A thought on why they eat so much crap...

[annalena]

...as the reporter pointed out on the Bates special a couple of times, the Bates (read: fundies) do have a kind of 1950ies lifestyle in certain ways ( for some, even 50 years earlier than that).

 

Maybe that's what leads them to eating what they eat. While I doubt Tater Tots have been around that long, 60 years ago food supply was nowhere near what it is today.

 

I realize when I read old recipes and cookbooks that those where nowhere "light" or lean(especially our German ones), but they had to have a ton of calories and had to be able to be made with things easily available because I guess you never could be sure when the next meal was going to take place.

 

So stuff like homemade cookies with tons of sugar and butter were great, cause they had a lot lot lot of calories.

 

But we don't live in the 1950ies anymore... maybe Fundies need to realize that. It always bothers me when they publish recipes for homemade cookies, muffins, stuff like that, brag about how everything is homemade, but apparently the idea of a homemade fruit salad doesn't cross their minds very often.

[Lillybee]

I don't know about that. I grew up in the 50's with a mom who was a plain cook, but we almost always had meat, starch and a veg at dinner time.

[annalena]

Oh, well, I guess it depends on where you live.

It's probably a thought based on looking back on life here in Germany, where the after- war time was definitely a time of not having enough to eat.

[Maggie Mae]

I have a couple of thoughts on that. I think that some of the people we discuss don't realize that all those great recipes of yonder weren't the day to day meals. In the past cupcakes and muffins were made for special occasions. Deserts weren't served with most meals. Many families didn't have the option of "going back for seconds/thirds." AND those meals weren't necessarily as large as ours are today. They might have made those meal, but people weren't consuming the sheer amount of food that most people eat today.

My grandfather was born in 1904 and lived though the Great Depression when food was scarce. Because of this, my Grandparents house was always packed with food. They saved everything. My grandmother used butter and milk, and her recipes were great, albeit fattening. My dad learned from them about stockpiling cans and buying inexpensive foods, which means I grew up on a diet of canned veggies, canned fruits, and various concoctions that would make many of you shudder. Some of the things make me grossed out - like the way my grandmother would make most of my school lunchs at the beginning of the week and hand me a bag in the morning. Or the way she would give me boxed cereal with half-and-half. I was a terribly skinny kid. It wasn't until my 3rd year of college that I was introduced to fast food and not exercising; which led to massive weight gain. I don't think the canned foods are as bad as everyone makes them out to be. In my not very scientific opinion, it's more important to listend to one's body and not eat if you aren't hungry, to abstain from fast food, and to exercise. I didn't grow up snacking, if I wanted a snack, someone got me, like half a meal. We never had chips or cookies to snack on - cookies were for special occasions, and chips were for labor day barbeques, plus I just don't care for them. We did always have balanced meals with meat (which I rarely ate), veggies, a salad, and a slice of bread or a roll.

When I lived with my maternal grandmother, we ate a lot more veggies that they canned from their own garden, less meat, and more grains. We didn't eat dairy except with breakfast, and we didn't eat "breakfast meats" ever. They always had deserts stashed away though.

I would say that the fundie lifestyle definitely idealizes the 1950s and early 1960s, with the nuclear family; the smiling housewife, and the idea of a stay-at-home mother who wakes up smiling, puts on a dress, fixes her hair, and smiling kids. However, they have merged that with the idea of farm life and at home businesses, which is interesting. Also they seem to want more than the standard 2-3 kids and a dog, instead choosing to have giant families and still attempt to live like it's 1950. They overlook the fact that in years past, mega-families were dirt poor. Times have changed. It is NOT ACCEPTABLE to not have shoes for all of your children. It's not okay to expect your 5 year old to watch the toddlers while you work in the garden. It is not okay to deny education to your teens.

I love reading cookbooks, especially old ones. I picked up a cookbook a few years ago from a thrift store. It was written in the 1940s, and was hilarious. It interjected mariage advice among it's recipes; it discussed how to find the cheapest cost of meat, and some other factoids. One of the things I remember the most (I have no idea where it is now) is the section on breakfast, and how a family can't function without a complete breakfast. They recommended getting up at 3:30/4 and putting a pot roast in the oven so the husband and children can have a great meal before they head off to work/school. It gave tips on how to cook the cheapest meats possible and lie to your family about what they are eating.

I think part of the "I MUST MAKE ALL MY FOOD HOMEMADE AND ORGANIC" trend in Fundiedom also has to do with the chemicals, pesticides, and rise of HFCS in our diets. Food might be cheaper, but there is a lot more convenience foods, there is a lot more junk, and it's not making our society any better. A couple of Fundie Royals say that they eat all natural, so they all must do it, as it's obviously what God wants.

