COMMENTARY: Has Anything Really Changed?

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COMMENTARY: Has Anything Really Changed?

 

By: Susan Booth

http://www.azurestandard.com/articles/Archive/AnythingChanged.cfm

 

Taking a look at food history of just the last 150 years, you can

easily see how the headlines of yesteryear could be the headlines of

today. Reading these historical entries you may find it hard to

believe it was so long ago.

 

The theme remains the same - food processors pushing for newfangled

foods, there's resistance at first, but the resistance is soon

broken down and newfangled foods become " staples " -- their purity

and healthfulness unquestioned by most. But in looking at the

history of just three highly processed foods, we see that the

journey from strange/questionable to accepted was a short trip. In

the historical entries that follow, we'll take a look at three

highly processed, newfangled foods that have become mainstream, but

which have a rocky history - margarine, soy, and soda pop.

 

Many have looked at the rise in disease rates in the 20th Century

and tried to pin the blame on a certain " culprit " in the diet (such

as cholesterol). But, in stepping back to look at the broader

picture, we see that in the last 100-150 years, Americans have

stopped eating the whole nutritious foods of their great-

grandparents (such as meat, milk, eggs, cheese, fruits, and

vegetables) and instead, eat highly processed new-fangled foods such

as margarine, soy " meat " , and soda pop. Would our relatives from

just a few generations back have eaten the newfangled foods so

popular today?

 

Our history lesson also shows that during war, drought, or economic

depression when food prices go up, people begin to eat cheap foods

(such as flour, potatoes, and rice) and their health declines. But,

during better economic times people eat more nutritious food such as

meat, eggs, and nuts.

 

History speaks for itself - the following entries are both

entertaining and disturbing.

 

Years ago, there were a few people looking for truth in labeling and

clear differences between the real and the " fake " .

 

But, the tide of public opinion and food-processors were against

them. People valued their money more than their health.

 

Today, we face a similar problem with the labeling of genetically

engineered foods.

 

With the recent defeat of an Oregon measure to label GMO foods, it's

apparent that now, as then, many people don't care to know what

their food is made of, where it came from, or if it's an imitation

of the real thing.

 

Excerpts from

The People's Chronology

1

edited by James Trager

 

1802

 

Soybeans are introduced into the United States via England.

 

1874

 

Margarine is introduced into the United States.

 

New York State outlaws the representation of margarine as " butter, "

but the law will be widely ignored.

 

1886

 

Coca-Cola goes on sale May 8 at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, where

local pharmacist John S. Pemberton has formulated a headache and

hangover remedy whose syrup ingredients include dried leaves from

the South American coco shrub [discovered in 1884 to have anesthetic

properties - cocaine] and an extract of Kola nuts from Africa plus

fruit syrup. Pemberton has been unsuccessful with his " Globe of

Flower Cough Syrup, " his " Triplex Liver Pills, " and other

concoctions, but he has been advertising his Coca-Cola " esteemed

Brain Tonic and Intellectual Beverage " since March 29. His

bookkeeper Frank M. Robinson has named the product and has written

the name Coca-Cola in a flowing script. Pemberton has persuaded

fountain man Willis E. Venable at Jacob's to sell the beverage on a

trial basis, Venable adds carbonated water, and by year's end

Pemberton has sold 25 gallons of syrup at $1 per gallon, but he has

spent $73.96 in advertising and will sell two-thirds of his sole

ownership in the product next year for $1,200 (see Candler, 1891)

 

Dr. Pepper is introduced as " The King of Beverages, Free from

Caffeine " by Waco, Tex., chemist R.S. Lazenby, who has experimented

with a soft drink formula developed by a fountain man at the town's

Old Corner Drug Store. The fountain man has called his drink Dr.

Pepper's Phos-Ferrates.

 

1887

 

Britain's Margarine Act establishes statutory standard's for

margarine, but dairy magnate George Barham does not succeed in his

demand that if any coloring be allowed in margarine it should be

pink, green, or - preferably - black (see U.S. federal coloring

restriction removal, 1950).

