Originally Posted by
lenA
We were experimenting with macrobiotic diets as early as 1966. Economical, easy to prepare.. ..and most importantly, anti-establishment. :-)
I lived in America through the 60's. But I know from my own experiences that diets have always evolved and changed. But the changes.... are
tiny. People over a hundred years old have NO problems relating to modern diets. The European concept of a diet based in grains and/or cereals has real historical roots.
If someone is living on a diet of whey powder, Red Bull, and draft beer..... it would be natural for them to think that was a normal diet. They might naturally think such a diet was culturally acceptable and universal in it's use. The same could be said for fast-food eater.... and for vegans. These are all cultural differences in diets. And... that doesn't even begin to touch on the OTHER cultural differences in diet.... like how potatoes are prepared.
It might be better to judge diets on the foods produced by farmers.... than peoples concepts of how
OTHER people are eating.
The only major changes in farming has been increased acreage (from ZERO) devoted to soybeans. (My wife and I rarely eat edamame as we prefer lima beans.) As with corn... soybeans are used in feeds and processed into oils and other products.
Another difference has been in the fields of husbandry with the breading of naturally leaner meat sources. Modern hogs and beef both mature quickly and are slaughtered with increasingly smaller invests of feed per pound of product (meat).
Cane sugar was replaced in the 1950's with beet sugar... then in the 70's cheap corn syrup sweeteners started replacing beet sugar as a processed product sweetener.
All this means is Americans now have much cheaper cooking oils and less fatty meat products. It might be safe to bet that todays familys eat more vegetable fat whereas previous Americans ate more animal fat. I don't know how many people still render lard for reuse in cooking as was done in the early part of the 20th century. But I'd guess that (based on production and costs) vegetable oils have replaced most meat based fats.
Corn sweeteners are nearly tasteless... so food products have grown increasingly sweeter as no sweetener flavor is imparted into the food product. So.... more sweeteners... more empty calories (no micronutrients).
All-in-all.... not huge differences.