Only problem is it sounds like their stats are coming from disappearance data. The problem with disappearance is it fails to account for food that is not used for food. It shows that in 1909, we ate 3x as much Grain as we do now. But, that is outright wrong. All you have to do to understand why is look back at your Grand and Great-Grandparents. How many of them kept animals ? How many of them fed them Grain ? Because disappearance data only accounts for how much Grain went into the food supply, it fails to account for how much of it was used to feed animals. In addition, since it fails to account for meat obtained by Hunting, Fishing, or Privately kept livestock, it would also significantly underestimate meat consumption at the turn of the century.
Based on disappearance data it would appear our diet was very high in Grains and lower in Fat back in 1909. But, because persons like my Great-Grandmother kept livestock, slaughtered their own meat, rendered their own Lard, and churned their own Butter...many High-Fat foods were never counted into the disappearance data. But, at the same time if she went down to the General store and bought 50 pounds of Corn to give to her animals, disappearance data would indicate that she ate 50 pounds of Corn, even if she gave it all to her animals and then ate the animals and/or their rendered fat. BTW, she lived well into her 90s, cooking everything with Lard, Butter, Fatback, Eggs, etc...and eating lots of Meat. It always perplexed me as a kid to see this woman in her 90s, still in relatively good shape, and alive and kicking when she'd eaten all that Fat and Saturated Fat for her entire life. After all, wasn't eating exactly how she did supposed to give you an Early Heart Attack, or at least that's what they claimed.
Interestingly, she was 1 of only 2 family members that did NOT die from a Heart Attack, Diabetes, Hypertension, or Smoking [Lung Cancer.] 1 other died from Lung Cancer [from Smoking] before Heart Disease could take him. But, he did have Diabetes. By comparison, I've lost at least 4-5 family members to Heart Attacks, 1 to Hypertension/Diabetes, and 1 to Lung Cancer [caused by smoking,] most of whom ate alot of Carbs [especially Sugar.] I've looked back at my family tree and before about 1950/1960, they all lived well beyond their life expectancies. But, around the middle of this century, they started dying early from Heart Disease.
What changed ? While I can't say how my Dad's Dad's side ate [other than those who were alive when I was a kid,] my Dad's Mother's family [before the middle of this century -- my Great-Grandmother continuing to eat that way into the 1980s] ate lots of Fat, Protein, and Greens, and some Corn [in the form of Grits and Cornbread]...with very little added Sugar. By comparison, those who died early were fond of Carbonated Beverages and Sugar. My Uncle and Grandfather loved Soda [used to drink it by the Bottle, just like I did,] and its probably one of the reasons they died from Heart Disease at ages 50 and 64 respectively.
Last edited by cc48510 : Fri, Apr-23-04 at 10:08.
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