Also southern food is high calorie. My SO is from Alabama, and we get into fights about how pan frying works. Personally, I think if you are going to put a couple of inches of oil in a pan and then fry something that has been soaked ina batter, you might as well just deep fry it.

[annalena]

My grandfather was born in 1904 and lived though the Great Depression when food was scarce. Because of this, my Grandparents house was always packed with food. They saved everything. My grandmother used butter and milk, and her recipes were great, albeit fattening. My dad learned from them about stockpiling cans and buying inexpensive foods, which means I grew up on a diet of canned veggies, canned fruits, and various concoctions that would make many of you shudder.

Great insight! Thank you!

I guess what me bothers most is that they act like everything's homemade, but to me "homemade" equals made from scratch and not putting canned soups together.

I- in my not very scientific opinion also- think there's absolutely nothing wrong with home-canned fruits, although I do think fresh is better. But I think there is a vast difference between the home-canned fruits and the c canned fruits from the store. I do think though now that fresh fruit actually is available to us year round, we should take advantage of it.

In my not very scientific opinion, it's more important to listend to one's body and not eat if you aren't hungry, to abstain from fast food, and to exercise. I didn't grow up snacking, if I wanted a snack, someone got me, like half a meal. We never had chips or cookies to snack on - cookies were for special occasions, and chips were for labor day barbeques, plus I just don't care for them.

I want to mention just for the record that there are healthy snacks. :) Like fruit and nuts, or maybe a bread roll with whatever. To me, "snack" does not have to equal chips and cookies.

One of the things I remember the most (I have no idea where it is now) is the section on breakfast, and how a family can't function without a complete breakfast. They recommended getting up at 3:30/4 and putting a pot roast in the oven so the husband and children can have a great meal before they head off to work/school. It gave tips on how to cook the cheapest meats possible and lie to your family about what they are eating.

That's funny, my parents always made us have breakfast together and I hated it. Hated hated hated. I can not eat for 2 hours or so after I get up, I hate people around, I hate talking at that time and above all, I hate any unnecessary noise.

So we sat at the breakfast table, my dad would turn up the radio and start the conversation we had to participate in , and I they would try very hard to make me eat something.

So much for that. :) I guess what I'm trying to say is these "rules" are not for everyone.

The idea of pot roast for breakfast makes me want to puke.

[darareaksmey]

I think the only reason the Bateses and Duggars are able not to weigh 400 lbs. each is that there must be a limit on the amount of food available. It makes sense, with such enormous families. Otherwise, their diets seem quite high in fat and sodium.

They seem to think that everyone either lives/eats as they do, or is out there pounding the Quarter Pounders with Cheese night and day. Hello, fundies. There's a happy medium. I cook from scratch at home--and I'd venture to say it's harder for me because I have an evil outside-the-home job that takes up my time--and we only hit fast food, or any restaurant at all really, perhaps once a month.

[longskirtlotsakids]

Just for fun.... you can waste a lot of time here.... for fun food yuckiness.. and commentary that'll bust you a nice hernia..

http://lileks.com/institute/gallery/

[moreorlessnu]

The idea of pot roast for breakfast makes me want to puke.

Especially when Mumsy pokes holes in it and stuffs whole cloves of garlic into each hole before placing the pot roast in the oven.

[Kitty]

With all of that land and free labor I'm surprised the Duggars don't have their own garden/farm. Growing your own food is cheaper than filling the gas tank to drive to the grocery store for $500 worth of groceries a week. I find it odd that people who are so bent on frugality and self-sufficiency don't grow and can/freeze their own food. Gardening isn't particularly difficult, and it's perfectly possible to grow enough veggies for a large family, fresh for the summer and canned in the winter. I had a tiny garden out in the corner of my backyard, and managed to grow much more than enough for a family of 4. Shit, with all the free labor that the Bateses and Duggars have, those gardens would be weed-free too, and always watered...

I think fundies just simply don't know shit about nutrition, or thinking about what they're reading. The olden-days cookbooks full of sweets and junk weren't meant for everyday meals. That's what cookbooks are for; cutting and boiling veggies and meats don't require instruction manuals. Unfortunately, classes in nutrition and critical thinking are not offered at any SOTDRT campus.

