How we’ve changed

I came across an article which highlighted ten ways in which our eating habits – ‘our’ British, have changed over the years, and quite recent years. I guess everyone does the same reading something like this, thinking to themselves, ‘ooh yes, that’s me!’ or ‘good grief, that is definitely not me!’ and I did the same!

Here are some of my thoughts on me and the list:

no longer drinking whole milk… yes, that’s us; we have semi-skimmed cow’s milk, between 8-10 pints a week which we drink on cereal, in tea and coffee and which we use in cooking. As a child our milkman brought one pint of gold top (creamy milk) and two pints of silver top (whole milk) and we used to love the creamy milk on cereal. I was never keen on drinking milk on its own, and as I got older and as semi-skimmed milk became more available I switched to that. I did have a patch of drinking soya milk, and still do from time to time, but I think these other ‘milks’ on offer are just a trend, and when I read about the droughts in western USA because whole orchards of almond trees are sucking up water, 1 gallon to produce 1 almond, I don’t buy them on moral grounds!
no longer eating sliced white bread – I don’t think we’ve ever eaten sliced white bread, not since we were impoverished students! We do buy sliced bread for convenience but it’s always brown – we actually love unsliced and home-made bread but the trouble is, it’s so delicious we eat too much of it which isn’t good for our waistlines! As children there may have been sliced bread available, but I don’t remember it; we used to have a bread-man come to the door when I was very young, but later we would buy whole loaves from the local baker. Now we eat other bread products too, pitta, flat breads, chapatis, tortillas etc… but not too often, again ever conscious of our weight!
liver has become less popular – I’ve always loved liver and all other offal (except the really disgusting bits like lungs and brain, yeugh!) When I had school dinners i was always delighted when liver was on the menu because so few other girls liked it, and i could greedily scoff my way through lots of it! We still like live, and in fact had it for dinner last week… and whenever we do we always say we should have it more often as we both like it – although we like it cooked in different ways from each other. I like it dry and crispy, my husband prefers it in gravy.
more Italian style foods – we often had macaroni and spaghetti when we were children, and a wider range of pasta was our staple though our student lives. At that time we would bulk out our meals with lots of vegetables and tinned tomatoes, so to me the ‘Italianisation’ of food isn’t a modern thing at all… but maybe it is for some people, and definitely Italian dishes appear on nearly every restaurant/café/bar menu
cheaper food… yes, there is definitely much cheaper food more readily available, cheaper prepared food as well as cheaper ‘basics’
freezing… there has been an enormous development in the sort of ‘ready meals’ available at a reasonable price to everyone, and catering for every type of cuisine. My uncle was a pioneer in freezing food from a scientific point of view, and went on to become head of the prestigious Food Research Institute in Norwich; at the same time, my dad was working at the Low Temperature Research Station, looking at the science behind freezing, particularly of meats and lipids… he went on to be an analyst at the Meat research Institute in Somerset… which was how we ended up here!
the decline of tea drinking – I think I drink more tea now then I ever did when i was younger, starting off with a very large mug of very strong tea first thing, and having other ‘cuppas’ during the day. However, I appreciate that there is a trend away from traditional tea drinking, and far more people want de-decaffeinated tea, fruit or herb teas, or no tea at all! I like ginger tea, and lemon tea, but other fruit teas seem too sweet to me, and have a funny taste which I have never quite identified but definitely don’t like!
more chips… I’m not very keen on chips so never eat them at home, and would never choose them when eating out except for fish and chips! My husband likes chips and with the advent of oven-chips, they make a quick and easy meal when we are late home or in a hurry
different fish – I love fish, but my husband only likes it with a coating of batter which is my least favourite way of eating it. I don’t eat much fish at home, but I often choose it when out. With the desire for quick and easy meals and more and more people becoming vegetarian, a lot of fishy ready-meals are available now and although there are not as many fish mongers as there used to be – when I was a child there was at least one in even the smallest town – nearly every super-market has a wet fish counter, and on those counters there is a huge variety of fish and shell-fish available.
women in kitchens – my dad was always a great cook and always keen to be in the kitchen – however, because he was at work during the day, as a child it was mainly my mum who did the cooking and prepared the meals. As soon as I left home, living as a student the boy friends I had were always as keen to cook as I was, and its the same with my husband; if anything he cooks more of our meals than I do… maybe he isn’t quite as keen on the clearing and washing up! However, when it comes to baking, apart from bread, he doesn’t ever make cakes or buns or pastries, though quite capable of doing so, and as keen on the Great British bake-Off, Masterchef and other cookery programmes as I am!

If you want to read the article, here’s a link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35595530