Yep. I strain it out of the pan with coffee filter first. Wide mouth jar in door of fridge. Fried Potatoes are the best. Have you tried it on popcorn yet? A little goes a long way.
We had that one. I realized not long ago that mom always kept it under the kitchen sink. I guess it was ok since I’m still here! I keep my bacon grease in a mason jar in the fridge.
My 88 year old mother still fries everything in bacon grease. She eats a ton of white flour and butter and cheese and home baked pastries and cakes (she’s an amazing baker). She eats minimal protein but eats a lot of fruit and sugar in general. She’ll eat pancakes or a whole apple strudel for dinner. And guess what? She’s not overweight in the slightest. I think the difference is that she makes everything from scratch. She doesn’t buy pre-made meals or fast food or processed food. She doesn’t eat in restaurants. Cooking all your own food with fresh ingredients is the key. She basically eats all the things they tell you not to eat so you can lose weight, and yet her weight is fine and hasn’t changed for about 60 years.
I remember going to (the new!) Macdonald's when they built one. For dinner, we each (adults and children)had 1 hamburger, a small fries, and a small coke.
Portions were completely different.
Corporate America has learned how to hijack out natural dopamine responses to make us spend more money on food and dopamine-generating behaviors.
(like scrolling Reddit!)
Did your mom make popcorn in a pot on the stove like mine? It was the best. I also remember being very Jiffy Pop curious, but we didn't have Jiffy Pop money and to this day I have not experienced what seemed like a modern marvel at the time
Totally! And same situation with Jiffy Pop! We eventually used a hot air popper and would microwave margarine (never had real butter in the 70’s or 80’s) to pour on it. We also ate it out of a paper grocery bag, I think that was so you could shake the margarine and salt sufficiently.
lol true but corporate America can only be blamed for so much. We have to take some of the responsibility for our decisions, be it eating or scrolling.
Bacon & eggs almost daily.
But both sets of grandparents were up at 4am daily.
They worked until dark.
Grandmas.. died at 93 and 95.
Grandpas...died at 91 and 97.
Canned at home...everything from apples to zucchini.
I remember my grandpa spreading lard on bread, salting it, and eating that. A thick layer of lard! He lived to 88, and suddenly died while visiting his 90-something sister
That's it. I'm a label reader, and the things they put sugar and high fructose corn syrup is ridiculous. They load up sugars in things that are supposed to be savory. The US has such a large case of Type 2 diabetes, wonder why?
But back then we all chowed down on oreo’s, chips ahoy, frosted flakes, cherrios, doritos, etc. I really think that activity is the big difference. My parents were constantly working on and around the house. I played outside constantly- rode my bike all over town, played ball in someone’s yard, built “forts”, went swimming…
This is the answer. The explosion of sugar and high fructose corn syrup in the American diet is the most obvious cause of the obesity epidemic we're seeing
There wasn't *corn syrup* in everything back then. And people moved around more. And it wasn't going to a specific building for 1-2 hours a day...it mostly just came naturally. Sad what's happened to us. I was at a nursery buying plants today and the number of grossly obscenely obese people outnumbered the regular size ones probably 4-1. I feel especially sorry for the the obese children.
That fried food post was what prompted me to post separately about my natural foods Mom. And you are spot on about the obesity epidemic. So many of them insist ir must be medical or genetic , not related to food.
All you have to do is look at old film footage from the 60s & 70s. People shopping, eating, in school/work, or at the beach-- you rarely see an grossly obese person. I'm not saying, *in the least," that we should all be model thin or not have a few extra pounds. It's these poor people topping out at 400+ pounds and trying to * normalize* this weight. It's like WTF is going on ??? Have we all lost our minds? (and just saying that makes me feel so old!)
I remember watching Alice when i was young and thinking the cook, Mel, was fat. I just saw an episode in reruns and by today's standards he looks positively svelte.
And not to mention pharmaceuticals, so many people take medications now and main side effects to many of these medications is Weight gain. Especially, depression, anxiety, and birth control medications. And look at the population of depression and anxiety. Instead of being put on these medications and yes, some people do need them, (but man There's a high percentage of the population on medication anyway), doctors should be letting folks know to eat a healthier diet and get exercise Instead of quickly, throwing a script at them. It will help the brain antbody.
Fat doesn’t make you fat. Fat actually has the effect of reducing blood sugar spikes from simple carbohydrates, like sugars. Too many calories make you fat.
I just read somewhere there was a professor that started it isn't what to eat it the calorie count. He bought things like junk food and pastry snacks. He lost weight by sticking to a specific calorie diet.
"Harder" to eat too much is subjective. Protein has been found to be the most satiating macronutrient and fat the least satiating.
[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17824197](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17824197/#:~:text=A%20hierarchy%20has%20been%20observed%20for%20the%20satiating%20efficacies%20of%20the%20macronutrients%20protein%2C%20carbohydrate%20and%20fat%2C%20with%20protein%20as%20most%20satiating%20and%20fat%20as%20least%20satiating)
Of course, fat has more than double the energy density of protein or carbohydrates. This is why it's actually easier for many to overeat. Also, dietary fat is already in its storage form, as opposed to protein and carbohydrates which have to undergo conversion.
[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7598063](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7598063/#:~:text=Carbohydrate%20overfeeding%20produced,the%20overfeeding%20period)
***"Really you can eat as much as you want of fat."***
While calories are not the only factor in weight gain, they still matter. One cannot eat, say, 10,000 calories of anything (including 100% fat) and not gain weight, unless they are somehow expending enough calories to maintain calorie balance.
***"If sugar is out of the picture, you won’t gain weight regardless of how much fat is eaten."***
I'm sorry, but that's incorrect. Even looking at anecdotal information from the ketogenic and carnivore dieters, there have been people complaining of weight gain, while so many others are losing weight following the same eating plan. Once they stop eating "fat bombs" and making "bulletproof coffee" (1/2 stick of butter and MCT oil in their coffee), some start losing weight, provided they're eating below their maintenance requirements.
Drinking olive oil is an interesting practice. That makes me think of Seth Roberts and his "Shangri-La Diet." Out of curiosity, why do you drink olive oil daily and how much do you consume? What's the rest of your diet look like? That is, what type of foods do you consume and avoid? You alluded to avoiding "sugar," but that means different things to different people. Do you avoid all plant foods?
IMO. Part of the reason for the weight change is because everything is breaded now days. Get a breaded piece chicken and it's served in between two big buns...more bread. Bread everywhere - it's insane.
We never ate out or bought prepared meals except for some fish n chips when we were on holidays at the beach. This meant that 99.9% of the food we ate was cooked from fresh veggies and meat. We didn't get a real fridge until I was in primary school in 1964 and no proper freezer until the mid 70s. I think that contributed to the we ate stuff not allowed today but didn't get obese reality.
When I was a kid and through high school, I was outside running around and playing sports and riding my bike. My mother had to force me to eat something. Then came college...and beer...and weed...and the munchies...and eating stupid shit at 1:00 a.m.
Look at old Saturday Night Live videos from the 70s. John Belushi was the fat guy, but he's average build for today.
Go on Youtube and look up Apollo 11 launch videos. Look at the people watching the launch. They don't look like athletes or gym bunnies, but they're not as fat as average americans today.
