# I think if trapped in the past I'd go insane over food. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 10, 2014, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949 "2014-10-10T10:13:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/21 "2014-10-10T23:17:06Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Yep. Some of the foods my late mother-in-law grew up eating - pokeweed, acorns, squirrel, rattlesnake - have been supplanted by domesticated items that don’t require nearly as much effort or prep time to make edible. [Obligatory musical accompaniment.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA20ecjCoTo) ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/22 "2014-10-10T23:55:10Z")
> [@Randolph](#): > > …and people used to be much slimmer. Depends on what era you’re talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/23 "2014-10-11T00:21:41Z")
Even when I was a kid fresh vegetables out of season were rare and there wasn’t that much frozen food. (That’s why TV dinners were exciting.) People lived on overcooked canned green beans and the like. I’m from New York, and we had Italian places and lots of Chinese places and delis in Queens, but even Manhattan didn’t have the diversity of ethnic food it has today. Indian restaurants? Forget it. Japanese? Benihana. Getting Sukyaki at the Worlds Fair was very exciting. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/24 "2014-10-11T02:08:12Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Even when I was a kid fresh vegetables out of season were rare and there wasn’t that much frozen food. (That’s why TV dinners were exciting.) People lived on overcooked canned green beans and the like. > I’m from New York, and we had Italian places and lots of Chinese places and delis in Queens, but even Manhattan didn’t have the diversity of ethnic food it has today. Indian restaurants? Forget it. Japanese? Benihana. Getting Sukyaki at the Worlds Fair was very exciting. yeah, whatever. I live in a suburb of Detroit and I can show you markets and restaurants of many ethnicities. New York City is not the only place that has stuff. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/25 "2014-10-11T02:34:32Z")
Living when and where? If you were in Greece, feta would be available. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/26 "2014-10-11T02:53:15Z")
Meanwhile, there are those who [have a rather different perspective on food and eating](https://faq.soylent.me/hc/en-us/articles/200836809-What-is-Soylent-1-0-) (spoiler: _it is too complicated and takes too long_). not sure I like the idea of food with a version number like “1.0” on it ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/27 "2014-10-11T03:05:19Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Define the past, because what you typed sounds pretty much like my childhood. Dude, you’re old! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/28 "2014-10-11T06:23:29Z")
> [@Randolph](#): > > …and people used to be much slimmer. Even ignoring the fact this isn’t a universal truth, deficiency disorders used to be a lot more common as well. I wouldn’t go back without a lot of multivitamins, especially vitamin C and iodine, maybe vitamin D depending on how far north (or south) I’d end up. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/29 "2014-10-11T11:55:52Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Define the past, because what you typed sounds pretty much like my childhood. The grocery stores stocked basic foods and spices in the medium-sized city where I grew up. > > I don’t recall any ethnic restaurants at all. Agree. We had potatoes- not different varieties of potatoes. There was white bread and brown bread. As for spices, I think most folks of my vintage would remember a curry- if it ever was made- was Keens Curry powder and a handful of sultanas. Without getting too far off track, I often wonder how we never got food poisoning from school lunches. We’d bring them in, they’d sit in the sun most of the morning and we had to eat them or starve. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/30 "2014-10-11T20:20:28Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > yeah, whatever. I live in a suburb of Detroit and I can show you markets and restaurants of many ethnicities. > > New York City is not the only place that has stuff. A) He’s talking about fifty years ago, not today. B) He never said that New York was unique in terms of available food stuffs. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/31 "2014-10-11T20:24:15Z")
This thread is not complete with out a link to the Gallery of Regrettable Food. [LILEKS (James) :: Institute :: The Gallery of Regrettable Food](http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/) ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/32 "2014-10-11T22:24:06Z")
The shit healthcare would be the worst part, the lack of food variety would just be a nuisance. I don’t recall the stats but I once read a list of how many different items were available at the grocery in the 90s, 70s, 50s, etc. The variety of items by the current era was gigantic compared to the variety in the past. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/33 "2014-10-11T22:34:02Z")
I spent a week in another country recently eating rice and black beans, interrupted only by boiled cabbage and salty tinned fishie-bits. One day there was macaroni. On one day there was an egg. It certainly made me appreciate the variety I can access, even from my own garden. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/34 "2014-10-11T23:49:13Z")
We always ate good when I was a kid, despite grocery stores not having the variety of stuff they carry today. My parents and grandparents gardened and home canned, pickled, and froze stuff. Some of the Pennsylvania Dutch pickles and relishes my mother put up still aren’t commonly encountered. Dad hunted, as did I when I got old enough, so we always had game meat to supplement what the stores offered. Mostly, though, was that we actually cooked on a daily basis. Raw ingredients were easily available to make lots of stuff. Choices were limited only in that we seldom ate out and convenience foods were not big like they are now. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2014, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/35 "2014-10-12T00:25:07Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Without getting too far off track, I often wonder how we never got food poisoning from school lunches. We’d bring them in, they’d sit in the sun most of the morning and we had to eat them or starve. We were made of sterner stuff. There was no neosporin, nor waterless hand sanitizer at the door to the grocery store. We got dirty, sunburned, hurt, we coped. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/36 "2014-10-12T00:52:14Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Without getting too far off track, I often wonder how we never got food poisoning from school lunches. We’d bring them in, they’d sit in the sun most of the morning and we had to eat them or starve. IMO, a lot of “food poisoning” cases are probably norovirus (aka “stomach flu.”) Norovirus is the thing which sends people into the bathroom, firing out both ends about 6 hours after a gathering. It ain’t the food. it’s someone sick being near the food. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2014, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/37 "2014-10-12T01:27:28Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > We were made of sterner stuff. You were made of the same stuff, it just got sick and weakened by infection more often. ---
**Author:** ![Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ec9cab/32.png) [@Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2014, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/38 "2014-10-12T02:18:52Z")
I was born in 1956 in a village in Cambridgeshire, England. We did not get a Fridge/Freezer till the late 60’s, so I suppose we ate as many generations had before us. Milk, Eggs, and Bread were delivered every day. All Local. The village butcher was supplied by a local slaughter house from local farmers, chickens, beef, pork, pheasant, partridge, pidgin, rabbit, hare etc. My mother would shop for meat either the same day or the day before. Storage was in a cool pantry. Vegetable were seasonal, and available from a couple of village shops, or grown in your own or a friend/relatives garden. In the winter, either winter vegetables or various preserves were used. We ate well, as I imagine my ancestors had for 100’s if not 1000’s of years before me. We were average village people, not the aristocracy. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2014, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949/39 "2014-10-12T03:51:03Z")
My husband, an all-American kid and adventurous eater, spent a summer in Nepal once upon a time. He said that all the food, day in and day out, was dal bhat tarkari. Sometimes for a special treat there would be momos. He lost thirty pounds that summer, he says due to pure boredom with eating. So yeah, depending on what part of the past (or present) you ended up in, you might get pretty desperate about the food. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-if-trapped-in-the-past-id-go-insane-over-food/700949.md?page=1)