4 ms·

Canning and jarring your own food was also extremely common - my great grandfather had a basement full of stuff they had grown and then preserved themselves. Th

Canning and jarring your own food was also extremely common - my great grandfather had a basement full of stuff they had grown and then preserved themselves. The idea of buying canned veggies wasn't unusual or unhealthy at all - except perhaps being viewed as lazy or a waste of money. Also, there weren't chemicals involved other than a lot of salt & vinegar.

Spooky23 11y ago
My wife and I actually do this. It saves quite a bit of money (we can buy a bushel of green beans from a farm 45 minutes away for $15) and it's kind of fun to experiment with. We do the same with meat, but that is mostly frozen. The whole pseudo-science around "whole food" and "too much processing" is just that. Bunk. I spent my college and 20s years getting fatter because I ate a lot of fast food and restaurant meals (loaded with sugar and carbs), drank a lot of beer, and spent a lot of time sitting on my ass at work. The McDonald's cheeseburger isn't bad for you because it's "processed", it's bad for you because it's 350 calories, served with another 300 calories of fried potatoes and at least 20 oz of sugar water. The seemingly healthier burrito at Chipolte is pretty much the same... although you can contemplate the more humane treatment of the pig/cow/chicken.
- eropple 11y ago
  > The seemingly healthier burrito at Chipolte is pretty much the same... It's a lot easier to buy something that's not disastrous for you at Chipotle, though. If I get a salad bowl there, I'm not hungry for 6-8 hours.
  - grogenaut 11y ago
    You can do the same at McD's or any major resturant chain. It's not quite as easy as chipolte but it just takes asking. All major chains know their ingredient prices down to the serving and so will sell them that way. McD's just get side of lettuce and a chicken breast or get burgers sans katsup/bun. Rock Bottom will sell a blackened chicken breast and 2 sides of steamed veggies (broccoli/cauliflower) with or without butter for around $5. Slice and dice it. They've been doing this since 2000 at least when I lost a ton of weight on a low carb diet. Too bad you can't get yogurt at McD's that doesn't have strawberry syrup laced through it and the fruit, or a salad dressing that isn't insane for calories (it's what happens when you add flour and sugar to ranch).
    - eropple 11y ago
      Totally! Just, way easier (and way tastier, IMO) at Chipotle. Or Five Guys. =)
      - grogenaut 11y ago
        What's your five guys go to? Besides just a lettuce wrap burger? Yeah my problem with McD's is that the patties themselves aren't all that great and kinda salty. A good grilled chicken lettuce wrap sandwich would be great.
        eropple 11y ago
        Here they'll do a bowl. Cheeseburger in a bowl (with lettuce), all the way minus mayo, plus steak sauce, is something like 800 calories. I eat two main meals plus a small dinner every day, so, works okay.
- Swizec 11y ago
  > The seemingly healthier burrito at Chipolte is pretty much the same But will leave you feeling fuller for longer because it comes with more volume and with more complex carbs and stuff.
- pyre 11y ago
  > The whole pseudo-science around "whole food" and "too much processing" is just that. Bunk. The idea is that you want to get closer to the source. For example, getting produce from the store that was shipped from Guam is possibly laden with chemicals used to preserve it until it reaches your grocery store. On the other hand, buying direct from the farm cuts out the need for that. Also, food that has been cooked and recooked several times, then blended with food artificial preservatives is probably less healthy than (on average) than the food you make yourself from scratch. Combine that with the fact that many industries explicitly target the "bliss point" when formulating their recipes... and you're probably better off with a home-cooked meal than a frozen microwave dinner.
  - pbhjpbhj 11y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss_point_%28food%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss_point_%28food%29
  - mikeash 11y ago
    I'm confused about your "bliss point" statement. That sounds like a good thing to me. Why is that a downside?
    - jschwartzi 11y ago
      If you could continually get wonderful feelings just from eating a product, and the product never made you feel full, you might continue eating it until you've consumed an entire package. At that point, you read the back and realize that you just ate 3000 calories in a single sitting and have a little panic attack.
      - mikeash 11y ago
        This sounds an awful lot like saying that food ought to taste bad so you don't eat too much of it. I'd rather have food that tastes good but is still something I'm able to eat in moderation. I get that food makers have no incentive whatsoever to get me to eat in moderation, but that looks like a different thing from the "bliss point."
clscott 11y ago
I'm only in my early fourties and I was quite late into my teens before I realized that almost no-one else did this like my family. We grew up on a farm, dirt-poor and did it out of necessity but it was all delicious food: pickles, relishes, canned fruit, jams, jellies, home-made tomoto sauce. We also laid in bushels of produce into cold storage - potatoes, squash, apples and cabbages. Do I need to mention what we froze? Blanched peas, green and yellow beans, corn (cut off the cob) and home grown lamb, pigs, beef and chicken (both kinds). I am far more well off then my parents were at the same age, but my kids are not nearly as well fed (nutritionally) as I was at the same ages. Now that we are in prime harvesting season for a lot of this stuff, I might have to rethink what we're eating and preserve some simple, homemade foods.
- roel_v 11y ago
  Canned vegetables aren't very nutritious, because they have to be cooked so long to preserve them. Furthermore, canning vegetables and meat is potentially dangerous because of botulism. Source: have been canning last few weeks, info straight from the 'Weck' bible. Look, I'm not picking sides here, but let's not look at the past with rose colored glasses. When I tell my aunts that I'm canning, they look at me like I'm nuts. They lived much of their lives having to can on a farm, and they love the ease with which they can live their lives now, and the options they have.
  - clscott 11y ago
    The veggies were all frozen, except for the stewed tomatoes and pasta sauce (veggies only, meat added at meal preparation time). The canning overall wasn't the primary source for the nutrition but it was a part of the overall strategy of prepare and store the food, outside of the "food industry". And trust me, I remember the hard work clearly but I may be looking at the past wistfully wondering how to get my kids to eat more vegetables.

