Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming Jane Ziegelman to Rose house, and learned of nutrition during the Great Depression and the American relationship to food.

One of the things which I found fascinating in the talk was how nutritionists and scientists were proponents of a flavorless diet, in addition to introducing fortified cereals and cream-based sauces into the American diet. I find this interesting as I had read an article earlier describing a similar occurrence in Japan during the great depression. In order to feed everyone cheaply, the government promoted fried bread as healthy, as it was a cheap source of fats, carbohydrates, and calories. This strongly echos the fatty cream-based sauces and grains that scientists pushed as healthy during the American Great Depression. I find it really sad that people were not as knowledgeable about what constituted a proper diet, as many people were probably malnourished. Further, the lack of knowledge about what was actually healthy explains the much shorter life expectancy in the 1930’s versus now (60 vs 80).

In addition, it is interesting to note that fortified cereals (and fried bread in Japan) are still incredibly popular today, and many people consume it every morning. Perhaps this is a lingering effect of promoting fortified cereals so strongly during the Great Depression.

Another interesting things I learned during this talk was how Flora Rose’s knowledge about food helped assuage famine after World War I and during the Great Depression. The more I learn about her, the more proud I am to be living in Rose house this year and next year.

A week ago the Rose Scholars were visited by acclaimed author Jane Ziegelman who spoke to us about the time of the Great Depression and the importance of house wives during that troublesome situation. It was interesting how she began her talk by referring to the iconic photos of endless breadlines that would form for people to get food nationwide. Zielgelman explained that bread lines had been an iconic image in many European countries that were struggling with poverty as well. Also, it was shocking to note that many members of the middle class and upper middle class were opposed to receiving aid, especially in the form of rations or food stamps, because they felt embarrassed by it. Doctors, businessmen, and engineers were admirable professions of individuals that were suddenly out of a job because of the market crash and it lead to many family dynamic changes, from being well off to having just enough to survive. It caused me to wonder if the American mentality to always want more and be independent got in the way of people helping one another because they were too proud to receive help themselves. It is a very American mentality to be successful and take the credit all for oneself, which could have been why, even though half the country was struggling at the time, people were still embarrassed to ask for help in obtaining the simplest rations of food.

The Great Depression also brought about a new age of understanding what foods provided the most nutrients and could be preserved the longest. House wives were able to learn about various nutrition facts pertaining to healthy foods versus high caloric foods and learn the best ways to feed their families. I find it fascinating that usually, for there to be change in a community or nation, something has to occur that is typically harmful or inconvenient for everyone. Having an unemployment rate as high as 25% at one point, there was definitely reason for  people to seek out help from each other and the government to get through the state the country was in. Children were malnourished and adults could not find work to support their families. With this event however, proper eating habits, receiving the right amount of protein, and reaching out for help no matter what socioeconomic level someone is as all benefits that came about due to the Great Depression.

I was wonderful to have Ziegelman speak with us, especially seeing that she has really devoted much of her writing to capturing that time period in American history. I hope to read her novel one day to get a better look at what it was like for the people of the United States to overcome such adversities together. In a way, as distraught as our nation was at the time, it was a time period when everyone came together to help each other out, because there was nothing more that could be done but unite to overcome the harsh times.

This week’s Rose Cafe was very interesting. Dr. Ziegelman talked to us about food production and our relationship with food in the Great Depression and how this relationship continues to evolve today.

An interesting part of the talk was the use of fortified cereals. Examples of such cereals include Milkorno, which were enriched with the nutrition and calories needed for Americans to survive. Such foods took a minimalist of food and focused on ensuring that people recieve the “right” foods and are able to survive and get the right nutrition. It is interesting that in contrast, today, cereals are notorious for being unhealthy processed foods that are simply empty calories with no real nutritional value, full of high fructose corn syrup. As consumers, we have to be very smart about what we eat, and ensure that we are aware of what is going in to our body by checking what foods actually consist of- many cereals today which are advertised as healthy are often high calorie, or have high-fructose corn syrup.

Another example of changing perceptions of foods is how during the Depression era, nutritionists including our very own Flora Rose encouraged cream based white sauced in foods. Today, in our vegan friendly and more nutrititonally aware society, we are aware that such foods are very high in fats and lack nutrition- and that tomato based sauces are far superior.

In conclusion, this talk was insightful and shed light on a lot of differences between food, and our relationship and perception of it, now compared to during the Great Depression.

Dr. Ziegelman provided valuable insight into food production during the Great Depression and how that is still influencing how we eat today.

I found Cornell’s role in all this very interesting. This school was the birthplace of fortified cereals, something that we still find en masse on the shelves of grocery stores today. It makes me question how valid our current food practices are if we are still using ideas adopted from the 1920s. For example, I know baby formula was invented during that time too to get Americans to consume more diary; now, when mother’s milk is proven to be more healthy for babies, many people around the world still rely on formula because they believe it is superior.

