1950's Diet- How they stayed slim

I am Irish so I love potatoes. During March I ran out of potatoes and didn't have fresh potatoes for about a month+. Finally I bought some and made mash potatoes. They were the best potatoes ever.

 

(Smiles)
mashed spuds, with butter and brown gravy. And something else as a side for dinner... My Comfort Food. I limit myself this once a month.

Potatoes are the survival food. Maybe.

Baked, mashed, fried, baked with milk...Potato flour to stretch wheat flour or by itself. Easy to plant, low maintenance - and good nutrition (with the skin on)

 

seed spuds are a big business here in AK. We (currently) have no potato blight or other issues.

we go out to glean the fields for seed spuds, + grow a bunch here at Belly Acres.

The only thing easier is Zucchini, which we grow, process and freeze for later use in bread.

 

I avoid carbs (so pretty much any prossesed foods, sugar etc) but dont wory about salt.. however I do not use the nasty white table salt mostly available. Always real salts like Himalayan pink salt, celtic sea salt etc...
A real informative read is “The Salt Fix” ( DiNicolantonio )
Turns out Salt isent the baddy everyones been told all this time

 

Ditto on salt. Back when JAMA had free access I was curious and checked. Turns out that at the time (late 90's) the link between salt and hypertension was based on one study that was not successfully replicated. Once the link between the two became part of Medical Dogma there is no going back regardless of the science. Regardless, unless you have a medical condition the body will maintain the proper sodium level much as it maintains a variety of other factors.

 

HFCS among everything else, try finding something with out it now days. The fat bodies have grown in number since it became the sugar replacement. ALso think in addition to all the highly processed factory food, people have largely replaced meals with grazing every waking moment. Either all that or Jabba The Hut became the Majority of Americans role model.

 

Wow. People actually advertise food as "semi-healthy" to sell it?

How pathetically inadequate. They should use large red letters, lots of exclamation points and advertise that it's "Now 10% Less Poisonous!"

I find that one of the best ways (for me, anyway) to eat healthy (-er) is to spice my food well. Almost every spice is a healing herb and/or a dietary supplement to some degree. Black pepper, for example, is loaded with copper, magnesium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, Vitamin C, B2, and B6.

I think almost everyone knows that garlic can be good for conditions such as high blood pressure, high levels of cholesterol or other fats (lipids) in the blood, and hardening of the arteries.

So I always season to optimize flavor, because more flavor translates into more complete satisfaction.

I make a truly delicious salad dressing from leftover dill pickle brine, mayo, and a little black pepper.

Mayo is just oil, egg yolk and vinegar or lemon juice--all are acceptable foods in due proportion.

Salt is mandatory to maintain the body's electrolytes.

Remember when eggs were the perfect food? Then they became a deadly poison. Now they're back in favor. Eggs are suddenly GOOD for you again!

There are food fads as well as fad diets.

A genuine doctor I knew once told me that good nutrition is the foundation of good health. Then he said that anything sold in a can, box, or bag is bad. Only basic food ingredients, bought fresh and whole, can provide good nutrition.

Steak? Yes. Potted meat? No. Sausage? Read the ingredients--or, better yet, make your own.

If you have a garden, it doesn't matter how much food it produces. Every bite that comes from it is a partial reprieve from debilitating factory food. And a gift of mercy to your food budget.

 

I use Himalayan Pink salt also but someone reminded me that we do need some iodine in our diets. So I use table salt when cooking and every so often. Don't want to get a goiter, have to keep our thyroid healthy. Could be why electrolytes are so popular now because people are not eating the table salt and lacking iodine.

 

You are such a wealth of information. Did not know pepper was contained all those vitamins. I love pepper and use it heavily.

Note eggs are on the 50's eating plans I posted. They can be cooked many ways and are cheaper than meat.

 

I do have a pack-rat memory, but I confess that I also prop it up shamelessly whenever I'm not reasonably sure of something. Google is my external electronic connotator.

I have thought for many years that most modern people suffer from food deficiencies almost like the peasants (and nobles) of the Middle Ages.

It's just a little more subtle now.

Back then, sailors died of scurvy for lack of Vitamin C. But terminal scurvy is only one end of the full deficiency disease spectrum. Milder symptoms like slow healing occur at the other end of the spectrum and are often completely overlooked by the sufferrer.

Cleft palettes were very common back in the middle ages when B Vitamins and Folic Acid had not yet been discovered. They are much less common now, but still happen when some pregnant women
don't get them in their diet or as supplements.

Here's why kids should always eat their vegetables: Teenager 'blind' from living off crisps and chips

And grown-ups, too.

I don't worry too much about carbs as long as they are complex and are accompanied by proteins.

The best time to eat carbs is at breakfast, before starting a good day of hard work. The worst time to eat them is just before bed--because then the body will tend to store the unused energy as fat.

 

What and when you eat isnt as important as how much. EVery person is different women need a few more carbs and fat when nursing than when they are not nursing. Just common sense. There is no one right way to eat. You have to find what works for you

Having said that. Good quality food is important. Anything you can leave on the dash of you car for more than a few hours and it doesnt go bad... aka Mcdonalds.... is not a high quality food. no microbes to help your gut digest and metabolism the food.

I've been obsessed with intermittent fasting for over a year. Its really improved alot of health markers for me. more energy, decreased inflammation etc. And my mind would tell me i needed to eat 3 meals a day for a long time. Took awhile to reprogram my brain. Was it easy ... no but its doable. But what i do wont work for everyone. Again you have to find what works for you

 

The human body has at least four separate feedback systems designed to prevent the loss of body fat. The body has evolved to store food as fat, and the drive to do so is powerful.

When a person gains weight, their body's weight point is re-set at the greater weight. Then the body actively opposes any attempt to return to the previous weight. If food scarcity drives the body weight back down to the old normal, after a while it becomes the new normal, once again.

It is much easier to raise the weight point than to reduce it.

In every case, the quantity of food consumed is definitive. There are no fat people in the late stages of a famine.

Too much weight (body fat) can interfere with heart efficiency, circulation to the extremities, and cause overheating of the internal organs. All of which are very bad things.

Intermittent fasting can not only eliminate excess weight, but purge the body of many accumulated toxins.

Interestingly, excess body weight is not lost as "water weight" in the manner most people believe, but is actually lost in the form of exhaled carbon dioxide.

The book Ice! by Tristan Jones recounts his experiences in attempting to sail solo to the North Pole, accompanied only by a three-legged dog. Along the way, 2/3rds of his food supplies were lost on the ice, and he had to return to civilization on extremely short rations.

He learned to eat only when he was out of energy, and to eat only enough to give him the energy needed to keep functioning for the next few hours. He survived. When eventually examined by doctors, he was found to have 0% body fat. No body fat whatsoever.

The book is fascinating reading, on many levels.

I definitely recommend it.