eat.
BTW, the red-headed boy from Wisconsin is alive and well today in retirement enjoying his garden yet. He does not have any health issues last I heard. So, he's available to inquire about eating right, that is, if this know-it-all generation can escape themselves long enough to ask him. But I would not hold my breath. Instead, they will probably mandate some more dietary laws and tell him how to eat right! (And yet he'll outlive them).
