Re: Mediterranean Diet

You are right we did eat a fair amount of sugar but it was in sweets and puddings now even savoury items are loaded with sugar and where they take fat out of foods to make it healthy they add more sugar because it tastes bad ! You say about pop etc but we had that as a treat, now we have people who only drink coke or only drink fruit juice both of which contain shocking mounts of sugar.

We had 3 meals a day and sweets were a treat, now just walk along the street and people are eating all the time, treats everyday !

Re: Mediterranean Diet

Good point - I hadn't taken that into consideration.

Re: Mediterranean Diet

Also our vegetables and fruit were grown without all the chemical fertilisers etc. They weren't genetically modified. Our meat, chickens were grown without added hormones. They were just grass, hay eating. Our milk was unadulterated, just straight out of the cow. Our only preservatives were salt, sugar, vinegar etc.

Re: Mediterranean Diet

A friend of mine has MS and Crohn's and the foods on the banned list are unbelievable and mainly due to modern farming techniques for the reasons you have given. She found it almost impossible to find chicken and beef that hadn't been fed hormones and antibiotics. Still, she felt it was a small price to gain some movement in her limbs again. A shame though all the same.

Re: Mediterranean Diet

BV I also wonder whether our modern farming practices are causing lots of problems with health. I know over here Asthma and allergies are on the increase, especially children with allergies. The worst one that springs to mind are peanuts. Here now products have to be labelled if there is any chance of peanuts in them and now they ban any products in schools that may have them. Children are not even allowed to take peanut butter sandwiches or lollies that include peanuts.

Re: Mediterranean Diet

Hi Sandi. I agree with you about food additives that may be causing some illnesses. We have had the peanut warnings for quite a long time now. Many of our products will even state 'this product has been prepared in an area that may contain nuts'. When I was very young, I remember at Christmas and New Year, everyone tucking into nuts but I don't remember anyone ever being allergic to them - I wonder if nut allergies are a recent thing?

I also wonder if the reason we are not looking as old as our grandparents did at our age is down to all the preservatives!

Re: Mediterranean Diet

Yes I wouldn't be surprised BV but also our lives have become a lot easier than our Parents and Grandparents. No washing machines, no motorised lawn mowers, all wood fires and my Parents hot water system was wood too. I still remember having to cut the wood to put in the Chip Heater as it was called in those days, to heat the water for the bath. Wood to cut for the old copper in the laundry and for cooking and heating. It had to be chopped and then carried to where it was to be stacked. I used to have to feed the chickens, ducks and turkeys every morning and night, collect the eggs, wash out their drinking water tub, and fill with clean water. Separate the milk from the cow and wash up the separator. Then at weekends it was my job to clean out the two chookhouses and bucket the manure up the yard, ready for dad to put it on the garden. I hated that job so much as we had over 200 chooks, ducks and turkeys and they poop a lot. Each morning and night I had to fill the wood boxes up ready for the fires and bucket the coal up.

We had the main train line over the road from us and the coal train line down the back. I had to get the bucket and wheelbarrow and go along the lines and pick up all the coal I could find and then barrow it home.

The washing was done using a washing board, and that was hard work.
We were fortunate and had a hand wringer and you would rinse first in one tub, wring the clothes into the next tub, rinse with the old blue bag in the water and then wring again before going to hang them on the line. You were never allowed not to be busy in those days. It was like 7th heaven when we got our first washing machine. God I must be old. pmsl

Re: Mediterranean Diet

No you are right I often mutter when I am vacuuming how lucky I am to have one, I remember sweeping/beating carpets and the old carpet sweeper that we had before the electric hoover. Also our washing was done in the garden shed in a large "copper" with an open fire under it to heat the water. Took two grown women to carry it outside to empty the water out. So very lucky these days.

Re: Mediterranean Diet

Crikey Sandi, you were kept busy!

When my parents moved back to England from Germany, they lived first in some terraced houses with a communal back yard and my mum said there was a copper there that she had to prepare with slack the night before she wanted to use it and then fill it with water. She also said she'd have to put the carpets (probably large rugs) on the line and beat the living daylights out of them to get rid of the dust and dirt.

It was a much harder life wasn't it. To think I would moan (as a child) if I was asked to vacuum

I wonder if they were happier and more content than we are now?

Re: Mediterranean Diet

I think they would be a lot happier in those days than they would have been now. We have some things easier work wise but there's a lot more stress for us than they had. Most women stayed home and looked after the children and did the housework. Imagine what they would think of having to go out to work, come home and get meals and do everything else when you are dog tired and just want to go to bed. If they had parties, everyone was involved in getting everything ready and doing baking so that it didn't fall on one person. They all contributed with food, they helped each other out in times of need, neighbours looked after each other. If someone was sick they gave a hand, taking turns to prepare meals, maybe looking after the children, doing the washing etc.
People were much friendlier those days. Even during the depression they shared what little they had with each other.

I remember when we had extra vegetables, they were picked, put in paper bags and Mums brother, a milkman, as he did his rounds would leave a small parcel of food on people's doorstep with the milk, especially with the old folks who had no one to care for them.

Yes, I do think they were more content then than we are now. They worked hard and struggled, they weren't wealthy but in many ways they had riches beyond what we have. Some things are priceless.