Food Evolution

Lately I've been thinking about the evolution of cooking and eating which has taken place in my life over the past fifty years.   Thinking about this has made me realize that there have been numerous factors which have played a role in that evolution.

The food evolution follows my own evolution and it is tied to where I lived at a certain time in my life,  how much money I had to spend on groceries,  what was available at the location where I lived, and so forth.

All of this has made me wonder whether or not people who spend their whole lives living in the same place actually end up eating the exact same foods. Nowadays I think probably most people at least experience Italian (pizza, lasagna) foods,  Chinese, Mexican, and so forth because those are all so readily available.

The factors that have affected my food and cooking choices include:  geography, culture, economic status, and stage of life.

I grew up in the South.  Food often came from what had been put up in the freezer or canned.  Or what grew in the garden or field.   Cantelope. Watermelon.  Corn, butter-beans, black-eyed peas.   Fresh tomatoes.  Cornbread.  Fried chicken.  Lots of things were fried.  Fried okra.  Hushpuppies.  Fish.

In my twenties, I spent a year eating fast food, and really paid the price for that on the scales!   For that decade, I was pretty much in transition,  moving away from the "southern/regional" foods my my childhood and youth, and learning to cook a broader range of foods.  In particular, they were of a more northern variety.

Another thing that has been pretty much a staple in my life, no matter where I might have lived, is the "church potluck supper."

When I was raising a family, anywhere from four of us to six of us,  there was definitely the "casserole stage", a time of stretching the food, stretching the budget.   I was always working, so there was also the matter of limited time.

With young children, especially when I was a single parent with very few resources, there were a lot of hot dogs and macaroni and cheese.

By the time I reached retirement,  I became much more committed to and interested in healthy food.   By then, I had lots more time and resources, as the family had all grown up and moved on.

I also had a lot of serious digestive issues that needed to be addressed.

In the past five years,  I have moved very much toward cooking and eating a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, trying to make the vegetables the star of the show, rather than the meat. While not rigid, I am about 90% vegetarian.

As one gets older, you really need less food and are better able to make direct connections between your health and the food you eat.

At this life stage, reading recipes, grocery shopping, cooking healthy food and eating well are the things I enjoy most.

I have probably said this before and will probably say this again.   My husband loves vegetables,  is not picky and genuinely relishes leftovers!  He will gratefully eat whatever I put in front of him.

I have occasionally wondered what that would feel like...to sit down to a dinner every night that someone else has prepared for you.

Hopefully,  I will never know!