Only the wealthy can truly eat healthy

Eating healthy in today’s world can prove to be a major challenge.
I just ran across a very old book in my collection which has intrigued me. Copyright 1935, Eat, Drink and be Wary, by F.J. Schlink, proves to be a publication way ahead of its time.
The author urged people to consider the contamination and chemical horrors in the factory-processed foods that they were just beginning to consume in this country.
This was written at a time when many in the United States were still growing the vast majority of their foods, and only enjoying a few of the “city-grown” foods that were emerging.
Dangerous. This author discussed, in his opening remarks, “the drug store lunch-counter and commercial restaurants, degenerating into places where cans and bottles are opened, their contents heated and served, and the “empties” piled high in the alley.”
He discussed “dangerous attacks on public health made by the sugar and candy manufacturers through their exploitative, misleading propaganda, the basis of which has been purchased from physicians and scientists in much the same way that consumers buy butter at the corner store.”
Questions. In recent years, people are beginning to question some of these very things.
We have heard repeatedly that much of our deteriorating health in people of all ages can be blamed on refined foods and chemical additives.
We have learned to eat too much. We have learned to eat what tastes good rather than what is always best for us.
Slowly, the tide seems to be changing as people begin to become more health-conscious. Seems to me, this can prove to be a very good thing for the American farm family.
On the farm. For those who have available growing space, homegrown fruits and vegetables can prove to be a hot commodity.
We’ve lost the space and we’ve mortgaged the time to do such simple things as sit on the porch and snap freshly picked green beans.
Freshly-baked breads made of healthful ingredients seems to have become a luxury food item. What a turn around this is from the 1950s!
My mother-in-law, always known for her incredibly great-tasting fresh bread, remembers when her sons were thrilled to buy a loaf of white, sliced bread at the grocery store. Now they clamor for the fresh-baked bread and rolls of their childhood.
Even in the 1920s and 1930s, prior to enlightened thinking and proper testing, according to this book it was known that commercial bakeries carried the risk of lead exposure to the consumer due to the baking utensils being used.
“The early decline of vitality and the incidence of chronic disease in people who live predominantly on products of the commercial bakery could be explained almost on this type of finding alone,” the author notes.
Hitting home. As my son continues to battle chronic disease, we have been urged to go completely organic in his diet. This has proven to be a very expensive route. His health likely depends on it.
It is interesting to note, in this book from the 1930s, that the author points out the day will come when only the wealthy can truly eat healthy.
Food for thought, wouldn’t you say?