Why do elderly Americans tend to hoard possessions and food?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the eating habits and food quality in America, particularly focusing on the experiences of individuals when dining out and the challenges they face in finding healthy options. Participants express their frustrations with the prevalence of unhealthy food choices and the cultural implications of these dietary trends.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Exploratory

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express strong dissatisfaction with American cuisine, describing it as unhealthy and overly processed, with specific examples of food items that they find unappetizing.
  • There are claims that dining out in America is a challenging experience due to the prevalence of unhealthy options, leading some to seek alternatives in grocery stores or ethnic diners.
  • Some participants argue that it is possible to find good meals if one knows where to look, suggesting that local recommendations can lead to better dining experiences.
  • Concerns are raised about the ingredients in common food items, such as high-fructose corn syrup in fruit drinks, indicating a broader issue with food labeling and health awareness.
  • Participants share anecdotes about their personal experiences with food while traveling, highlighting the variability of food quality across different regions.
  • There is a humorous exchange regarding the idea of "dumpster fruit smoothies," reflecting a mix of sarcasm and genuine frustration with food options.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally express dissatisfaction with the quality of food available in America, but there are competing views on the availability of good meals and the ease of finding healthy options. The discussion remains unresolved, with differing opinions on the state of American cuisine.

Contextual Notes

Some participants note that their experiences may vary based on location, and there are references to the cultural context of food choices that may influence perceptions of quality and health.

Who May Find This Useful

Individuals interested in food culture, health and nutrition, and the dining experiences in America may find this discussion relevant.

  • #31
Integral said:
A Red Or Golden Delicious Apple picked off the tree is pretty good, sweet and crunchy. They begin to degrade the instant they are picked, within a few days they are nearly in-edible, turning into apple sauce in a tough skin.

I agree. My grandfather used to have apple trees...red delicious, golden delicious, and macintosh. Freshly picked, they're just wonderful!
 
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  • #32
scorpa said:
My favorite are Gala apples, but they are pretty expensive to.
Years ago, I was on a business trip to Ticonderoga and after crossing into NY at Crown Point and heading south, I saw an orchard with a roadside store. I stopped in and asked the young lady there what was the best-tasting apple they had. She handed me a Gala, I bit into it, and bought a peck of them. They're still my favorites, but only in season. They don't hold their character long after harvest. For that, I'll take Black Oxford any day. Pick them after a frost, and eat them all winter. They are a wonderful cold-climate variety, and if you look up FedCo Seeds on the Internet, you'll see that they are actively promoting this legacy variety. You can buy seedlings from them - grown here in Maine by organic growers.
 
  • #33
Apples rock, yes that includes me. :D
 
  • #34
Try living a lifetime with people who think that salt is a food group.

Growing up I never used salt on anything. I'm forced to do all of the cooking or skip meals prepared by my salt-freaked family members. The American diet doesn't live only at McDonalds. Me and my edematous feet search for salt relief a sea of haline cuisine.
 
  • #35
turbo-1 said:
For that, I'll take Black Oxford any day. Pick them after a frost, and eat them all winter. They are a wonderful cold-climate variety, and if you look up FedCo Seeds on the Internet, you'll see that they are actively promoting this legacy variety. You can buy seedlings from them - grown here in Maine by organic growers.

I've never heard of that variety before. Are they local to Maine? I'll keep an eye out, because I'd like to find some varieties that store well.
 
  • #36
jim mcnamara said:
Try living a lifetime with people who think that salt is a food group.

Growing up I never used salt on anything. I'm forced to do all of the cooking or skip meals prepared by my salt-freaked family members. The American diet doesn't live only at McDonalds. Me and my edematous feet search for salt relief a sea of haline cuisine.
Hmmmpf, I am one of those people that like a little food with my salt.

