Eat Like You Mean It

Here, read this excellent essay by Sally Fallon Morell and Mary Enig, entitled "Sad Changes in the Standard American Diet."

A delicious excerpt:

The Baptist ladies of Monmouth Illinois [in the late 19th century] were fond of croquettes, balls of minced meat mixed with eggs, breadcrumbs and seasonings. A chapter devoted to croquettes includes recipes for these delicacies made from chicken, salmon, and veal. All were fried in hot lard and served with a thick sauce made from cream, butter and flour.It is obvious that lettuce was scarce in Monmouth Illinois. Only one salad recipe calls for lettuce "when available". The others feature apples, cabbage, ham, tongue, chicken, oysters, fruit, potatoes, veal, lobster, sweetbreads, shrimp and nasturtium! Dressing for cold slaw features sweet cream and the three recipes for salad dressing contain egg yolks, mustard and vinegar. One calls for "olive oil or melted butter", another for "a cup of whipped cream" and a third for "oil". This is the only time that "oil" is mentioned in the entire book. Americans at the turn of the century nourished themselves with butter, cream, egg yolks and lard-not with vegetable oils.

Even the Catholics don't eat like this anymore. I was born like a hundred years too late.