Nutrition is a topic that I recently became interested in once one of my closest friends got diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Watching her change her lifestyle through the food that she ate really made me conscious about what I was putting into my own body. Eating can be a pleasure but at the end of the day it’s about nourishing your body with minerals and vitamins so that you can sustain a healthy and happy lifestyle. Most of us are always on the go, which makes us prone to grabbing quick bites in between the few breaks that we get. In that rush, we tend to go for foods that will fill us up quickly, so we eat a lot of carbs and fat to satisfy our hunger. We’re so lucky to have access to fresh dairy and produce which we can consume everyday, but the American food habits have changed a lot over the last century. Jane Ziegelman’s talk about the rise of home economics during the American Great Depression made me aware of the fact that food intake is not solely for pleasure, it more

The great depression was a trying time for many American citizens. The rampant shortage of foods like bread, butter, and milk took a toll on people’s health. In order to combat the paucity and cost of these foods, home economists developed recipes that were economical and healthy for the public. Most of the home economists were women who believed that housework should be treated as regular jobs, so they used their culinary skills to innovate new recipes and dishes for the public. One such person as Flora Rose, who created a light white sauce recipe for everyday cooking. Since dairy was such a big part of the American diet, this recipe allowed any food to be paired with the white sauce, and so the recipe became very popular. Home economists like Flora Rose truly revolutionized cooking at a time when food supplies were draining, and taught others how they could be economical and still eat healthy with the few resources that they had.