The Extraordinary Science of Junk Food - NYTimes page 4

[Leida]

A lot of people today.. really most people around age 40 and younger... in America were raised on processed foods. more of less, it's all we've ever known. even cooking blogs (CW ones) with stay at home moms that cook dont always make from scratch, or from scratch is now considered dumping in a jar of mayo or some onion packet or cream of mushroom soup.

i think, as the article kind of mentions, that convenience foods are partially born from women joining the workforce in such a high volume. no longer were women stay at home moms, who had time to shop fresh each day, meal plan, mind the children and the house etc. now they were expected to have a job AND have dinner on the table. of course they want it to be easier!

I am a 37 yo working mother and a daughter of a working mother. My grandma cooked, my mom cooked (albeit unwillingly), I cook. My daughter will cook too hopefully. I just don't see why one would trade convenience for flavor. Eating is the most reliable joy of life, so why spoil it. I hate pizza and pasta.

[qqemokitty]

I am a 37 yo working mother and a daughter of a working mother. My grandma cooked, my mom cooked (albeit unwillingly), I cook. My daughter will cook too hopefully. I just don't see why one would trade convenience for flavor. Eating is the most reliable joy of life, so why spoil it. I hate pizza and pasta.

like i said, it has to do with how we were raised. i was raised to love pasta and bread, i was raised soy-bread based 'vegetarian' on processed foods and pastas. my stepmom couldnt boil water.

you were lucky to be raised by women who cooked well and i am glad you are passing that tradition on. but i also recall from your other posts that you were not raised in america, land of ultra convenience frankenfoods. =P

[Gladmorning]

I am a 37 yo working mother and a daughter of a working mother. My grandma cooked, my mom cooked (albeit unwillingly), I cook. My daughter will cook too hopefully. I just don't see why one would trade convenience for flavor. Eating is the most reliable joy of life, so why spoil it. I hate pizza and pasta.

Not everyone hates it, though. That's the point. For those that were raised on fast food and pizza and pasta, it is a hard transition. I agree, that after a long day of work, it's hard to come home and cook my own food when my mother's frozen "pizza" stares me down in the freezer.

[MaryIM]

Fascinating and frightening article!!!

[Leida]

you were lucky to be raised by women who cooked well and i am glad you are passing that tradition on. but i also recall from your other posts that you were not raised in america, land of ultra convenience frankenfoods. =P

True, but I had bread with everything. My mom would boil a can of sweetened condensed milk and we'd have it with white bread like every weekend. My grandmother loaded my tea and hot cereals with sugar telling me I need it, or else my 'brain won't work in school'. Grandma survived the famine during the war. Her canning and jams were not shy of sugar. I once tried a traditional recipe for sour cherries, and I could not eat it - it was far too sweet. We might not have had frozen dinners and microwaves, but plenty of canned goods, and no shortage of pastas (including home-made, my great-grandma had that chicken soup with home-made lapsha....).

When I came to the land of Convenient Foods, I could have been swept off my feet by just how easy it is not to cook. After all I have never had a dishwasher and a laundry machine, and I have embraced it wholeheartedly! I did try fast foods, and eating out, but it just never appealed to me in the long run. Boring, expensive and tastes bad.

I guess the scariest part is that it does not inherently taste good, but you have to be conditioned from childhood to find it palatable.

[nikitakolata]

like i said, it has to do with how we were raised. i was raised to love pasta and bread, i was raised soy-bread based 'vegetarian' on processed foods and pastas. my stepmom couldnt boil water.

you were lucky to be raised by women who cooked well and i am glad you are passing that tradition on. but i also recall from your other posts that you were not raised in america, land of ultra convenience frankenfoods. =P

Not everyone hates it, though. That's the point. For those that were raised on fast food and pizza and pasta, it is a hard transition. I agree, that after a long day of work, it's hard to come home and cook my own food when my mother's frozen "pizza" stares me down in the freezer.

Yep, I love the taste of fast foods and convenience foods. I haven't actually had a sandwich from McDonalds in over a year, but I'm pretty sure I'll still love it if I have one. I was raised on processed foods and nothing I make from scratch ever really seems to taste quite as good.

I loved the article though. Too bad I've been obsessing about Lays potato chips since I read it 2 days ago...

[Leida]

You can make sweet potato chips if you have a dehydrator. My husband was a Doritos fan. I was thinking he will give me heck for the purchase, but he is the biggest fan of both veggie chips and jerky. Go figure. A man excited about dehydrator. Now he is embracing the juicer too. I am floored.

I also find that I like processed and commercial foods less and less as the years go by... I am almost positive that if I bought myself a can of Pringles now, I wouldn't be able to finish it. Maybe I am nuts.

[JoanieL]

I think a lot of it is age and locale. Though my mom used convenience foods, they weren't whole meal convenient. She had no qualms about packing a bologna and cheese sandwich for our lunches or just giving us lunch money. I think the worst meal she cooked was on Friday nights when she'd make salmon patties and tater tots. I used to call them potato poopies because they just tasted so bad.

Being of Italian descent, I can honestly say that my mother never ever had a frozen pizza or Stouffer's lasagna in our home. My father probably would have pitched a fit, and my relatives would have come at us with pitchforks. *chuckle*

Later, when she lived alone, she ate some prepared foods, but she still bought whole chickens, made eggs, etc. Unfortunately, she'd also developed a taste for McS*** (as in, "Mom, you never ate McSh*t when we were growing up, why do you eat it now?")

Living sort of rural from the ages of 14-18, we had to drive a ways to get to a McD or Arthur Treacher's, etc., so while it was there, it wasn't the kind of thing you just swung by and picked up on your way home.

I think all of that stays with you. Putting a chicken in the oven with some s&p, and an herb isn't that much work. Burgers (not take out) really aren't that much work and taste like a completely different food from ones that come in paper wrapping. Broiling a steak isn't really that much work. Pan fried pork chops (or baked).

I guess I don't see convenience foods as all that convenient. They don't taste like food. They're stupidly expensive, so it's like we've decided to all be two salary families only to piss away our money on food that isn't food when we could make quality at home for less money. Using grocery store convenience foods, I would always prorate it to the per pound price and really, they are quite expensive.