18 Food Trends Older People Grew Up With That Will Sound Totally Bizarre To Kids These Days
Recently, we posted about the food norms and unwritten rules from back in the day that older adults grew up with. As a millennial, I sure learned a lot about how people ate way back when. So, here are a few more dining habits commenters shared that kids today would probably think are verrryyyy strange.
1."The portion sizes were vastly different from what they are now — and the whole snack thing has changed as well. It was always a piece of fruit, but mainly just being told to wait till mealtime. One thing I am very glad has changed is the variety available now: much better vegetarian foods and the 'free from' ranges are a lot better than what we used to have."
2."A trip to the grocery store was to shop for ingredients to cook with, not prepared foods, which hardly existed. We'd buy as much meat, fish, and vegetables as we could afford. Our parents were born in the 1920s, so our meals reflected the eating habits of the years they grew up."
—Anonymous
3."If we got thirsty playing, we just went to the closest house, grabbed the water hose, and turned on the spigot. We had iced sweet tea or water for dinner (I grew up in the South). A soda was a once-a-week or two-week treat."
4."Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in Brooklyn, New York, we NEVER went out to eat. No water bottles for us or no soda with supper. Except for my mom, all of the adults smoked. In the summer, you could not stay inside if it wasn't raining, and you were in the house once the street lights came on. We went to the 'playground' and drank from the water fountain when thirsty."
5."We didn't have dessert with every meal. Dessert meant you had a cake on your birthday."
6."All the meat products back then were always overcooked to ensure all harmful bacteria were removed from the meal to make it safe to consume."
—Mike, 71, California
7."I remember smaller portions, and my mother always made sure we had a vegetable with dinner. A snack was either a banana (rare) or an apple. And after dinner, the kitchen was closed!"
—Anonymous
8."One of our favorite 'special' dinners that we requested was what we called goodie trays. It was basically a charcuterie board before we knew the term charcuterie. It was rolled-up lunch meats, a few different types of cheese laid out in small slices, and a bunch of veggies like carrot sticks, celery, black olives, pickles, etc. All of this was laid out on a round pizza pan, and we got to pick whatever we wanted to eat and have our ranch dressing on the side."
9."When I was in elementary school, we carried a sack lunch. It was either a fried egg or bologna sandwich and a nickel for a carton of milk. We also ate a lot of beans and cornbread with fried potatoes and corn."
10."Spices were rarely used except for special occasions, like sage in stuffing for turkey, or allspice in cakes or cookies. For regular meals, salt and pepper were seasonings used sparingly AFTER tasting the food to determine if it needed 'spices.'"
—Anonymous
11."I'm pushing 60, so probably one of the older ones on here. The school food was awesome. Our lunch ladies made homemade food; it tasted fantastic. A few items that stood out were homemade vegetable beef soup with peanut butter sandwiches and peanut butter cake. Kids ate better, played outside, and food allergies were not as prevalent."
12."We had a salad with dinner every day or fruit with cream cheese and walnuts when lettuce was out of season."
—Anonymous
13."We had cereal and milk for breakfast, plus a tiny glass of juice. We had enough time to go home for lunch in elementary school and had casseroles for supper quite often, except when we had a pot roast on Sundays. My aunt used to make spaghetti, which was quite exotic. We rarely saw a fresh vegetable that wasn't homegrown."
14."Fish on Friday! Always, for many years. It was usually frozen mass-produced fish sticks, not baked filets or something good."
15."There was no tolerance for a kid who was a picky eater. We all sat at the table together for dinner. You could eat what mom made or skip dinner. There was no 'Oh, you don't like what's for dinner? Let me microwave some chicken tenders for you.' You could eat or not. And if you chose not to (which I never did), you still had to sit at the table, help with dishes, and go to bed hungry. This is why I like nearly EVERY kind of food."
—Paul, 53, Illinois
16."My dad hunted; we lived in the suburbs, so he'd go to his sister's farm 50 miles away along the Kankakee River. He brought home pheasants, and my mom cooked them, but we'd have to spit out the lead shot pellets sometimes. My sister and I could roll them around the plate after we finished. Can you imagine the horror today of finding lead in your food?"
17."There were six of us, and when we ate fast food, we had to split fries. We each got our own burger and Coke, and the cups were tiny. You ate it all there — you didn't take your drink with you."
18."A meat grinder was a standard kitchen appliance. When you enjoyed a hamburger, it was from a piece of chuck or sirloin, not processed from up to a hundred different cows."
Were there any traditional food habits or rules you grew up with way back when? Tell us about them in the comments or fill out this anonymous form.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