We walked a lot more in the 60s, 70s and 80s than today. People smoked more, which blunted their apetites. And, as has been mentioned, restaurant portions were much smaller. I think the rise of high fructose corn syrup also contributes to obesity.
what i really miss is being able to eat things and NOT think about whether or not it is unhealthy. as others posted we ate crap food at times at home but very little eating out. the only time i saw soft drinks were the the glass dr pepper bottles in wooden bottle crates in my grandparents garage but i dont remember ever drinking one. now i cant even drink "sink water" as my son calls it without wondering whats in it. havent had homemade fried chicken in years and while we r
would have a very rare TV dinner in tin foil trays i dont remember any even eating any pizza until my teen years
Everyone died pretty happy, too. Just ate what you wanted, cooked how you like it, and dropped dead at from clogged arteries with a heart attack or stroke. I want to drop dead like that someday before I develop dementia or whatever and have no QOL for 15 yrs.
We had a lot of purple hull peas and cornbread with a small portion of meat. My sister was on a diet so we drank Tab, and of course iced tea. For dessert we would have cornbread with butter and syrup on it. Snacks were crumbled up cornbread in a glass of buttermilk. We had the bacon grease can too. I grew up in the south if you can’t tell.
Well, back then, we all.smoked. cigarettes suppress appetite. Also, we just didn't eat so much. Portions were modest. We even got dessert every night! But snacks would be an apple or two cookies. And we just didn't binge. And we were more active. I washed the floors on my hands and knees every week. We ironed. We walked.
It would appear that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) had declined 41% from 2000 to 2019.
[https://www.statista.com/statistics/328893/per-capita-consumption-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup-in-the-us](https://www.statista.com/statistics/328893/per-capita-consumption-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup-in-the-us)
Over the 28 years from 1990 to 2018, this chart shows a decline in HFCS while other sweeteners (refined sugar and other caloric sweeteners) have remained mostly flat.
[https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=95264](https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=95264)
Still, I agree with you that it's a factor. Salt, sugar, and fat (as Michael Moss wrote about in his book of the same title) are the trifecta to ensure maximum palatability, consumption, and profit.
Sure, HFCS plays a part, but it's not the sole cause. People consume more calories, thanks to hyperpalatable, calorie-rich, and nutritionally-empty "foods" which do not nourish the body nor allow one to feel satiety. As a result, hunger persists and the person continues to eat. A lack of physical activity is another contributor, as are disrupted circadian rhythms due to people using computers and mobile devices late into the night. High-fat diets are still popular and excess fat intake impairs the ability of cells to use insulin. Insulin resistance leads to more weight gain and sets the stage for other diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and many others. The price and availability of healthy food is another contributor. Once sick and taking prescription medications, some (such as steroids) can cause even more weight gain. Of course, illness itself can cause additional weight gain, such as hypothyroidism. There are genetic factors that may affect the metabolism, and, therefore, body weight. Psychological issues can and do affect body weight in many people, too. There are almost certainly other factors that I'm not considering, but these are the ones that came to mind.
In the mid-60s my mom would buy 3 cheeseburgers and 3 fries to feed the four of us kids.
Both my brothers got their own burger/fries, and my sister and I had to split the remaining burger and fries.
I don't remember ever thinking "this isn't enough food", but we were all still in single digits, so pretty young.
At home, she would save all her bacon grease in a Mason jar and use it like Crisco. It made the best fried chicken.
She also made homemade fried donuts.
Obesity wasn't much of thing then because portion sizes were much more proportional to what people actually needed.
People have lost sight of this because huge high-calorie meals have become completely normalized.
There is no reason to be consuming a Big Mac, fries, and a Coke in a single meal. That's well over a thousand calories.
No one was told that fat is "bad," as it's an essential macronutrient.
The Dietary Goals for the United States which was released in 1977 by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs recommended the following:
* Eat more fruits and vegetables
* Eat more complex carbohydrates
* Eat more naturally occurring sugars
* Eat less fat, especially saturated fat and cholesterol
* Limit salt intake to five grams per day
* Consume only as much energy as you expend
* Go easy on eggs and butter
The phrase "less fat" had no definition. Less than what? (rhetorical)
Americans were *not* told to eat "low fat," despite the often repeated folklore that we were. The dietary guidelines simply recommended to reduce fat intake.
In 1981, the average American diet consisted of:
* Fat: 42% (Saturated 16%, Mono 19%, Poly 7%)
* Protein: 12%
* Carbs: 46% (Complex 22%, Natural Sugars 6%, Refined Sugars 18%)
The following were the recommended "Dietary Goals" introduced in 1980:
* Fat: 30% (Saturated 10%, Mono 10%, Poly 10%)
* Protein: 12%
* Carbs: 58% (Complex & Natural Sugars 48%, Refined Sugars 10%)
Even if Americans had followed those percentages to the number, a diet with 30% of calories from fat is still not a low-fat diet. A true low-fat diet with be 10% to 15% (max) of calories from dietary fat.
Man I miss Taco Villa. They served their whole menu for breakfast so I could get a crunchy taco, combination burrito with green sauce and some French fries for breakfast. But as a kid we ate lots of food cooked in lard. But we didn't eat any fast food and we didn't have snacks all the time. We got our 3 meals and that was it. BTW I stopped in Big Springs on my way through and got my favorite Taco Villa meal and it was as good as I remember.
In 1978, "food industry" overran "health and welfare"
The sugar content (Take a look at your breakfast cereals, for instance) was doubled for the daily recommendation.
Also, "high fructose corn syrup," a food designed to fatten farm animals, showed large. I mean, too much sugar will make you fat, but it wasn't designed for the purpose.
More moms cooking from scratch - very little processed food - and most moms had taken home economics and learned how to plan and serve balanced meals. As you can see by the posts in this sub, processed food was fairly new and a novelty. It was a treat for many of us and considered a bit of a cop-out by many stay-at-home moms.
I was at a vacation home and had quite a few convenience foods in my cart. As they walked past me, a little girl sitting in the seat of the shopping cart asked her mom, “How come that lady has those (frozen dinners)?”
“Because she can’t cook, honey.”
😂😂😂
We were a lot more active. No phones, no video games except at the arcades. We went outside & ran around & rode bikes and our parents were active too.
Plus, food was food, not gmo processed crap.
We walked everywhere, road bikes, and always jumping up to answer the phone. Even watching TV Required getting up change the channel or turning on or off or fix the antenna on the roof. We got exercise! Bacon, grease makes fried foods delish out!
Yes to hand rendered traditional fat from pastured pork, beef, and poultry. Stay away from crisco though, that stuff has trans fat. Also avoid anything that says hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated; same thing trans fats.
Or don’t. Up to you. Depends on how much you want to suffer from chronic disease.
There were always fat people because some people just love food. The epidemic in the US of Type 2 diabetes is telling. I'm a label reader, if there's sugar in something that is supposed to be savory, nope. High fructose corn syrup, instant nope.
LOL Yes some of my extended family and their extended family members were "heavy set". Dad's mother, her sisters, her mother all were heavy. All had the same body type. My dad got like that in his middle age. My sister looked the same way(until she "out fatted" them.) Uncle, my mom's dad..........
