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How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#161

Post by Simon_says »

hansthehorse wrote: post #135
nimbius wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>if product has long shelf life and does not require refrigeration - it is probably unhealthy. Beef Jerky, dried chiles beans and legumes, as well as canned vegetables would beg to differ. steel cut Oats, carefully stored, will easily survive close to a decade. naturally fermented pickles can last months on end as well. In the US, canned beans and frozen vegetables are among the most opulent excesses of the boomer er…

The trucking industry depends on comically low driver wages not low fuel prices, although fuel costs are a factor. An over the road trucker used to be able to support a family easily, making 80k in todays money in the 70s and 80s. Today they can expect to make an average of 40k working for a trucking company. There is a severe shortage of over the road drivers and I believe this is the major reason. It's a tough and…

Good. It's a terrible job.

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#163

Post by elliekelly »

EdwardDiego wrote: post #147
sdiq wrote: post #89

Not being American and unfamiliar with both Crisco (1) and Ram Dass (2), I thought two unrelated but top stories on HN were connected. I somehow thought Chrisco Church (3) that was founded in Kenya by a certain Harry Das was international and what the unconnected stories were about. Poor me. (1) this thread (2) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21861986 (3) https://www.nation.co.ke/counties/nairobi/Apostle-Harry-D…

I dislike how you're being downvoted for not being American.

I think it’s probably because the comment is a bit off-topic. But the only-slightly-related comments on HN are sometimes the best and most interesting.

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#164

Post by [deleted] »

athenot wrote: post #77
somurzakov wrote: post #71

quick rule of thumb I developed - if product has long shelf life and does not require refrigeration - it is probably unhealthy. fruits and veggies get optimized for heavier weight per piece and longer shelf life, instead of taste. Same thing for every other grocery product.

I have a similar rule of thumb: if it's not part of any culture's traditional cuisine, it's probably unhealthy. Long shelf life is not necessarily an issue; I've eaten home-made canned cherries & plums that were 10 years old. Wine can also have a long shelf life (though most don't). But your point stands with the varietals optimized for appearance and tolerance to shipping as opposed to flavor. I've come to realize w…

[deleted]

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#165

Post by elliekelly »

elfexec wrote: post #136

More like how marketing and PR in the 20th century made americans believers of the garbage we eat today. The OJ industry funded PR tricked americans into thinking sugar laden orange juice was healthy and to be included in every breakfast. The same with cereal by Kellog. And PR somehow convinced us that the processed swill called microwavable dinners was actually food. The rise of PR in the 1900s and its use by the fo…

If you haven’t already you should check out “Century of the Self”

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#166

Post by peter_retief »

cortesoft wrote: post #129
peter_retief wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apologies I had the article in my mind when I posted. However the chemical used in manufacturing seed oils are quite extreme. I did use the wrong term

What does 'extreme' mean in this context?

Extreme as compared to collecting the fat from roasting.

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#167

Post by Pfhreak »

grecy wrote: post #111
Pfhreak wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? It'd be hard to give up miso, or fish sauce, or chocolate. Or beer. Or gochujang. Cheese. Baking powder. Mustard... I could make some of these things myself, but that's a pretty tall order.

Sure, it's hard to give up McDonalds and coke too, but I wasn't talking about what you want to eat, I was talking about what you should eat. If you want to avoid overly-processed food (like TFA), then do you best to stick to things that have one ingredient.

No, those things are trivial to give up. Plenty of fermented foods are both good for you and contain many ingredients, for example.

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#168

Post by riffraff »

athenot wrote: post #77
somurzakov wrote: post #71

quick rule of thumb I developed - if product has long shelf life and does not require refrigeration - it is probably unhealthy. fruits and veggies get optimized for heavier weight per piece and longer shelf life, instead of taste. Same thing for every other grocery product.

I have a similar rule of thumb: if it's not part of any culture's traditional cuisine, it's probably unhealthy. Long shelf life is not necessarily an issue; I've eaten home-made canned cherries & plums that were 10 years old. Wine can also have a long shelf life (though most don't). But your point stands with the varietals optimized for appearance and tolerance to shipping as opposed to flavor. I've come to realize w…

> I have a similar rule of thumb: if it's not part of any culture's traditional cuisine, it's probably unhealthy.

A similar thing I heard often is "don't eat anything your grandma wouldn't recognize as food", and it seems sensible, but the problem with this reasoning is the blurry definition of "traditional" and our general ignorance of food history.

For example, MSG is a fairly traditional ingredient in Japan, being used since 1909 (older than my grandma). Crisco would be considered the same in the US. But hydrogenated fats have known unhealthy effects, while MSG has been proven to be mostly innocuous.

At the same time, candied fruit is super traditional in the mediterranean, and something like cassata siciliana[0] is candied fruit, marzipan etc.. basically sugar coated with sugar. Definitely unhealthy, though delicious and traditional.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassata

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#169

Post by riffraff »

BubRoss wrote: post #144
viburnum wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, pretty sure millions of years of evolution have better equipped humans to eat the wild plants in their environment better than whatever they came up with in a lab yesterday.

Based on what? The Chinese used to chew on cinnabar which they believed to be healthy and give longevity but was toxic, since it is actually mercury sulfide.

not just the chinese, mercury was used as a medicine in europe until the 20th century.

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#170

Post by namdnay »

NikolaeVarius wrote: post #94
namdnay wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ingredients for mozzarella are: buffalo milk, salt and rennet (and a bit of leftover whey for the bacteria). I’m sure there is far more in a packet of “cheese strings” than that

Lets test the claim out. https://www.frigocheeseheads.com/en/products/everyday-snacki... > INGREDIENTS: Low moisture part skim mozzarella cheese (pasteurized part skim milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes) https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Mozzarella-String-Che... > Ingredients: Pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes https://www.sargento.com/our-cheese/string-stick/string-chee... > Pasteurized Reduced…

I guess it depends on the brands: https://www.cheestrings.ca/en/products.html
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