[Deleted12]

With all of that land and free labor I'm surprised the Duggars don't have their own garden/farm. Growing your own food is cheaper than filling the gas tank to drive to the grocery store for $500 worth of groceries a week. I find it odd that people who are so bent on frugality and self-sufficiency don't grow and can/freeze their own food. Gardening isn't particularly difficult, and it's perfectly possible to grow enough veggies for a large family, fresh for the summer and canned in the winter. I had a tiny garden out in the corner of my backyard, and managed to grow much more than enough for a family of 4. Shit, with all the free labor that the Bateses and Duggars have, those gardens would be weed-free too, and always watered...

I think fundies just simply don't know shit about nutrition, or thinking about what they're reading. The olden-days cookbooks full of sweets and junk weren't meant for everyday meals. That's what cookbooks are for; cutting and boiling veggies and meats don't require instruction manuals. Unfortunately, classes in nutrition and critical thinking are not offered at any SOTDRT campus.

So much word. At the very very very least, fruit and nut trees and berry vines would provide healthy snacks for all 27 kids when the fruit is in season. Peaches, blackberries, walnuts, apples, plums, pecans... yum!

[gardenvarietycitizen]

With all of that land and free labor I'm surprised the Duggars don't have their own garden/farm. Growing your own food is cheaper than filling the gas tank to drive to the grocery store for $500 worth of groceries a week.

I wonder this exact same thing when I read about the Duggars and then lately the Bates family food habits. Also particularly the Bates on their latest TV interview talking about how they eat off of paper plates. Paper plates???? That has got to be costing a fortune.

Plus they have enough kids to rotate cooking duties among, and a large enough audience for the finished product, that a lot of the "pain in the ass to make but when you do make it, you can easily make food for 30" recipes would surely be worth it - unlike when you live alone or in a very small group. They should be able to run things more like a restaurant even, with massive throughput. The investment in whatever cooking appliances they need would quickly pay off, and from what I've seen of the Duggars' kitchen it seems they're pretty well set up already. Even if they're still buying stuff from the store, you'd think mass bulk ingredients would be cheaper than pre-made, pre-packaged stuff - particularly if they want a higher quality end product than the pre-packaged stuff that tends to go on super sale.

[bananacat]

I think that they're sort of just uneducated, or intentionally anti-education. This is probably the type of food they grew up, and they're not about listen to evil scientists who tell them to eat a salad. It's partly a class thing because they don't want to be seen as gourmets or hippies, but also part of their general distrust of secular scientists. If the Bible or Gothard doesn't tell them to eat fresh vegetables, then they won't do it. Nutrition just isn't on their list of priorities.

It would be so much cheaper though to buy potatoes instead of tator tots. And it's so easy to prepare them if you leave the skin on. If they just diced fresh potatoes in their TTC they would save a ton of money. So it's weird that they go for the more expensive stuff when they much such a big deal about paying less for everything.

[demgirl]

I think it's just that high fat, high sodium food tastes good and the fundies aren't allowed to have much pleasure in their lives, so they get much of their daily dose of fun and pleasure from eating foods that taste good. I don't particularly want them to start gardens and cook pain in the ass meals and can and all of that, simply because I know who that work would get pushed off on and those girls already have enough to do, what with cleaning, making the clothes and raising the children.

And I truly believe that their diets were probably set at a time when cooking was turned over to an 8 year old daughter, who can't be expected to know how to cook healthy and labor intesive meals, but can totally pour some cream of chicken soup over tater tots.

[onlyorganic]

I love reading cookbooks, especially old ones. I picked up a cookbook a few years ago from a thrift store. It was written in the 1940s, and was hilarious. It interjected mariage advice among it's recipes; it discussed how to find the cheapest cost of meat, and some other factoids. One of the things I remember the most (I have no idea where it is now) is the section on breakfast, and how a family can't function without a complete breakfast. They recommended getting up at 3:30/4 and putting a pot roast in the oven so the husband and children can have a great meal before they head off to work/school. It gave tips on how to cook the cheapest meats possible and lie to your family about what they are eating.

I think the 70s were responsible for the plethora of disgusting convenience foods and lovely casserole creations, as more women started working and it wasn't ideal for Mom to market in the morning, bake bread and cookies in the afternoon, and have a roast with potatoes cooking all day in the dutch oven on the stove. My mother has a stash of 70s cookbooks, many of them from Campbells, Gold Medal Flour, brand names about how to best use their products to create flavorful dishes. Growing up, almost everything I ate was simmered or baked in some form of canned soup. The 70s also saw the creation of the...duh duh DUH duh...CROCKPOT! And within ten years, microwaves. Food could now be mixed up in the morning and left to cook all day on the countertop while both parents worked. Now, I'm not blaming a working lifestyle on people eating crappy food, but when someone doesn't have time to research and cook a well-balanced meal yet obviously still needs to eat... things like Hamburger Helper come about...