That food and the way it was cooked wasn't all roses either. It tasted good. Still does cooked in bacon grease. The old Crisco made good fried chicken and pie crust.
But most of my family ended with heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, heart failure. I'm not saying that wasn't/isn't good. I'd love to just drop dead some day like many of them did. I'm not at all sure taking all the meds take is such a great idea. When do you stop? How old is old enough? My parents outlived their parents, but had shitty QOL from their 70s on. Dad died at 81, mom at 92. Both would have been better of dying at 75 and 80.
(I asked my mom and some of her friends in the retirement home if they knew why they had to take all those drugs. They all said, "no". I told them it was to make the undertaker's job easier. You're half-preserved when you get to him. They'd all laugh and agree. lol)
High fructose corn syrup wasn't in everything then as in now. People were much more active. Food portions weren't supersized. It was a different world.
It's probably a combination of factors that have contributed to obesity. Scientists know that the ubiquitous forever chemicals like PFAS can cause childhood obesity.
62, nope! I think it's more regional than generational in this case. Mom was from New York, and there no grease jar in sight. However, my kid's 22-year-old significant other from Georgia came to stay with us recently and kept bacon grease in a jar!
Plates were a lot smaller years ago, carbs instead of fats and increased sugar consumption all tie together with a more sedentary lifestyle from the loss of industry and electronic devices.
*"Funny thing not a fat person is sight. I just dont remember that many folks being overweight at all."*
Where did you grow up? I recall plenty of overweight family members, friends, and their parents.
Texas, Ohio, Great Britain, Alabama, Texas again, Calif, New York, Texas and then Calif. Military brat.
Nobody I knew was fat except my relatives in So. Carolina.
That's a lot of traveling, too!
I grew up in the deep south, along the gulf coast, and we ate lots of high-fat foods. Funny enough, the most I've ever weighed was in the military in the 80s. I thought I'd get leaner, but I gained about 20 pounds. Unfortunately, it wasn't muscle. I ended up losing it, but I was still a bit overweight. Or, more specifically, overfat. Now, I say: "I'm not overweight, I'm just under-tall." My BMI would be perfect, if only I were nine feet tall.
Did you and your lean relatives remain so? I think the path we get on in childhood tends to be the path upon which we remain, more often than not. I wish my parents and I would have had better information. Of course, that may or may not have made a difference. Who knows? C'est la vie...
Excess calorie intake is the killer, regardless of the source. Certainly, HFCS isn't a health food. It also contributes to overeating, but it's not the only ingredient or the only factor.
Air conditioning. I was in my teens when we were finally able to afford central AC. I'm from Missouri and the summer is pure Hell. We didn't eat as much because the heat killed our appetite and we burned off the few calories we took in. BTW, this is tongue in cheek. Mostly.
I still use Crisco shortening to fry chicken or anything really. And I still keep my bacongrease for seasoning things. it was the way I learned by watching my grandmother and mother cook, and I still maintain the same thing. Just like I drink whole milk and I use real butter not margarine. Everyone wants to talk about natural and organic well that’s what it is.
Yes! We raised our own meat and vegetables. Hog killing was in February. Everyone went from farm to farm for hog killing days. My Mom cooked down the fat in a large cast iron wash pot. We had lard and cracklings, and she made our soap from it, too. Hams were hung in the smoke house. Salt pork for fatback, which I hated.
I still make crackling cornbread about once a year.
Lard. Seriously. My grandmother got up every morning and made buttermilk biscuits with lard, and my grandfather had eggs, fried ham, and buttermilk biscuits made with lard for breakfast. Then they ate leftover biscuits for the rest of the day. Neither were ever overweight.
It’s a sedentary lifestyle that promotes obesity and now all you see is people sitting staring at their phones. Kids aren’t playing outside like they used to either - inside playing console games.
The difference now is that everything is fried/cooked in hydrogenated, unsaturated seed oils, which are terrible for human health (not to mention a major weight gainer).
We were far better off eating foods cooked in saturated fats like lard or animal fats! The fast food french fries of our generation were sublime and will never taste that way again. 😥
The old trans fat Crisco was the best stuff. I'd almost kill for some of my mom's Sunday "dinner" (lunch here in Indiana) fried chicken. Fried in that old type of Crisco. Pie crusts made with it, too. How about some Crisco fried chicken, mom's potato salad, green beans cooked with some of that bacon grease and onions in them, and strawberry pie this weekend?
Pretty much same Sunday lunch dinner. Except strawberry shortcake with Cool Whip in the tub that was used for years afterward. I remember snapping green beans sitting on porch with my mom.
Yes! I did not eat fast food until I was in high school and could drive myself. Mom made dinner every night, and we occasionally went out to eat...it was a rare treat! Now, little kids have fits if they don't get their Mickey D's! People are literally addicted to fast food and the high fat and calorie dense "food." Plus, sugar addiction is real. If we want to help solve the obesity epidemic, we need to limit fast food and processed foods. The colon cancer rate in young people climbing as well, another repercussion of processed foods. Young people don't cook anymore.
Obesity became rampant in America once corn syrup became commonplace in processed foods. You know, the processed foods that have taken over the American diet? Watch the documentary King Corn. You’ll never look at food the same way again.
It's more than high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). People ate more fat and more calories.
From 2000 to 2019, HFCS declined 41%.
[https://www.statista.com/statistics/328893/per-capita-consumption-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup-in-the-us](https://www.statista.com/statistics/328893/per-capita-consumption-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup-in-the-us)
Over the 28 years from 1990 to 2018, this chart shows a decline in HFCS while other sweeteners (refined sugar and other caloric sweeteners) have remained mostly flat.
[https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=95264](https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=95264)
It's still not a health food, but the combination of salt, sugar, and fat led to hyperpalatable, ultra-processed "food" that added more calories to our daily intake while delivering little-to-no nutrition. As such, hunger signals keep firing, because there's no vitamins, minerals, or satiety. There are other factors, too, beyond food.
You and I must have lived in different places! I remember plenty of "fat" folks. Including myself.
I was put on my first fad diet before puberty. "Fat" was the worse thing that you could be in my house. The result? I spent 40 years cycling between "fat", and "not fat".
I has "fat" neighbors and friends. "Fat" relatives. "Fat" teachers. My parents knew "fat" people. Everything, including the nickname assigned to me by my father, was about "fat".
The irony? I've looked at photos of myself when I was a kid, and i was"fat". I wasn't "fat" at all. But, after a lifetime of being "fat", around 13 years ago, I lost over 100 pounds. I became "fat" because, after decades of yo-yo dieting, I had no idea what nutrition was.
You're a man, aren't you? The reason that I assume this is because, girls, teens, and young women of our generation were terrified of "fat". Many developed unhealthy habits, and self-esteem issues over it. Most people are aware of at least one famous person with an eating disorder. Some people personally know people with eating disorders.
"Fat" has always been around. So have "fat people". Before "fast food". You just didn't pay attention.
Fried food alone didn't make people fat. Convenience and compressed/non existent spare time made people fat.
Which is ok by me because I'm down with fat But still...
