The talk I attended last Wednesday was a unique experience for me because even though I have had experience with nutrition in the past (having taken NS1150), the focus of the talk was primarily about approaching the field from a historical perspective. Jane Ziegelman’s primary research area was about nutrition during the great depression along with Flora Roses’ contribution to the field of home economics in America. This talk was informative in allowing me to understand how American’s dealt with food shortages during the great depression and the steps the pioneers in the field of nutrition took to ameliorate this crisis.

I learnt from the talk that because access to fresh food was so scarce back during the depression, people often had to consume their nutrients in bland and often very filling ways. The keystone to achieving both these criteria was the Bechamel Sauce. With this versatile sauce, homemakers could make even the most unflavorful dishes palatable. Professor Ziegelman talked at lengths about a dish which involved combining this wonder sauce with spaghetti and ground carrots.

As the field of nutrition progressed as well as better preservation technologies improved, people started to realize the benefits of consuming fresh foods as well as shake the long held belief that food was only a means of subsistence and not meant for enjoyment. In fact now I think people have quite the opposite belief and instead food is fetishized to an unhealthy extend which can be seen from the plethora of “food porn” Instagram and Facebook sites, often extolling extremely decadent dishes. In order to foster a diet which balances nutrition and taste, we need a compromise that does not neglect taste, but also one that is nutritionally dense. To that, I say look to the ancient Japanese, Chinese and Mediterranean food cultures. Only from them can we have a sustainable diet that can ween the millions of Americans off their addiction to corn syrup.