In regards to big families and eating poorly, I think it's cheapness and ease. Michelle Duggar has 19 children. Now, as lovely as she is compared to HeartsDesire, she's got NINETEEN kids. If she was baking her own bread, she'd literally need to work a baker's regular work shift to feed that many kids. Making homemade pizza? Well, that bread machine would be going all afternoon. For 19 kids to have an organic piece of fruit at each meal would be close to $20. For the fruit alone. And no, they don't have a farm to sustain them (why didn't TLC think of that???), which would be more cost-effective. I've seen episodes of 19 Kids where they are grocery shopping and they go to like Aldi and buy massive loaves of white bread. I'm not picky, but Aldi grosses me out. Everything is canned or appears to be pickled, frozen, or preserved in some sort of liquid. I understand it's cheap because you aren't getting brand names, but it also doesn't appear to be the most healthy ...

Anyways, sorry for the Taryn rant. In a nutshell: cost and ease of preparation.

[kpmom]

I grew up in the 60's and 70's and we ate much different than we do today. We had bread (white) and butter (margarine) at every dinner, and white potatoes at most dinners. Can you imagine?

Interestingly, though, none of us, including my parents, were obese. Why do you suppose that was?

[longskirtlotsakids]

no internet.

[ChunkyBarbie]

No Internet, video games or cable tv in the 70's and early 80's. We ate white bread,margarine and potatoes, but we also got plenty of exercise by playing outdoors.

Edited for riffles.

[browngrl]

I think that the reason that people were not as fat in past eras has to do with two things: portion size and activity level. People in the past ate less (largely, I think, due to lack of food) and were very active - even if just doing activities of daily living.

I think many fundies with large families eat very poorly - largely due to the cost both in time and money that is involved in creating healthier meals. This is tremendously irritating for me. Most of the women in my circle work outside the home and spend a lot of time and energy making sure that their children eat a decent meal and get decent amount of physical activity and yet these fundy women with cartloads of children that are largely cared for by overworked sister-moms have the gaul to criticize mothers who limit the number of children they have and mothers that work outside the home. It is one of my fundy pet peeves.

[nuri]

I'm not picky, but Aldi grosses me out. Everything is canned or appears to be pickled, frozen, or preserved in some sort of liquid. I understand it's cheap because you aren't getting brand names, but it also doesn't appear to be the most healthy ...

I don't know about your aldi, but mine has been getting more and more "natural" and less preserved foods in the past few years, the quality of the produce has gotten tons better (and is often the only place I can find non-bruised bagged apples). I just did a look through of my cabinets, comparing ingredients, and aldi's are generally better when it comes to things I can pronounce.

There are certainly items that I won't pick up, but I went through everything I bought yesterday, and not a single thing had HFCS in it. You can certainly eat well and healthy from aldi's.

[cjsmom]

The Duggars couldn't have their own garden: they're away on too many roadtrips. Everything would die when they went away. They could very easily have a few fruit trees, which are practically maintenance-free sources of food. As for other fundies, it's a shame that the SOTDRT doesn't extend to (growing and) preparing real food. I teach many math concepts through the preparation of simple food in my classroom.

I still don't know how you can consider yourself frugal when you eat prepackaged foods off paper plates. I cook most things from scratch, or near-to (eg. canned beans, rinsed, for weeknight dinners instead of soaking and cooking them, which is a weekend thing a chez moi). We use real plates, and take turns loading and unloading the dishwasher. Easy stuff.

I do like tater tots though, but they are a sometimes food for sure.

[demgirl]

These threads are so bad for my self esteem. I don't even know what HFCS is. I love processed food. I love fresh veggies too, but my idea of a balanced meal is Kraft macaroni and cheese with some fresh green beans. And I'm pretty much okay with that. Even back when I was a size 2 and crazed about my weight, I didn't worry about stuff being processed or natural -- I just extremely restricted portion size. I'm actually curious to see the inevitable studies in the next few decades about whether people who eat organic and chemical free have better health outcomes than people who eat the same type of diet but don't worry about whether the food is organic or processed or whatever.

I still can't figure out where people find the time to can and jar things or make homemade bread for every meal or any of that. I tried, but I literally don't have the time. Or I do, but it would mean giving up other things, like seeing my family, playing with my cat, going out with friends, reading, etc.