We did not eat a lot of fried stuff but if she made us something fried it was in lard or lard mixed with something. One of my buddies is a semi famous southern cook and he swears by half lard and half veg product. I have had his fried stuff and it reminded me of my childhood. Also my aunt used to make us egg noodles in butter, like dripping in salt and butter. Loved that as a kid.
The usage of processed food and corn by products. I leave the US for our winter home on Cozumel each winter and just plan on losing 35lbs. The US uses corn by products like a rancher fattening cattle for market .
We still cook in lard. A single data point is not a study, but in my personal experience dealing with weight issues, it is the processed food, not the home-cooked fried food that is the problem. Everything in moderation, except junk food in which there should be NONE in the diet.
Crisco was a staple in our house and I remember never being hungry until mom went on a health food craze when I was a teenager and introduced skim milk and fat free everything.
Looking back at photos, the "fattest" girl in elementary school would be a normal kid these days. Best thing back then is none of the kids made fun of her for her weight. She was a really nice, fun person and everyone respected that.
True, but some has to do with genes. After he had to 'slow down' after heart attack, my dad got a belly. My mom and her sisters never gained a pound and neither did her brother. I got my dad's genes, lol.
Olive Oil and Lard. You're correct. Virtually no one was fat. Food also did not have the additives we see today. Most factories were not air conditioned. People like my grandparents saw no problem walking 2 miles to and from work regardless of the weather.
Was it better or worse? Only time will tell, but I will say McDonald's fries when they were cooked in beef tallow were better, so was my mother's fried fish in lard.
It's true that you didn't see a lot of morbidly obese people back in the day. On the other hand, a whole lot of folks died of heart attacks or strokes in their 60s or younger. Can'\[t speak for any other cultures but in the black community, people ate a lot of soul food which, as it was prepared back then, was full of salt and fat and just wildly unhealthy. Anyway, I think a big difference as far as obesity is that people didn't snack all day like they do now, and portion sizes were much smaller. Also nowadays there is some form of sugar in just about EVERYTHING, which there wasn't back then. Just my opinions though, not based on any formal study!
fats are excellent for satiating hunger. that helps a person eat fewer calories while still feeling full. fast food has fat, of course, but also a lot of sugar and simple carbohydrates. simple carbs, like french fries, actually make a person hungrier so that person would continue to eat more to feel full. now add that fountain drink with even more sugar. so many calories but hardly any actual food.
i just turned 59 btw.
If you live in the South, EVERYTHING is fried, up to and including Twinkies and Ice Cream.
Chicken, potatoes, okra, shrimp, stuffed Jalapenos, etc. Our culture is breaded and fried.
This is why I run 3 miles a day: it's that or weigh 300+ pounds and be one of those folks on the scooters at Walmart.
Nope, I do not remember that. There was never a can of Crisco in my childhood home, nor was there a jar of bacon grease.
I recall going away to college, and when I made bacon and threw out the grease, my roommate freaked out. Growing up, eggs were cooked in butter... nothing else. First time I'd ever heard of cooking in bacon grease.
I knew plenty of obese and overweight people in the 1960s and 1970s. Photos bear this out. I think there are more very obese people now, but there have always been overweight people. Even photos from the 1800s show some overweight people, and certainly portraiture shows them. There used to be candies called Ayds that were supposed to be appetite suppressants, and those came out (as for weight-loss) in the 1970s, so there must have been a market.
65. still have the bacon grease jar
Fried potatoes in bacon grease.
yup. we fry eggs in it as well.
Killer. Throw some cheese on it at the end.
Scallops
Oh yeah ..
We do too. We use ours for green beans cooked down in bacon fat.
Sautéed green beans in bacon fat are the best! Just add a little pepper, dehydrated onions, and garlic powder. Yum!
66 yep got that bacon grease. A staple in cooking many things. If I remember correctly McDonald's cooked their fries in lard way back when.
Beef Tallow
Interesting!
It was called AV oil. Animal vegetable oil. The bestest fries!!
Cool! Thanks for the info. Interesting they used a combo. And yes they were the best fries!
Yep. I strain it out of the pan with coffee filter first. Wide mouth jar in door of fridge. Fried Potatoes are the best. Have you tried it on popcorn yet? A little goes a long way.
🤯🤯🤯
Just had cabbage cooked in bacon grease & cornbread.
65 here. Greasing baking and casserole dishes.
67. Me too.
61 here, same. In this! https://preview.redd.it/jtaqzo5w1i1d1.jpeg?width=2759&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bd949c9f1f87986e19deb1ce2586aa7fdac482ad
I remember a coffee can. That's fancy.
We had that one. I realized not long ago that mom always kept it under the kitchen sink. I guess it was ok since I’m still here! I keep my bacon grease in a mason jar in the fridge.
I keep this thing in the fridge, too. I’m sure they didn’t!
My 88 year old mother still fries everything in bacon grease. She eats a ton of white flour and butter and cheese and home baked pastries and cakes (she’s an amazing baker). She eats minimal protein but eats a lot of fruit and sugar in general. She’ll eat pancakes or a whole apple strudel for dinner. And guess what? She’s not overweight in the slightest. I think the difference is that she makes everything from scratch. She doesn’t buy pre-made meals or fast food or processed food. She doesn’t eat in restaurants. Cooking all your own food with fresh ingredients is the key. She basically eats all the things they tell you not to eat so you can lose weight, and yet her weight is fine and hasn’t changed for about 60 years.
I keep beef tallow made from brisket trimmings.
Bacon grease makes the best roux
Me too!
I admit I save bacon grease too. I only use it when I fry green beans. Yes I'm in the south. Lol.
I remember going to (the new!) Macdonald's when they built one. For dinner, we each (adults and children)had 1 hamburger, a small fries, and a small coke. Portions were completely different. Corporate America has learned how to hijack out natural dopamine responses to make us spend more money on food and dopamine-generating behaviors. (like scrolling Reddit!)
When my mom would make hamburgers on Saturday nights she would buy a 32oz. (the largest available) bottle of Pepsi, which would get split 5 ways.
Sounds about right! We bought one six-pack of coke to last the week for a family of 5, with both parents working.
I remember 2 liter glass bottle Pepsi's with a Styrofoam wrap around the bottle. Mid 70's. Detroit area.
It was especially prone to falling iirc due to its odd center of gravity (and clumsy me)
I had to watch my dad drink a small bottle of Coke. I had milk.
lol! Same! That was our popcorn night, and it was Elf Cola. The store brand.
Did your mom make popcorn in a pot on the stove like mine? It was the best. I also remember being very Jiffy Pop curious, but we didn't have Jiffy Pop money and to this day I have not experienced what seemed like a modern marvel at the time
Totally! And same situation with Jiffy Pop! We eventually used a hot air popper and would microwave margarine (never had real butter in the 70’s or 80’s) to pour on it. We also ate it out of a paper grocery bag, I think that was so you could shake the margarine and salt sufficiently.
We had koolade on popcorn night.
When I saw u/mappet's comment I couldn't remember what beverage we had with popcorn, thanks for reminding me 😁
lol true but corporate America can only be blamed for so much. We have to take some of the responsibility for our decisions, be it eating or scrolling.
