Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[Hat Dandy]

I still miss French fries fried in lard at fast food restaurants. Does food count as a vintage thing?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I still miss French fries fried in lard at fast food restaurants. Does food count as a vintage thing?

Lard's actually making a comeback. The triumph of hydrogenated vegetable shortening a la Crisco was one of the first triumphs of the Boys From Marketing, who sold people for almost a century on the idea that lard was bad for you, but people are finally wising up.

 

[Hat Dandy]

Lard's actually making a comeback. The triumph of hydrogenated vegetable shortening a la Crisco was one of the first triumphs of the Boys From Marketing, who sold people for almost a century on the idea that lard was bad for you, but people are finally wising up.

Good news, indeed.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Lard's actually making a comeback. The triumph of hydrogenated vegetable shortening a la Crisco was one of the first triumphs of the Boys From Marketing, who sold people for almost a century on the idea that lard was bad for you, but people are finally wising up.

Lard and butter are what we stay alive *for*.

 

[jamespowers]

Lard's actually making a comeback. The triumph of hydrogenated vegetable shortening a la Crisco was one of the first triumphs of the Boys From Marketing, who sold people for almost a century on the idea that lard was bad for you, but people are finally wising up.

Bacon fat is better.

 

[Stanley Doble]

McDonald's used to fry their french fries in 90% tallow. I don't know if this was standard in the restaurant industry.

 

[LizzieMaine]

McDonald's used to fry their french fries in 90% tallow. I don't know if this was standard in the restaurant industry.

It was a product called "Smargon's Fry-All," which was popular with Chicago hot dog stands in the mid-fifties. Ray Kroc happened onto it, liked it, and made it the standard for all McDonalds franchises until the '80s. What appealed most to Kroc, besides the flavor, was that it was substantially cheaper than Crisco or Wesson or any of the other vegetable oil products.

 

[Hat Dandy]

Bacon fat is better.

Mmmm... bacon.

 

[Paisley]

Lard's actually making a comeback. The triumph of hydrogenated vegetable shortening a la Crisco was one of the first triumphs of the Boys From Marketing, who sold people for almost a century on the idea that lard was bad for you, but people are finally wising up.

Specifically, it was a triumph of the CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest), a self-appointed food police organization. Their campaign led to fries being fried in trans fats, which they said at the time was fine. Now they're against trans fats.

And yes, lard is slowly making a comeback. There are even t-shirts that say "Praise the lard!"

Decades ago in Roseto, Pennsylvania, Italian immigrants there shunned Crisco and used lard as their cooking fat, olive oil not being available at that time and place. Roseto enjoyed low rates of heart disease, and researchers came up with the Roseto Paradox (people eating lots of fat but having little heart disease). They explained it away by crediting Roseto's close-knit community. Never mind that close-knit communities don't help anyone on an Indian reservation enjoy good health, or that one person's close-knit community is someone else's small town full of gossips and busybodies.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Specifically, it was a triumph of the CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest), a self-appointed food police organization. Their campaign led to fries being fried in trans fats, which they said at the time was fine. Now they're against trans fats.

And yes, lard is slowly making a comeback. There are even t-shirts that say "Praise the lard!"

Decades ago in Roseto, Pennsylvania, Italian immigrants there shunned Crisco and used lard as their cooking fat, olive oil not being available at that time and place. Roseto enjoyed low rates of heart disease, and researchers came up with the Roseto Paradox (people eating lots of fat but having little heart disease). They explained it away by crediting Roseto's close-knit community. Never mind that close-knit communities don't help anyone on an Indian reservation enjoy good health, or that one person's close-knit community is someone else's small town full of gossips and busybodies.

The worst thing anybody can do for their health is follow the advice put out by "studies," no matter who puts them out. Everybody's got an agenda. All you really have to do is look at what the healthy people in your family ate, and eat the same thing yourself.

And good to see you back, Paisley!

 

[jamespowers]

The worst thing anybody can do for their health is follow the advice put out by "studies," no matter who puts them out. Everybody's got an agenda.

Definitely!

 

[jamespowers]

Mmmm... bacon.

Yes, bacon fat is the superior product. When it calls for lard I break out the bacon. MMM MMMM!

 

[Paisley]

The worst thing anybody can do for their health is follow the advice put out by "studies," no matter who puts them out. Everybody's got an agenda. All you really have to do is look at what the healthy people in your family ate, and eat the same thing yourself.

And good to see you back, Paisley!

Thanks, Lizzie! I've been away for a few years studying food, paleoanthropology, and research. You're right about studies--if you don't know how studies are conducted and the magic tricks researchers play to get the results they want, don't bother with them. There was an article a few years ago in The Atlantic about how most medical research is bogus--and a lot of studies have been retracted in the past few years.

Early in the 20th century, the US govt. had successes in adding iodine to salt and B vitamins to flour and encouraging people to eat a variety of nutritious foods. These measures were based on good science--and it's where they should have stopped.

In my case, I had to go back to the likely diet of Homo ergaster (think early humans running around the savannah hunting antelope) to heal myself.

 

[jamespowers]

In my case, I had to go back to the likely diet of Homo ergaster (think early humans running around the savannah hunting antelope) to heal myself.

Meat = brain food

 

[Paisley]

Indeed, the evidence points to our ancestors developing big brains around the time they became predators.

Your bacon comments remind me of a cartoon: two travelers are looking at a sign that says "warm, sunny beaches" one direction, and "snow and cold" in the other. One guy looks in the direction of snow and cold and says, "Do I smell bacon?"

 

[jamespowers]

Indeed, the evidence points to our ancestors developing big brains around the time they became predators.

Your bacon comments remind me of a cartoon: two travelers are looking at a sign that says "warm, sunny beaches" one direction, and "snow and cold" in the other. One guy looks in the direction of snow and cold and says, "Do I smell bacon?"

That is the same thing I learned from my own anthropological studies years ago. Meat created civilization. Bacon made it more comfortable.
Warm and Sunny overides bacon for me but it does explain a lot.

 

[dh66]

That is the same thing I learned from my own anthropological studies years ago. Meat created civilization. Bacon made it more comfortable.
Warm and Sunny overides bacon for me but it does explain a lot.

Nay my friend......meat created smarter humans. BEER created civilization, or rather, the need to stay put in one spot to cultivate something to ferment.

I'm with you on the warm and sunny though, definately trumps pork belly.

 

[Paisley]

I'll take pork belly. You guys can keep your coconuts.

 

[jamespowers]

Nay my friend......meat created smarter humans. BEER created civilization, or rather, the need to stay put in one spot to cultivate something to ferment.

I'm with you on the warm and sunny though, definately trumps pork belly.

Actually the cultivation of grain made it necessary to find ways to make the surplus grain worth something before it rotted.

 

[jamespowers]

I'll take pork belly. You guys can keep your coconuts.

I'll take the bacon AND coconuts. Oh and Maryanne.