 

Wesson Oil and Snowdrift Company has its beginnings in the Southern

Cotton Oil Company founded at Philadelphia. The company's cottonseed-

crushing mills in the Carolinas, Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee,

Louisiana, and Texas will make it the largest prime producer of

cottonseed oil and the first U.S. manufacturer of vegetable

shortening. (see Wesson, 1899)

 

1889

 

A pure food law is proposed in Congress but meets with ridicule.

 

A New York margarine factory employee tells a state investigator

that his work has made " his hands so sore... his nails came off, his

hair dropped out and he had to be confined to Bellvue Hospital for

general debility, " but the " bogus butter " made from hog fat and

bleaches is widely sold as " pure creamery butter " and is no worse

than " butter " made from casein and water or from calcium, gypsum,

gelatin fat, and mashed potatoes.

 

1891

 

Coca-Cola ownership is acquired for $2,300 by Atlanta pharmacist Asa

G. Candler, 40, who buys up stock in the firm but who will achieve

great success only when he changes Coca-Cola advertising to end

claims such as " Wonder Nerve and Brain Tonic and Remarkable

Therapeutic Agent " and " Its beneficial effects upon diseases of the

vocal chords are wonderful. " Candler will make Coca-Cola syrup the

basis of a popular 5-cent soft drink (see 1886).

 

1894

 

Economic depression continues in the United States.

 

1899

 

Wesson Oil is developed by Southern Oil Company chemist David

Wesson, 38, who introduces a new method for deodorizing cottonseed

oil (see 1887). Wesson's vacuum and high-temperature process will

revolutionize the cooking oil industry and will largely overcome the

prejudice against cottonseed oil, which until now has been

deodorized only by heating it with a steam coil and blowing live

steam through it at atmospheric pressure.

 

1923

 

Congress calls filled milk a menace to health. The Filled Milk Act

passed after pressure from dairy interests forbids use of nondairy

ingredients (including low-fat vegetable oil to replace butterfat)

in anything that is called (or looks like) a milk product but the

courts will overturn the law in 1973.

 

1932

 

More Americans are hungry or ill-fed than ever before in the

nation's history. Nearly a million go back to the land.

U.S. farm prices fall to 40 percent of 1929 levels.

 

Wheat falls to below 25 cents a bushel, oats to 10 cents, sugar to 3

cents per pound, cotton and wool to 5 cents per pound.

 

1933

 

Margarine made from soybeans is produced in public demonstrations at

the Ford Motor Company's Industrialized American Barn at the Chicago

Fair. For chemical engineer Robert Boyer, 34, has developed soy

plastics for horn buttons, gearshift handles, and control knobs and

is working on ways to substitute soybean forms for conventional food

(see 1937).

 

1934

 

U.S. food-buying patterns begin shifting to larger consumption of

red meats (especially beef and pork), fruits, green vegetables, and

dairy products as industrial earnings start to improve.

 

1937

 

Soy protein " analogs " that will be used as substitutes for bacon and

other animal protein foods are pioneered by Ford Motor Company

scientists trying to develop a synthetic wool fiber. They spin a

textile filament from soybean protein and create a vegetable protein

that can be flavored to taste much like any animal protein food (see

1949, Boyer, 1933)

 

1943

 

U.S. margarine is subject to a 10 cent federal tax if artificially

colored (1/4 cent per pound if colored by the consumer or used

uncolored). Millions of householders use vegetable dye to color

their white margarine yellow, but as more consumers turn to

margarine, Eleanor Roosevelt campaigns for a repeal of the margarine

tax (see 1950).

 

1944

 

U.S. soybean acreage reaches 12 million as new uses for the beans

are found in livestock feed, sausage filler, breakfast foods,

enamel, solvent, printing ink, plastics, insecticides, steel-

hardening, and beer (see McMillen, 1934). Henry Ford predicts that

in 5 years soybean milk will be produced at 3 cents per quart, and

the cow will be obsolete.