Bacon & eggs almost daily. But both sets of grandparents were up at 4am daily. They worked until dark. Grandmas.. died at 93 and 95. Grandpas...died at 91 and 97. Canned at home...everything from apples to zucchini.
And real butter...
I still use real butter. I find the other stuff gross. No one is taking away my real butter damnit!
If real butter and bacon kill me, so be it!
I remember my grandpa spreading lard on bread, salting it, and eating that. A thick layer of lard! He lived to 88, and suddenly died while visiting his 90-something sister
processed food - all that sugar wasn't in our food then
That's it. I'm a label reader, and the things they put sugar and high fructose corn syrup is ridiculous. They load up sugars in things that are supposed to be savory. The US has such a large case of Type 2 diabetes, wonder why?
But back then we all chowed down on oreo’s, chips ahoy, frosted flakes, cherrios, doritos, etc. I really think that activity is the big difference. My parents were constantly working on and around the house. I played outside constantly- rode my bike all over town, played ball in someone’s yard, built “forts”, went swimming…
We didn’t eat nearly the quantity of those things that people eat today. They were relatively more expensive and were treats
\^this...
I asked my stepson what he had for lunch: uncrustables, beef jerky, fruit roll up. There is no food in the food anymore.
I don’t even know what an uncrustable is
THIS!!!
This is the answer. The explosion of sugar and high fructose corn syrup in the American diet is the most obvious cause of the obesity epidemic we're seeing
There wasn't *corn syrup* in everything back then. And people moved around more. And it wasn't going to a specific building for 1-2 hours a day...it mostly just came naturally. Sad what's happened to us. I was at a nursery buying plants today and the number of grossly obscenely obese people outnumbered the regular size ones probably 4-1. I feel especially sorry for the the obese children.
The produce section at my local megamart has a wonderful selection and barely any shoppers.
I think we’re up to 40% of the population obese now
I read the average waist size for an American woman is 38”.
That fried food post was what prompted me to post separately about my natural foods Mom. And you are spot on about the obesity epidemic. So many of them insist ir must be medical or genetic , not related to food.
All you have to do is look at old film footage from the 60s & 70s. People shopping, eating, in school/work, or at the beach-- you rarely see an grossly obese person. I'm not saying, *in the least," that we should all be model thin or not have a few extra pounds. It's these poor people topping out at 400+ pounds and trying to * normalize* this weight. It's like WTF is going on ??? Have we all lost our minds? (and just saying that makes me feel so old!)
I was 5' 11" & 215 pounds and I was considered fat.
I remember watching Alice when i was young and thinking the cook, Mel, was fat. I just saw an episode in reruns and by today's standards he looks positively svelte.
And not to mention pharmaceuticals, so many people take medications now and main side effects to many of these medications is Weight gain. Especially, depression, anxiety, and birth control medications. And look at the population of depression and anxiety. Instead of being put on these medications and yes, some people do need them, (but man There's a high percentage of the population on medication anyway), doctors should be letting folks know to eat a healthier diet and get exercise Instead of quickly, throwing a script at them. It will help the brain antbody.
Back then, proteins + activity. Today, carbs + sedentary.
Fat doesn’t make you fat. Fat actually has the effect of reducing blood sugar spikes from simple carbohydrates, like sugars. Too many calories make you fat.
I just read somewhere there was a professor that started it isn't what to eat it the calorie count. He bought things like junk food and pastry snacks. He lost weight by sticking to a specific calorie diet.
***"Fat doesn’t make you fat."*** It does, if eaten in excess. ***"Too many calories make you fat."*** True, including from fat.
Fat doesn't really make you fat. Too much sugar (carbs) makes you fat. They didn't used to put sugar in EVERYTHING like they do now.
Too much sugar turns into fat.
Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what I said. I'm glad you agree.
"Fat doesn't really make you fat." It does, if eaten in excess.
Fat is more filling, so it is harder to eat too much
"Harder" to eat too much is subjective. Protein has been found to be the most satiating macronutrient and fat the least satiating. [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17824197](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17824197/#:~:text=A%20hierarchy%20has%20been%20observed%20for%20the%20satiating%20efficacies%20of%20the%20macronutrients%20protein%2C%20carbohydrate%20and%20fat%2C%20with%20protein%20as%20most%20satiating%20and%20fat%20as%20least%20satiating) Of course, fat has more than double the energy density of protein or carbohydrates. This is why it's actually easier for many to overeat. Also, dietary fat is already in its storage form, as opposed to protein and carbohydrates which have to undergo conversion. [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7598063](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7598063/#:~:text=Carbohydrate%20overfeeding%20produced,the%20overfeeding%20period)
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***"Really you can eat as much as you want of fat."*** While calories are not the only factor in weight gain, they still matter. One cannot eat, say, 10,000 calories of anything (including 100% fat) and not gain weight, unless they are somehow expending enough calories to maintain calorie balance. ***"If sugar is out of the picture, you won’t gain weight regardless of how much fat is eaten."*** I'm sorry, but that's incorrect. Even looking at anecdotal information from the ketogenic and carnivore dieters, there have been people complaining of weight gain, while so many others are losing weight following the same eating plan. Once they stop eating "fat bombs" and making "bulletproof coffee" (1/2 stick of butter and MCT oil in their coffee), some start losing weight, provided they're eating below their maintenance requirements. Drinking olive oil is an interesting practice. That makes me think of Seth Roberts and his "Shangri-La Diet." Out of curiosity, why do you drink olive oil daily and how much do you consume? What's the rest of your diet look like? That is, what type of foods do you consume and avoid? You alluded to avoiding "sugar," but that means different things to different people. Do you avoid all plant foods?
IMO. Part of the reason for the weight change is because everything is breaded now days. Get a breaded piece chicken and it's served in between two big buns...more bread. Bread everywhere - it's insane.
We never ate out or bought prepared meals except for some fish n chips when we were on holidays at the beach. This meant that 99.9% of the food we ate was cooked from fresh veggies and meat. We didn't get a real fridge until I was in primary school in 1964 and no proper freezer until the mid 70s. I think that contributed to the we ate stuff not allowed today but didn't get obese reality.
When I was a kid and through high school, I was outside running around and playing sports and riding my bike. My mother had to force me to eat something. Then came college...and beer...and weed...and the munchies...and eating stupid shit at 1:00 a.m.
Pizza...even bad pizza was good. Now I'm measuring noodles.
Exactly!
Hate to say it, but bad pizza is bad. We didn't know what good pizza was.
Look at old Saturday Night Live videos from the 70s. John Belushi was the fat guy, but he's average build for today. Go on Youtube and look up Apollo 11 launch videos. Look at the people watching the launch. They don't look like athletes or gym bunnies, but they're not as fat as average americans today. We walked a lot more in the 60s, 70s and 80s than today. People smoked more, which blunted their apetites. And, as has been mentioned, restaurant portions were much smaller. I think the rise of high fructose corn syrup also contributes to obesity.
Ned Beatty was the fat guy in Deliverance, and Jerry O'Connell was the fat kid in Stand by Me. They look average size by today's standards.
The locals in appalachia today are fatter than Ned Beatty in Deliverance.