Yes, it will kill me someday, I'm sure, but I've tried life without salt and it's not worth living. The day I have to give up salt and spices, including fresh hot peppers, is the day life has no meaning. :frown:
 
  • #37
Moonbear said:
I've never heard of that variety before. Are they local to Maine? I'll keep an eye out, because I'd like to find some varieties that store well.
Yes, Black Oxford is a variety that was first identified in Oxford County in Maine (either in the towns of Paris or South Paris, IIR). They have a deep purplish-brown skin and yellow flesh and they are delicious. They are very firm, crisp apples and should be harvested late in the season. They will keep all winter if you have a cool place to store them. My wife and I rented a farm for a couple of years, and there was a Black Oxford tree next to the house. They are not a variety that you would eat before they're fully ripe, like Macs, because they are very hard until they ripen off. Buy a tree for $19.00 and enjoy. I have apple trees on my property, and and going to add a Black Oxford.

http://www.fedcoseeds.com/trees/TreesOrderItem.php?id=77&TreeName=
 
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  • #38
Evo said:
Yes, it will kill me someday, I'm sure, but I've tried life without salt and it's not worth living. The day I have to give up salt and spices, including fresh hot peppers, is the day life has no meaning. :frown:
Ditto! I am nuking a bowl of (slightly) salty Spanish rice left over from last night's supper, and it is seasoned with our fresh-frozen jalapenos and some of our canned habanero sauce (just chopped peppers and garlic packed in water and vinegar). I gave a little jar of that to our neighbor who gave us the fresh garlic that we made the sauce with. His crew had a "Subway night" at work, so he took what was left of the habanero sauce with him, put some on his sandwich and offered the rest around. One guy that brags about eating hot sauces put a couple of teaspoons of the sauce in his sandwich. Allen said that the guy didn't say anything as he started eating, but after a couple of bites, sweat was running from his temples and he headed for the water cooler. People that think Tabasco is real hot just haven't been properly educated. :-p
 
  • #39
I like seasoned or savory food, but I minimize, even exclude, salt in my cooking. Since I don't use salt, it is very apparent when I taste restaurant food where salt is used.

I certainly enjoy spicy (picante) foods like hot curries and hot pepper sauces - but salt is not necessarily part of it.
 
  • #40
In America, you can't get a tasty tomato unless you grow it yourself (or have a neighbor who does). How about where you come from?
 
  • #41
jimmysnyder said:
In America, you can't get a tasty tomato unless you grow it yourself (or have a neighbor who does). How about where you come from?
You're right. Tomatoes in US supermarkets generally suck. I haven't eaten a fresh tomato since the hard frost killed our garden. A new 24-acre greenhouse just started production about 5 miles from here - their plan is to ship vine-ripened tomatoes directly to supermarkets and restaurants all over northern New England. They'll be expensive, but should be several notches better than the "vine tomatoes" that are picked immature and gassed to make them appear ripe, and WAY better than the cardboard-tasting Hypack varieties.
 
  • #42
I too, already miss my tomatos. I did find a little store in Ann Arbor that sells "maters". So named to avoid the tomato growers union regs on tomatos, they are mis-shapen, wolderful, tastie, juicy tomatos, flown up from Fla, right off the vine.
 
  • #43
Moonbear said:
I agree. My grandfather used to have apple trees...red delicious, golden delicious, and macintosh. Freshly picked, they're just wonderful!

That's funny. Looks like Moonbear's kitty is taking a bead on a bluejay in an apple tree... :devil:
 
  • #44
turbo-1 said:
... People that think Tabasco is real hot just haven't been properly educated. :-p

Wrong. They haven't lived in New Mexico. My kids ate green Santo Domingo chiles fried in bacon fat. That's about 12000 Scoville units (SHUs). Tobasco rates 2500-5000.

Bought a tamale from a tamalena, then she gave me hot sauce - said "You can't taste this without some help...". Whoa, I could taste it alright.
 
  • #45
jim mcnamara said:
Wrong. They haven't lived in New Mexico. My kids ate green Santo Domingo chiles fried in bacon fat. That's about 12000 Scoville units (SHUs). Tobasco rates 2500-5000.

Bought a tamale from a tamalena, then she gave me hot sauce - said "You can't taste this without some help...". Whoa, I could taste it alright.
Well, habaneros range from 200,000 to 300,00 Scoville units, and our red Caribbeans are high on that scale. Although we grow them to process into sauces, etc to cook with, we also use those peppers "neat" in certain foods, like sauteed meat and vegetable fillings to use in wraps. I like the heat, and though the hot taste is great when you're used to them, they will make your scalp sweat, and that's not something you can control. If you feel a cold coming on, put some habanero sauce in your soup, sandwich, whatever, and ride it out. Great stuff. We eat our jalapenos split lengthwise with all the placenta and seeds left in, stuffed with cream cheese and topped with Monterey jack, cooked on the grill on a pizza pan. It doesn't matter how many I make (within reason) - there are no left-overs. Tabasco is not much hotter than our home-made tomato salsas, and we use those on eggs, omelets, meat, casseroles, sandwiches, etc.
 