Another interesting point discussed during the cafe was American food culture. Compared to other cultures around the world, we are much less concerned about food and what we put into our bodies and I think that that has a negative effect on our society and health. Too often Americans are eating junk food on the go instead of siting down and have a proper healthy and nutritious meal with family and friends. I believe that this is a reason why so many Americans are overweight. We should think more critically about what we put into our bodies, especially considering the histories of said foods.

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.

I attended the talk “Nutrition Warriors: Home Economics and the Fight to Feed America During the Great Depression”. The talk was given by Ms. Jane Ziegelman, historian and author of A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression. In that hour period, Ms. Ziegelman discussed the perhaps rather unknown side of the thing everyone has heard about the Great Depression: hunger. When their children no longer had the energy to go to school, mothers frantically started learning all they could about vitamins and how to best prepare food that gave the most nutrition, all while trying to stretch every dollar they had. Everyone thought that it was just a temporary setback, a recession. They had no idea that it would end up being a decade-long Great Depression. It was a period that saw shifts in the country’s political and social landscape.

My prior knowledge of the work people like Flora Rose and Mrs. Roosevelt did on behalf of the quarter of all Americans unemployed and undernourished was very limited. I had learned about the bread lines and FDR’s New Deal in my history classes, but I had never learned about home economics. I certainly had never heard of Milkorno and Milkoato. They changed the way Americans ate by promoting an ambivalence toward culinary enjoyment (something I cannot endorse, but am able understand their reasons). It was better for food to be a bland experience, as placing too much stock in flavor would lead people to choose the wrong kinds of food. The home economists’ vision of utilitarian cuisine on the American dinner table was reflected in the emphasis on potatoes, carrots, bread, cabbage, prunes, beans, and milk in recipes. I found the talk to be very interesting, especially since Cornell played such a significant role in aiding the country during that trying period. The talk has certainly given me much to consider the next time I swipe in at the dining hall.

The guest speaker at this week’s Rose Cafe was Ms. Jane Ziegelman, who is a historian and the  author of a book titled Nutrition Warriors: Home Economics and the Fight to Feed America During the Great Depression. The topic of the night was about the struggle of working class families to eat as nutritionally as possible under extreme financial distress. At the forefront of this moment for home economics was Cornell’s own Flora Rose.

Often times, when we learn about the Great Depression, we focus on the economics and governance of the time era, but just as important is the cultural aspect within the families. At the peak, the unemployment rate was 25% and people who had never accepted charity before, such as the professional middle class, found themselves in breadlines. Children stopped attending school because of the effects of malnutrition. We know today that mineral and vitamin deficiencies led to their poor physical and cognitive health, but these concepts were relatively new in the 1930s. Therefore, it was incredibly important to come up with solutions for feeding families, especially children. Flora Rose and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt worked together to come up with recipes that, as advertised, cost only seven and a half cents but contained all the vitamins for a nutritionally wholesome meal. Furthermore, this created a whole new home economics movement where women went to university for essentially a degree in the sciences, especially here at Cornell.  For example, Cornell was involved with the first nationally distributed fortified cereals, not unlike the ones we eat today.

It is so interesting to see how humans’ relationship with food has changed over the course of generations. Trends and fads, such as most recently a ‘gluten-free’ diet, come and go. In another example, the Atkins’ diet led to a decrease in sales for pasta and rice. However, most of the time, these diets have no scientific basis, unlike the scientific eating that was introduced during the Great Depression. Because the types of food we consume directly impact our well-being, the study of nutrition has always been and always will be an incredibly important science.

On Wednesday evening I went to the talk “Nutrition Warriors: Home Economics and the Fight to Feed America During the Great Depression” by Jane Ziegelman, a visiting writer who wrote A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression. Before the talk, I learned during the lottery at House Dinner that American people used to spend 25% of their income during the Great Depression time, while they now only spend 9% on it.

During the Great Depression, the crisis in financial industry expanded to every aspect of the society. Household was lack of money and generally were granted a set amount of necessary food by the government. At the time, there were homo-economists who noticed that Americans were eating too much starch and spending too much income on food. By the way, I didn’t know what home economist was and Wikipedia defines it as ” the profession and field of study that deals with the economics and management of the home and community”. Flora Rose was a home economist at the time and also was one of the first female professors at Cornell (also MVR). Mrs.Jane showed a a picture of Flora Rose along side Eleanor Roosevelt. She told us that Eleanor Roosevelt was also a home economist at the time and she was promoting budget eating in White House at the time, but FDR didn’t really appreciate her style. Flora Rose developed two kinds of breakfast cereal: Milkorno and Milkoato, which were two cereal choices that are inexpensive and nutritious at the same time. Mrs Jane did mentioned that during the Great Depression each household would get a set amount of milk, meat, beans and other food that contain necessary nutrition for human body.

Although not having a nutrition background previously, I still learned about food history during Great Depression, comparing what we have now. Professor Blalock commented at the end of the talk that as our income grow, the percentage we spend our income on food would become less. I feel very lucky to enjoy such great dining halls on west campus everyday and I hope to learn more about nutrition and how to stay balanced in our diet.