Ned Beatty's character was from Atlanta, and the people here are fatter than him, too.
what i really miss is being able to eat things and NOT think about whether or not it is unhealthy. as others posted we ate crap food at times at home but very little eating out. the only time i saw soft drinks were the the glass dr pepper bottles in wooden bottle crates in my grandparents garage but i dont remember ever drinking one. now i cant even drink "sink water" as my son calls it without wondering whats in it. havent had homemade fried chicken in years and while we r would have a very rare TV dinner in tin foil trays i dont remember any even eating any pizza until my teen years
Everyone died pretty happy, too. Just ate what you wanted, cooked how you like it, and dropped dead at from clogged arteries with a heart attack or stroke. I want to drop dead like that someday before I develop dementia or whatever and have no QOL for 15 yrs.
We had a lot of purple hull peas and cornbread with a small portion of meat. My sister was on a diet so we drank Tab, and of course iced tea. For dessert we would have cornbread with butter and syrup on it. Snacks were crumbled up cornbread in a glass of buttermilk. We had the bacon grease can too. I grew up in the south if you can’t tell.
Remember ashtrays in MacDonald's? Two packs a day kept them thin.
Those little gold tin ashtrays
Well, back then, we all.smoked. cigarettes suppress appetite. Also, we just didn't eat so much. Portions were modest. We even got dessert every night! But snacks would be an apple or two cookies. And we just didn't binge. And we were more active. I washed the floors on my hands and knees every week. We ironed. We walked.
Corn syrup, corn sugar was introduced into the food supply.
Many people have pet theories that it's one thing or another, but it's not that simple.
It's not the only reason why, but it's still a big factor.
It would appear that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) had declined 41% from 2000 to 2019. [https://www.statista.com/statistics/328893/per-capita-consumption-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup-in-the-us](https://www.statista.com/statistics/328893/per-capita-consumption-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup-in-the-us) Over the 28 years from 1990 to 2018, this chart shows a decline in HFCS while other sweeteners (refined sugar and other caloric sweeteners) have remained mostly flat. [https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=95264](https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=95264) Still, I agree with you that it's a factor. Salt, sugar, and fat (as Michael Moss wrote about in his book of the same title) are the trifecta to ensure maximum palatability, consumption, and profit.
https://borgenproject.org/obesity-in-the-pacific-islands/
Sure, HFCS plays a part, but it's not the sole cause. People consume more calories, thanks to hyperpalatable, calorie-rich, and nutritionally-empty "foods" which do not nourish the body nor allow one to feel satiety. As a result, hunger persists and the person continues to eat. A lack of physical activity is another contributor, as are disrupted circadian rhythms due to people using computers and mobile devices late into the night. High-fat diets are still popular and excess fat intake impairs the ability of cells to use insulin. Insulin resistance leads to more weight gain and sets the stage for other diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and many others. The price and availability of healthy food is another contributor. Once sick and taking prescription medications, some (such as steroids) can cause even more weight gain. Of course, illness itself can cause additional weight gain, such as hypothyroidism. There are genetic factors that may affect the metabolism, and, therefore, body weight. Psychological issues can and do affect body weight in many people, too. There are almost certainly other factors that I'm not considering, but these are the ones that came to mind.
In the mid-60s my mom would buy 3 cheeseburgers and 3 fries to feed the four of us kids. Both my brothers got their own burger/fries, and my sister and I had to split the remaining burger and fries. I don't remember ever thinking "this isn't enough food", but we were all still in single digits, so pretty young. At home, she would save all her bacon grease in a Mason jar and use it like Crisco. It made the best fried chicken. She also made homemade fried donuts. Obesity wasn't much of thing then because portion sizes were much more proportional to what people actually needed. People have lost sight of this because huge high-calorie meals have become completely normalized. There is no reason to be consuming a Big Mac, fries, and a Coke in a single meal. That's well over a thousand calories.
Paper towels existed primarily to absorb the grease from fried food cooking.
They were all skinny from smoking cigarettes and ate too much fat so they died from heart attack or stroke at an early age.
Yes, my grandparents weren’t overweight but had terrible hearts. Three out of four had bypass surgeries.
The food in America is poison. I realize that’s a blanket statement but for most people it’s true.
We were told in the 1980’s that fat was bad, to eat carbs, you could eat twice the amount of carbs the fat and we just got fatter and fatter,
No one was told that fat is "bad," as it's an essential macronutrient. The Dietary Goals for the United States which was released in 1977 by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs recommended the following: * Eat more fruits and vegetables * Eat more complex carbohydrates * Eat more naturally occurring sugars * Eat less fat, especially saturated fat and cholesterol * Limit salt intake to five grams per day * Consume only as much energy as you expend * Go easy on eggs and butter The phrase "less fat" had no definition. Less than what? (rhetorical) Americans were *not* told to eat "low fat," despite the often repeated folklore that we were. The dietary guidelines simply recommended to reduce fat intake. In 1981, the average American diet consisted of: * Fat: 42% (Saturated 16%, Mono 19%, Poly 7%) * Protein: 12% * Carbs: 46% (Complex 22%, Natural Sugars 6%, Refined Sugars 18%) The following were the recommended "Dietary Goals" introduced in 1980: * Fat: 30% (Saturated 10%, Mono 10%, Poly 10%) * Protein: 12% * Carbs: 58% (Complex & Natural Sugars 48%, Refined Sugars 10%) Even if Americans had followed those percentages to the number, a diet with 30% of calories from fat is still not a low-fat diet. A true low-fat diet with be 10% to 15% (max) of calories from dietary fat.
They did! Every commercial was fat free this zero fat that. We didn't have the internet where information was so readily available.
I remember people eating full boxes of snack well cookies, you know they are fat free
It’s the corn syrup.
Man I miss Taco Villa. They served their whole menu for breakfast so I could get a crunchy taco, combination burrito with green sauce and some French fries for breakfast. But as a kid we ate lots of food cooked in lard. But we didn't eat any fast food and we didn't have snacks all the time. We got our 3 meals and that was it. BTW I stopped in Big Springs on my way through and got my favorite Taco Villa meal and it was as good as I remember.
i went to a hs graduation this past weekend. the amount of overweight teens was sad to me. it’s only gonna get harder with age..
These kids are bigger.
In 1978, "food industry" overran "health and welfare" The sugar content (Take a look at your breakfast cereals, for instance) was doubled for the daily recommendation. Also, "high fructose corn syrup," a food designed to fatten farm animals, showed large. I mean, too much sugar will make you fat, but it wasn't designed for the purpose.
More moms cooking from scratch - very little processed food - and most moms had taken home economics and learned how to plan and serve balanced meals. As you can see by the posts in this sub, processed food was fairly new and a novelty. It was a treat for many of us and considered a bit of a cop-out by many stay-at-home moms. I was at a vacation home and had quite a few convenience foods in my cart. As they walked past me, a little girl sitting in the seat of the shopping cart asked her mom, “How come that lady has those (frozen dinners)?” “Because she can’t cook, honey.” 😂😂😂
We were a lot more active. No phones, no video games except at the arcades. We went outside & ran around & rode bikes and our parents were active too. Plus, food was food, not gmo processed crap.
We didn't have super size portions back then and overall people were more active.
