As I will tell anyone who will listen, I did not move to beautiful Coastal Georgia to be this cold! It is a shame we can’t move on from this cold weather, skip over the pollen season, and go directly to the warm, sunny days of late Spring. However, this chilly weather does make me crave comfort foods – anything high in carbohydrates alongside warming soups and stews, all of which I like to follow with sugary baked treats. These always represent a big temptation for me, which I always try to resist, no matter the weather.
I was interested to read recently that the food industry is facing a major challenge resulting from the popularity of GLP-1 drugs which suppress hunger and are used to treat diabetes and now obesity. Around six million adults, or 2% of the U.S. population, are now using these drugs. This is leading to the consumption of significantly less convenience and highly processed foods as well as sugary foods and drinks. Food companies are selling smaller portion sizes and nutritionally dense foods with enhanced fiber, vitamins and protein, marketing them as the solution to avoid muscle mass loss and maintain sufficient nutrient intake for GLP-1 takers.
As a young child growing up in England in the 1970s, I often think it is a miracle we kids survived the additives and convenience food options that were heavily promoted and consumed by most families. Listening to my husband talk about his childhood in Midwest America during the 1960s and 70s, this trend seemed to be even more dramatic in the USA. Frozen
meals, dinners in a box including the ever-popular Mac & Cheese, odd meat mixtures in a can, and the like were all the rage. Many of these foods are still around, although most have been reformulated to improve the nutritional value but are probably still a long way from cooking from scratch with simple raw ingredients.
I have clear memories of lots of meals and snacks coming in a box with a very extended shelf life and, with hindsight, dubious nutritional qualities. For instance, Indian cuisine was starting to become popular in the 1960s and 1970s in the UK, so my parents seemed very fond of a type of instant Indian food which seemed a long way from the freshly cooked version and involved adding boiling water to strange looking noodles and powders. This type of instant mix was doubly easy in the UK since every home had and still has an electric water kettle for endless cups of tea. Cold drinks and milkshakes were often made at home with luridly colored powders with water and sugar or milk added to make drinks. I never liked a popular chilled mousse-like dessert which involved mixing some mystery powder with milk and chilling it until it set. When modern refrigerated yogurts were launched in the 1980s, I was delighted.
As a child, we did eat jam sandwiches on long lasting sliced white bread after slathering it with butter or margarine first, but we would have never added that crazy America product, peanut butter. While it was available in England back then, it was not a pantry staple like it was and is here in the USA. Another common childhood food in 1970s England was spreadable potted meat and fish paste, both used for sandwiches or on crackers. Fish paste originated as a way to preserve fish before refrigeration so fish such as pilchards, anchovies, and salmon would be mashed into a paste with
spices and vinegar. This allowed the fish to keep for longer without spoiling and I remember it being sold in little jars at the grocery store. I checked during my last trip to England and a limited number of these are still available but I decided to pass! “Gentlemen’s Relish”, basically a very spicy anchovy paste, was often mixed with butter on bread. This was one I could not stand, but I did like the salmon and tomato flavor of spreadable fish paste.
In the USA my husband has clear childhood convenience foods memories. Frozen TV dinners, DIY pizza mixes in a box, all sorts of freeze-dried dishes, spam, spaghetti in a can, and hamburger helper were staples of his youth, and this was also about the time when a crazy phenomenon called “fast food” was starting to really take off…..but that is a subject for another column. There is a lot more information at www.fairhealth.org and www.britannica.com
I will leave you with a quote from the well-known, early 20th Century English author, Virginia Woolf. “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
God Bless America!
Lesley grew up in London, England and made Georgia her home in 2009. She can be contacted at lesley@lesleyfrancispr.com or via her PR and marketing agency at www.lesleyfrancispr.com