Quote:
Originally Posted by graciegirl
Here is a question for Jimbo and VillagesFl. Have the people closest to you, your immediate family; children, parents, siblings, changed to your way of eating?
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I've read all of the books and understand the concept he's referring to, however, I understand totally where you are coming from, Gracie. Our generation (yours and mine) has had to adjust our cooking and baking habits that we learned as young marrieds in the 1960's.......however, it still is nice to be able to "throw caution to the winds" and make someone their favorite meal every now and then without being a SPARTAN.
I have inlaws that live on seeds and nuts and have terrible dispositions.
They are no healthier than we are....in fact, they've had more surgical procedures than we will ever have, and so far, we've had none. They also pop bags of supplements like they are going out of style.
I have other family members who claim to be lactose intolerant which eliminates a lot of old favorites that have cheese in them, dairy and milk.
I have others that avoid the nightshade family of veggies.......and on and on..........and grandchildren who prefer Macdonalds and pizza to meatloaf and mashed potatoes....a true comfort meal.
I also have other children who eat healthy of everything offered, but in moderation. Moderation is the key, as another poster said.
I was raised on all the Italian veggies like escarole, kale, broccoli, you name it......if it was green it was on the table and it didn't come out of a can.........ditto for legumes.....LENTILS, BEANS.....dry ones that they had to soak.......I still say that is why that generation lived so long......there was no processed food back then...........however, NOW everything is processed.
The Mediterranean Diet is a very healthy one, with meat in moderation.
However, if you offered the average person a bowl of lentil soup with escarole or spinach floating around in it.......or beans and macaroni, ditto, they would turn up their noses........and prefer something from a chain restaurant (who all get their processed foods from a place like Sysco).
My mom cooked both my dad's Italian and her own Slavic type dishes of her mom........and that was heavy on cabbage....so still healthy and they didn't even know it. Lots of root veggies......very little meat....HONEY in place of sugar. It was more that there were "no extras". Lots of home made soups. Now, even our favorite childhood comfort food of hand rolled out pierogie / varenky slathered in sauteed onions and sour cream would be a NO NO.
Also, cooking for two is not as much fun as cooking for a large family; there are too many leftovers to contend with.
I've also had people hand us what they perceived to be a "healthy" substitute for a hot dog on the grill, or a slice of cheese.......and think just because it says low fat or no sugar, etc. that it's o.k. The substitutes can be worse than the actual ingredient they try to avoid.
We've cut way back on our red meat consumption.......but we still remember those big roasts our moms made........you cant even get a "fresh ham" (not the pink kind) like they had back then. As far as the pink ham, she'd cut crosses in it and put cloves all over it and then garnished with pineapple. Who does that anymore???????????
ALL THE JOY HAS GONE OUT OF COOKING.