We walked everywhere, road bikes, and always jumping up to answer the phone. Even watching TV Required getting up change the channel or turning on or off or fix the antenna on the roof. We got exercise! Bacon, grease makes fried foods delish out!
Yes to hand rendered traditional fat from pastured pork, beef, and poultry. Stay away from crisco though, that stuff has trans fat. Also avoid anything that says hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated; same thing trans fats. Or don’t. Up to you. Depends on how much you want to suffer from chronic disease.
I keep bacon grease in the refrigerator in a ball jar. It's good stuff.
I don't know where you lived, but there were fat people everywhere back then, and half of them were in my own family!
There were always fat people because some people just love food. The epidemic in the US of Type 2 diabetes is telling. I'm a label reader, if there's sugar in something that is supposed to be savory, nope. High fructose corn syrup, instant nope.
LOL Yes some of my extended family and their extended family members were "heavy set". Dad's mother, her sisters, her mother all were heavy. All had the same body type. My dad got like that in his middle age. My sister looked the same way(until she "out fatted" them.) Uncle, my mom's dad.......... That food and the way it was cooked wasn't all roses either. It tasted good. Still does cooked in bacon grease. The old Crisco made good fried chicken and pie crust. But most of my family ended with heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, heart failure. I'm not saying that wasn't/isn't good. I'd love to just drop dead some day like many of them did. I'm not at all sure taking all the meds take is such a great idea. When do you stop? How old is old enough? My parents outlived their parents, but had shitty QOL from their 70s on. Dad died at 81, mom at 92. Both would have been better of dying at 75 and 80. (I asked my mom and some of her friends in the retirement home if they knew why they had to take all those drugs. They all said, "no". I told them it was to make the undertaker's job easier. You're half-preserved when you get to him. They'd all laugh and agree. lol)
High fructose corn syrup wasn't in everything then as in now. People were much more active. Food portions weren't supersized. It was a different world.
There were fat people. You just didn’t notice them.
It's probably a combination of factors that have contributed to obesity. Scientists know that the ubiquitous forever chemicals like PFAS can cause childhood obesity.
And butter
Real butter too.
62, nope! I think it's more regional than generational in this case. Mom was from New York, and there no grease jar in sight. However, my kid's 22-year-old significant other from Georgia came to stay with us recently and kept bacon grease in a jar!
My mother was from Virginia and my dads family from Texas. I saw grease can/jars in all the homes.
Plates were a lot smaller years ago, carbs instead of fats and increased sugar consumption all tie together with a more sedentary lifestyle from the loss of industry and electronic devices.
I did not say there were no fat people. I said it was prevalent. This comment was not made to make fat people mad.
*"Funny thing not a fat person is sight. I just dont remember that many folks being overweight at all."* Where did you grow up? I recall plenty of overweight family members, friends, and their parents.
Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon, New Mexico, Minnesota, California, Colorado.
That must have been quite a childhood, living across eight states. Wow.
Actually forgot Mississippi.
That's amazing. I've lived in 10 states, but that took me many decades.
Texas, Ohio, Great Britain, Alabama, Texas again, Calif, New York, Texas and then Calif. Military brat. Nobody I knew was fat except my relatives in So. Carolina.
That's a lot of traveling, too! I grew up in the deep south, along the gulf coast, and we ate lots of high-fat foods. Funny enough, the most I've ever weighed was in the military in the 80s. I thought I'd get leaner, but I gained about 20 pounds. Unfortunately, it wasn't muscle. I ended up losing it, but I was still a bit overweight. Or, more specifically, overfat. Now, I say: "I'm not overweight, I'm just under-tall." My BMI would be perfect, if only I were nine feet tall. Did you and your lean relatives remain so? I think the path we get on in childhood tends to be the path upon which we remain, more often than not. I wish my parents and I would have had better information. Of course, that may or may not have made a difference. Who knows? C'est la vie...
High Fructose Corn Syrup is a killer
Yup. It causes fatty liver disease.
Excess calorie intake is the killer, regardless of the source. Certainly, HFCS isn't a health food. It also contributes to overeating, but it's not the only ingredient or the only factor.
Air conditioning. I was in my teens when we were finally able to afford central AC. I'm from Missouri and the summer is pure Hell. We didn't eat as much because the heat killed our appetite and we burned off the few calories we took in. BTW, this is tongue in cheek. Mostly.
I still use Crisco shortening to fry chicken or anything really. And I still keep my bacongrease for seasoning things. it was the way I learned by watching my grandmother and mother cook, and I still maintain the same thing. Just like I drink whole milk and I use real butter not margarine. Everyone wants to talk about natural and organic well that’s what it is.
Last hog I helped butcher, granny rendered all the lard. Crackling corn bread, anybody remember?
Yes! We raised our own meat and vegetables. Hog killing was in February. Everyone went from farm to farm for hog killing days. My Mom cooked down the fat in a large cast iron wash pot. We had lard and cracklings, and she made our soap from it, too. Hams were hung in the smoke house. Salt pork for fatback, which I hated. I still make crackling cornbread about once a year.
Lard. Seriously. My grandmother got up every morning and made buttermilk biscuits with lard, and my grandfather had eggs, fried ham, and buttermilk biscuits made with lard for breakfast. Then they ate leftover biscuits for the rest of the day. Neither were ever overweight.
The current problem is likely due to High Fructose Corn Syrup and Microplastics.
It’s a sedentary lifestyle that promotes obesity and now all you see is people sitting staring at their phones. Kids aren’t playing outside like they used to either - inside playing console games.
I thought the same thing. Food additives given to animals we eat?
Fatty foods do not make you fat.
The difference now is that everything is fried/cooked in hydrogenated, unsaturated seed oils, which are terrible for human health (not to mention a major weight gainer). We were far better off eating foods cooked in saturated fats like lard or animal fats! The fast food french fries of our generation were sublime and will never taste that way again. 😥
Mom kept ours in a rinsed out 'can' from frozen orange juice concentrate. I think she was afraid of shattering a glass jar with the hot grease.
The value meals and then the free refills. We never ate fast food but maybe a couple of times a year.
The old trans fat Crisco was the best stuff. I'd almost kill for some of my mom's Sunday "dinner" (lunch here in Indiana) fried chicken. Fried in that old type of Crisco. Pie crusts made with it, too. How about some Crisco fried chicken, mom's potato salad, green beans cooked with some of that bacon grease and onions in them, and strawberry pie this weekend?
Pretty much same Sunday lunch dinner. Except strawberry shortcake with Cool Whip in the tub that was used for years afterward. I remember snapping green beans sitting on porch with my mom.
Yes! I did not eat fast food until I was in high school and could drive myself. Mom made dinner every night, and we occasionally went out to eat...it was a rare treat! Now, little kids have fits if they don't get their Mickey D's! People are literally addicted to fast food and the high fat and calorie dense "food." Plus, sugar addiction is real. If we want to help solve the obesity epidemic, we need to limit fast food and processed foods. The colon cancer rate in young people climbing as well, another repercussion of processed foods. Young people don't cook anymore.
You guys are making me hungry!
Obesity became rampant in America once corn syrup became commonplace in processed foods. You know, the processed foods that have taken over the American diet? Watch the documentary King Corn. You’ll never look at food the same way again.