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  • #47
In CA there are shops called Trader Joes, only place I have every bought food in America, they have decent produce, at a *fair* price
 
  • #48
I was raised Catholic... in a large Catholic family. Therefore am still plagued with guilt if I leave food on my plate. so yeah. I eat everything and am proud of it. :smile:

But while I'll eat anything, I definitely have preferences. :biggrin:
 
  • #49
Well - it appears I am mostly unaffected by THESE food issues as I've been so broke this year I rarely get to eat out. Might I propose that more Americans adopt my practice of "rationing" to avoid these food pitfalls. It might slow down the economy and GDP a bit, but right now would not affect me.
 
  • #50
Astronuc said:
I like seasoned or savory food, but I minimize, even exclude, salt in my cooking. Since I don't use salt, it is very apparent when I taste restaurant food where salt is used.

I certainly enjoy spicy (picante) foods like hot curries and hot pepper sauces - but salt is not necessarily part of it.

I make a mexican mole' sauce that I bet you would enjoy. I used dried chinese red peppers to give it some heat.
 
  • #51
turbo-1 said:
Well, habaneros range from 200,000 to 300,00 Scoville units, and our red Caribbeans are high on that scale. Although we grow them to process into sauces, etc to cook with, we also use those peppers "neat" in certain foods, like sauteed meat and vegetable fillings to use in wraps. I like the heat, and though the hot taste is great when you're used to them, they will make your scalp sweat, and that's not something you can control. If you feel a cold coming on, put some habanero sauce in your soup, sandwich, whatever, and ride it out. Great stuff. We eat our jalapenos split lengthwise with all the placenta and seeds left in, stuffed with cream cheese and topped with Monterey jack, cooked on the grill on a pizza pan. It doesn't matter how many I make (within reason) - there are no left-overs. Tabasco is not much hotter than our home-made tomato salsas, and we use those on eggs, omelets, meat, casseroles, sandwiches, etc.

My favorite chili (pepper is a misnomer) is manzano. (12,000 - 30,000) I like to eat them on toast spread with avocado, with red onions and tomato in season. The peppers are from the back yard (still on the vine, got to love the climate here) and the rest, except perhaps the avocado, comes from the local farmers market.
 
  • #52
physics girl phd said:
I was raised Catholic... in a large Catholic family. Therefore am still plagued with guilt if I leave food on my plate.
Is that a Catholic thing?
 
  • #53
I think it is more of a large family thing
I am from a catholic family too and I have no trouble leaving food for "mr manners"
 
  • #54
Yonoz said:
Is that a Catholic thing?
Nope, new to me
 
  • #55
Yonoz said:
Is that a Catholic thing?
If you're from a large family and your parents grew up during the depression, you take modest portions of food, and perhaps have seconds once you have finished that. You don't leave food on your plate - left-overs go to the fridge for later. Wasting food is a cardinal sin to people raised in such situations.
 
  • #56
Yeah, I never understood why my grandfather ran his finger around the inside of the eggshell to get every last drop until we got up to the 1930's in history and my teacher told me...

Back to some earlier posts, raise your hand if you know what a real cucumber tastes like (rather than a mouthful of bitter slimey seeds)... Dude, I miss ripe produce instead of the pretty gassed stuff they sell us in the States.
 
  • #57
Anttech said:
In CA there are shops called Trader Joes, only place I have every bought food in America, they have decent produce, at a *fair* price
I have shopped there for a lot of years. They are both in NY and MI as well.
 
  • #58
mbrmbrg said:
Back to some earlier posts, raise your hand if you know what a real cucumber tastes like (rather than a mouthful of bitter slimey seeds)... Dude, I miss ripe produce instead of the pretty gassed stuff they sell us in the States.
I don't know where you are, but things like cukes and beans and a lot of other produce people grow in their backyards. It is not difficult to get real fresh produce.
 
  • #59
Used to have a backyard... best green beans and wax beans I ever tasted!
 
  • #60
mbrmbrg said:
Used to have a backyard... best green beans and wax beans I ever tasted!

I myself never tasted wax.