Spooky23 11y ago

My wife and I actually do this. It saves quite a bit of money (we can buy a bushel of green beans from a farm 45 minutes away for $15) and it's kind of fun to experiment with. We do the same with meat, but that is mostly frozen. The whole pseudo-science around "whole food" and "too much processing" is just that. Bunk. I spent my college and 20s years getting fatter because I ate a lot of fast food and restaurant meals (loaded with sugar and carbs), drank a lot of beer, and spent a lot of time sitting on my ass at work. The McDonald's cheeseburger isn't bad for you because it's "processed", it's bad for you because it's 350 calories, served with another 300 calories of fried potatoes and at least 20 oz of sugar water. The seemingly healthier burrito at Chipolte is pretty much the same... although you can contemplate the more humane treatment of the pig/cow/chicken.

eropple 11y ago
> The seemingly healthier burrito at Chipolte is pretty much the same... It's a lot easier to buy something that's not disastrous for you at Chipotle, though. If I get a salad bowl there, I'm not hungry for 6-8 hours.
- grogenaut 11y ago
  You can do the same at McD's or any major resturant chain. It's not quite as easy as chipolte but it just takes asking. All major chains know their ingredient prices down to the serving and so will sell them that way. McD's just get side of lettuce and a chicken breast or get burgers sans katsup/bun. Rock Bottom will sell a blackened chicken breast and 2 sides of steamed veggies (broccoli/cauliflower) with or without butter for around $5. Slice and dice it. They've been doing this since 2000 at least when I lost a ton of weight on a low carb diet. Too bad you can't get yogurt at McD's that doesn't have strawberry syrup laced through it and the fruit, or a salad dressing that isn't insane for calories (it's what happens when you add flour and sugar to ranch).
  - eropple 11y ago
    Totally! Just, way easier (and way tastier, IMO) at Chipotle. Or Five Guys. =)
    - grogenaut 11y ago
      What's your five guys go to? Besides just a lettuce wrap burger? Yeah my problem with McD's is that the patties themselves aren't all that great and kinda salty. A good grilled chicken lettuce wrap sandwich would be great.
      - eropple 11y ago
        Here they'll do a bowl. Cheeseburger in a bowl (with lettuce), all the way minus mayo, plus steak sauce, is something like 800 calories. I eat two main meals plus a small dinner every day, so, works okay.
Swizec 11y ago
> The seemingly healthier burrito at Chipolte is pretty much the same But will leave you feeling fuller for longer because it comes with more volume and with more complex carbs and stuff.
pyre 11y ago
> The whole pseudo-science around "whole food" and "too much processing" is just that. Bunk. The idea is that you want to get closer to the source. For example, getting produce from the store that was shipped from Guam is possibly laden with chemicals used to preserve it until it reaches your grocery store. On the other hand, buying direct from the farm cuts out the need for that. Also, food that has been cooked and recooked several times, then blended with food artificial preservatives is probably less healthy than (on average) than the food you make yourself from scratch. Combine that with the fact that many industries explicitly target the "bliss point" when formulating their recipes... and you're probably better off with a home-cooked meal than a frozen microwave dinner.
- pbhjpbhj 11y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss_point_%28food%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss_point_%28food%29
- mikeash 11y ago
  I'm confused about your "bliss point" statement. That sounds like a good thing to me. Why is that a downside?
  - jschwartzi 11y ago
    If you could continually get wonderful feelings just from eating a product, and the product never made you feel full, you might continue eating it until you've consumed an entire package. At that point, you read the back and realize that you just ate 3000 calories in a single sitting and have a little panic attack.
    - mikeash 11y ago
      This sounds an awful lot like saying that food ought to taste bad so you don't eat too much of it. I'd rather have food that tastes good but is still something I'm able to eat in moderation. I get that food makers have no incentive whatsoever to get me to eat in moderation, but that looks like a different thing from the "bliss point."

clscott 11y ago

I'm only in my early fourties and I was quite late into my teens before I realized that almost no-one else did this like my family. We grew up on a farm, dirt-poor and did it out of necessity but it was all delicious food: pickles, relishes, canned fruit, jams, jellies, home-made tomoto sauce. We also laid in bushels of produce into cold storage - potatoes, squash, apples and cabbages. Do I need to mention what we froze? Blanched peas, green and yellow beans, corn (cut off the cob) and home grown lamb, pigs, beef and chicken (both kinds). I am far more well off then my parents were at the same age, but my kids are not nearly as well fed (nutritionally) as I was at the same ages. Now that we are in prime harvesting season for a lot of this stuff, I might have to rethink what we're eating and preserve some simple, homemade foods.

roel_v 11y ago
Canned vegetables aren't very nutritious, because they have to be cooked so long to preserve them. Furthermore, canning vegetables and meat is potentially dangerous because of botulism. Source: have been canning last few weeks, info straight from the 'Weck' bible. Look, I'm not picking sides here, but let's not look at the past with rose colored glasses. When I tell my aunts that I'm canning, they look at me like I'm nuts. They lived much of their lives having to can on a farm, and they love the ease with which they can live their lives now, and the options they have.
- clscott 11y ago
  The veggies were all frozen, except for the stewed tomatoes and pasta sauce (veggies only, meat added at meal preparation time). The canning overall wasn't the primary source for the nutrition but it was a part of the overall strategy of prepare and store the food, outside of the "food industry". And trust me, I remember the hard work clearly but I may be looking at the past wistfully wondering how to get my kids to eat more vegetables.