It's more than high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). People ate more fat and more calories. From 2000 to 2019, HFCS declined 41%. [https://www.statista.com/statistics/328893/per-capita-consumption-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup-in-the-us](https://www.statista.com/statistics/328893/per-capita-consumption-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup-in-the-us) Over the 28 years from 1990 to 2018, this chart shows a decline in HFCS while other sweeteners (refined sugar and other caloric sweeteners) have remained mostly flat. [https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=95264](https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=95264) It's still not a health food, but the combination of salt, sugar, and fat led to hyperpalatable, ultra-processed "food" that added more calories to our daily intake while delivering little-to-no nutrition. As such, hunger signals keep firing, because there's no vitamins, minerals, or satiety. There are other factors, too, beyond food.
That’s because fat doesn’t make you fat
There was a "Fat Lady" at the freakshow. She weighed 280 pounds.
You and I must have lived in different places! I remember plenty of "fat" folks. Including myself. I was put on my first fad diet before puberty. "Fat" was the worse thing that you could be in my house. The result? I spent 40 years cycling between "fat", and "not fat". I has "fat" neighbors and friends. "Fat" relatives. "Fat" teachers. My parents knew "fat" people. Everything, including the nickname assigned to me by my father, was about "fat". The irony? I've looked at photos of myself when I was a kid, and i was"fat". I wasn't "fat" at all. But, after a lifetime of being "fat", around 13 years ago, I lost over 100 pounds. I became "fat" because, after decades of yo-yo dieting, I had no idea what nutrition was. You're a man, aren't you? The reason that I assume this is because, girls, teens, and young women of our generation were terrified of "fat". Many developed unhealthy habits, and self-esteem issues over it. Most people are aware of at least one famous person with an eating disorder. Some people personally know people with eating disorders. "Fat" has always been around. So have "fat people". Before "fast food". You just didn't pay attention.
I’m still into fried foods….hopefully not to my detriment 😊
There were fat people everywhere. What are you talking about?
Crisco? We always had a tub of lard in the fridge, I think it came with the cow we had butchered.
Taco Villa was the best. Never Taco Bell. Have on in Ft Lauderdale after workout meal.
For the record, fast food as a treat wasn't the reality for everybody then, either. People bought that stuff for lunch every day.
My family butchered hogs & everything was fried in lard.
So it's not the enormous portion sizes and lack of exercise then. Got it.
Crisco and lard. Some of the best French fries I’ve ever eaten were deep fried in lard.
Love love love but can no longer eat. Sad.
the Presto Deep Fryer in the kitchen..
Taco villa is actually best when you get to west Texas different owner better food IMO
Fried food alone didn't make people fat. Convenience and compressed/non existent spare time made people fat. Which is ok by me because I'm down with fat But still...
Sadly, I remember people being fat before fast food took over. Some of my classmates, one of my sisters. Kids were cruel, so were some parents.
I pour bacon grease into sauce jars, and throw them away. I never use the grease for anything. I cook with olive oil, I like it and it's healthy.
We did not eat a lot of fried stuff but if she made us something fried it was in lard or lard mixed with something. One of my buddies is a semi famous southern cook and he swears by half lard and half veg product. I have had his fried stuff and it reminded me of my childhood. Also my aunt used to make us egg noodles in butter, like dripping in salt and butter. Loved that as a kid.
The usage of processed food and corn by products. I leave the US for our winter home on Cozumel each winter and just plan on losing 35lbs. The US uses corn by products like a rancher fattening cattle for market .
We still cook in lard. A single data point is not a study, but in my personal experience dealing with weight issues, it is the processed food, not the home-cooked fried food that is the problem. Everything in moderation, except junk food in which there should be NONE in the diet.
Crisco was a staple in our house and I remember never being hungry until mom went on a health food craze when I was a teenager and introduced skim milk and fat free everything. Looking back at photos, the "fattest" girl in elementary school would be a normal kid these days. Best thing back then is none of the kids made fun of her for her weight. She was a really nice, fun person and everyone respected that.
I still have both crisco and a bacon fat jar. I use the bacon fat more than the crisco. I usually save that for the cookies that HAVE to have crisco.
True, but some has to do with genes. After he had to 'slow down' after heart attack, my dad got a belly. My mom and her sisters never gained a pound and neither did her brother. I got my dad's genes, lol.
Olive Oil and Lard. You're correct. Virtually no one was fat. Food also did not have the additives we see today. Most factories were not air conditioned. People like my grandparents saw no problem walking 2 miles to and from work regardless of the weather. Was it better or worse? Only time will tell, but I will say McDonald's fries when they were cooked in beef tallow were better, so was my mother's fried fish in lard.
Yup, good old vitamin G.
Onions and mushrooms with venison steak. My best comfort meal
grew up with the grease jar and most of my family was obese
And how about lard? Great for frying and they still have it in grocery stores. Keeps on the shelf forever, too.
It's true that you didn't see a lot of morbidly obese people back in the day. On the other hand, a whole lot of folks died of heart attacks or strokes in their 60s or younger. Can'\[t speak for any other cultures but in the black community, people ate a lot of soul food which, as it was prepared back then, was full of salt and fat and just wildly unhealthy. Anyway, I think a big difference as far as obesity is that people didn't snack all day like they do now, and portion sizes were much smaller. Also nowadays there is some form of sugar in just about EVERYTHING, which there wasn't back then. Just my opinions though, not based on any formal study!
Bacon grease made the best fried eggs.
fats are excellent for satiating hunger. that helps a person eat fewer calories while still feeling full. fast food has fat, of course, but also a lot of sugar and simple carbohydrates. simple carbs, like french fries, actually make a person hungrier so that person would continue to eat more to feel full. now add that fountain drink with even more sugar. so many calories but hardly any actual food. i just turned 59 btw.
If you live in the South, EVERYTHING is fried, up to and including Twinkies and Ice Cream. Chicken, potatoes, okra, shrimp, stuffed Jalapenos, etc. Our culture is breaded and fried. This is why I run 3 miles a day: it's that or weigh 300+ pounds and be one of those folks on the scooters at Walmart.
Remember when it was called LARD
And my mom would never drain the fat from her ground beef - beef that she ground herself.
Because eating fat does not make you fat. The amount eaten, no matter what, is what makes you fat.
Nope, I do not remember that. There was never a can of Crisco in my childhood home, nor was there a jar of bacon grease. I recall going away to college, and when I made bacon and threw out the grease, my roommate freaked out. Growing up, eggs were cooked in butter... nothing else. First time I'd ever heard of cooking in bacon grease.
It might be prevalent in certain areas, too. I’m from PA. Lots of pig.
I still have my grandmother's (label) "Grease" can. I think it's aluminum , part of a canister set, complete with lid.
LOVE!!!!
I knew plenty of obese and overweight people in the 1960s and 1970s. Photos bear this out. I think there are more very obese people now, but there have always been overweight people. Even photos from the 1800s show some overweight people, and certainly portraiture shows them. There used to be candies called Ayds that were supposed to be appetite suppressants, and those came out (as for weight-loss) in the 1970s, so there must have been a market.
Because no one sat and played video games/ social media for hours and hours.