[MonkeyMomma]

I don't know about your aldi, but mine has been getting more and more "natural" and less preserved foods in the past few years, the quality of the produce has gotten tons better (and is often the only place I can find non-bruised bagged apples). I just did a look through of my cabinets, comparing ingredients, and aldi's are generally better when it comes to things I can pronounce.

There are certainly items that I won't pick up, but I went through everything I bought yesterday, and not a single thing had HFCS in it. You can certainly eat well and healthy from aldi's.

I'm responding as I'm reading through the thread, so sorry if this subtopic is dead, but yeah, count me in the "I love Aldi" team. We purchase mostly basic ingredients like fresh produce, frozen produce, canned/dry beans, milk (without growth hormones), cheeses, eggs, and healthy snacks like unsweetened applesauce. You can definitely eat well and healthy from Aldi, like any other grocery store. It just depends on whether you're buying basics or prepared foods.

[Wolfie]

[

I- in my not very scientific opinion also- think there's absolutely nothing wrong with home-canned fruits, although I do think fresh is better. But I think there is a vast difference between the home-canned fruits and the c canned fruits from the store. I do think though now that fresh fruit actually is available to us year round, we should take advantage of it.

I do agree that fresh is better- BUT if you're eating something out of season there is a whole extra layer of the transportation and preservation costs added in. I do home can fruits- just picked a bunch of blackberries to make into something later today. (and I've got sauces, pickles, peaches and jams and jellies filling my cabinet right now.) The fruits for the most part are from local sources, the jars are mostly US made (except for a few Weck jars I have), ect. I can control the sugar, sodium, etc... (within reason, some of it is for preservations) I even can half of my peaches in orange juice- I've never seen that in a store. And in the winter, when my choice is stuff trucked in from who knows where for unreasonable costs per pound, or the stuff I bought locally and canned when it's in season, I'm going to choose the local stuff even if it is canned or frozen. I also can afford to eat healthier if I put some food away when it's cheaper.

[Guest Anonymous]

Canned soup casseroles exist largely due to Campbells who introduced them as promotional recipes in the 50's and 60's....Jello, I'm assuming, is responsible for all those jello creations from the same time period. So common to find these things at rural pot lucks here in Ontario, especially if the cook is over 60. I guess they're popular with large families (who might be using unskilled young girls to make dinners) because of the perceived ease and cost. I do love a tuna noodle or salmon loaf casserole (just like grandma used to make), except that I add VEGETABLES to them.

Like someone said above, a lot of people eat like this normally, not just fundies (although I hope people add more actual veggies to their diets) - I see people loading up their carts with hamburger helper or kraft dinner when they're on sale.

The Duggars, however, have no excuses...their kitchen is set up like a cafeteria and they have dishwashers (or I thought I saw them). With the number of older kids they have (and not being shit poor anymore) they could make large scale meals with better ingredients. About having a garden, if cleanliness is next to Godliness maybe any spare time is spent cleanin that mof*cking huge house and they couldn't trample dirt or have the girls get dirty in a veggie garden....

[ladypuglover]

Canned soup casseroles exist largely due to Campbells who introduced them as promotional recipes in the 50's and 60's....Jello, I'm assuming, is responsible for all those jello creations from the same time period. So common to find these things at rural pot lucks here in Ontario, especially if the cook is over 60. I guess they're popular with large families (who might be using unskilled young girls to make dinners) because of the perceived ease and cost. I do love a tuna noodle or salmon loaf casserole (just like grandma used to make), except that I add VEGETABLES to them.

Like someone said above, a lot of people eat like this normally, not just fundies (although I hope people add more actual veggies to their diets) - I see people loading up their carts with hamburger helper or kraft dinner when they're on sale.

The Duggars, however, have no excuses...their kitchen is set up like a cafeteria and they have dishwashers (or I thought I saw them). With the number of older kids they have (and not being shit poor anymore) they could make large scale meals with better ingredients. About having a garden, if cleanliness is next to Godliness maybe any spare time is spent cleanin that mof*cking huge house and they couldn't trample dirt or have the girls get dirty in a veggie garden....

Jello became huge back in the 20's and the 50's are also the start of frozen TV dinners meant to be eaten on your TV tray in front of the TV. :roll:

It's cheaper to by a little debbie snack than say fresh in season fruit. Out of season fruit? Forget it, even with only 5 kids, it can break the bank. I buy in season or frozen/canned out of season. Thankfully apples, oranges and bananas are always cheap. We also never buy little debbie but I can understand the draw of trying to buy something/anything to fill your kid's belly.