 

1949

 

The first edible vegetable-protein fiber made from spun soy isolate

is introduced (see 1937). Chemical engineer Robert Boyer files for

patents on a process for dehulling soybeans by putting them through

a series of rollers that turn them into flakes, bathing the flakes

in the hydrocarbon solvent hexane to extract their oil, heating the

oil-hexane mixture to drive off the hexane, milling the oil flakes

into a flour that is more than 50 percent protein, and further

processing the flour to make it 90 percent protein (see 1957).

 

1950

 

A federal tax of 10 cents per pound on U.S. margarine is removed as

are all federal restrictions on coloring margarine yellow. Butter is

in such short supply that retail prices often top $1 per pound and

U.S. consumers turn increasingly to margarine whose average retail

price is 33 cents per pound versus an average of 73 cents for

butter.

 

1952

 

New York State repeals its law against selling yellow colored

margarine, but other dairy states continue to prohibit sale of such

margarine (see 1943; 1967).

 

1957

 

Diets high in saturated fats are related to atherosclerotic heart

disease, says University of Minnesota nutritionist Ancel Keys in a

paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Keys shows that male Japanese have low rates of heart disease but

that rates rise when they adopt Western diets.

 

Ancel Keys (above) is challenged by British researcher John Yudkin

at London's Queen Elizabeth Hospital who suggests that the rising

rate of heart disease may be explained quite as reasonably (if not

more so) by the fact that Western people ingest far more sugar than

in earlier times.

 

U.S. per capita consumption of margarine overtakes butter

consumption for the first time. The average American uses 8.6 pounds

of margarine per year versus 8.3 pounds of butter.

 

Soy protein technology is advanced by a new process that mixes high-

protein soy flour with an alkaline liquid to create a spinning

solution which is fed under pressure into spinning machines (see

1949). Engineers at Worthington Foods, General Mills, and Ralston

Purina will develop improvements on this spinning technique, and

engineers at Swift and Archer-Daniels-Midland will adapt extrusion

methods from the plastics industry to develop new meat analogs from

soy protein isolate (see Bac*Os, 1966).

 

1966

 

Cola drink bottlers and canners receive Food and Drug Administration

dispensation not to list caffeine as an ingredient. Cola drinks

generally have 4 milligrams of caffeine per liquid ounce, coffee has

12 to 16.

 

Bac*Os are introduced by General Mills. The bits of soy protein

isolate are flavored to taste like bacon (see 1957; Boyer 1949).

 

1967

 

Sale of yellow margarine is permitted in Wisconsin which becomes the

last state to repeal laws against yellow margarine but which like

some other states continues to impose special taxes on margarine at

the behest of dairy interests. (see New York, 1952).

 

References

 

(1) The People's Chronology, edited by James Trager. Holt, Rinehart

and Winston. Copyright 1979 by James Trager.

 

Every time you turn around it seems like there is another study out

and being interpreted for you by the media or medical establishment.

New fads, new nutritional recommendations, new products -- they all

claim to make you healthier and your life easier. But one thing

remains constant: there always exists a desire of certain

individuals or institutions to separate you from your money,

regardless of any negative consequences to you. This is evident in

our brief study of food history.

 

Two truths: 1) The primary purpose of most products and businesses

is to make money. 2) The entity that is primarily concerned about

your welfare - both long and short term - is YOU.

 

I dare say all of us want to know what's true, what's real, and

what's a lie or a " fake. " Ask questions, do your own research, and

don't just blindly trust those who claim to " know. "

 

 

About the Author:

 

Susan Booth is the publishing director here at Azure - coordinating

the content of the website, catalogs, sale flyers, and informative

publications. With a deep interest in good health, she's an avid

reader who seeks out the truth and is eager to share it.

_________________

JoAnn Guest

mrsjoguest

DietaryTipsForHBP

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest