What I found most interesting about Jane Ziegelman’s presentation on the Great Depression was the change in what were considered health foods then and what are considered health foods now.

During the Great Depression, nutrition experts like Flora Rose advocated for the consumption of “white sauce,” a roux-like dairy-based sauce. It was added to casseroles, bakes, and pasta. However, as some students mentioned during the discussion, today such creamy, milk-based sauces are seen as unhealthy, harmful foods. One popular trend in food blogging today is replacing milk-based white sauces with cauliflower, soy, or cashew-based sauces. Americans are increasingly reluctant to consume cheeses and animal fats, and are becoming more aware of other calcium sources.

Flora Rose also created fortified cereals such as Milkwheato and Milkorno. These foods would give the starving American people both the calories and the nutrients that they lacked. Today, cereals, even fortified cereals, are seen as junk foods. Most popular brands, such as Cheerios, Raisin Bran, and Fruit Loops, use alarming amounts of added sugar and food coloring, to the point that their detrimental effects outweigh their nutritional value. Even cereal brands that market themselves as healthy alternatives, such as supermarket granolas, actually use disproportionately large amounts of sugar. The public has also turned on fortified foods as well – often vitamins and nutrients must be accompanied by other nutrients in order to be properly absorbed by the body, so isolating a nutrient from a food and adding it to another could result in less absorption.

Nutritional science is constantly evolving, and it’s alarming knowing that even our understanding of nutrition today is limited. In another hundred years, likely many foods that we consider healthy will be proven to be harmful for our bodies. I just hope that nutritional science never turns on avocados.