Do People Think Food Is Better Today Than Years Gone By

[gollob]

Going back says 50 years food has a better favour than it has today. Everything had better flavour years ago than now although today there is a larger choice

[NoMercy]

I think the average person's lifestyle is the worse for modern day living, but the art of gastronomy is reaching new levels of amazing every day.

[Old_Geezer]

More flavour, yes definitely.
Less choice then though.
Agreed.

[hc4361]

More salt, more fat, more sugar in those days.

[rowanwitch]

Of course things tasted better years ago, we had younger more sensitive tastebuds. And the link with taste, smell and memory enhances what we think we tasted back then

[EDDIE51]

My Mum used to eat toast and dripping (pure pork fat) coated with salt. Plus bread and butter covered in sugar. Probably the least healthy diet possible. But she lived to be 93 and active until the last few weeks.

[Canary42]

Toast and dripping - one of the delights of my youth.

[rowanwitch]

Oooh the bottom of the dripping bowl, in my family it was a mix of all the Sunday joint fat, bacon and sausage fat, and some that had been drained from fried onions with a salty dark sludge at the bottom. I had my nan's dripping bowl when she died. Kept it going for years

[woofgang]

50 years ago so 1960's/70's well tomatoes taste better now, food is less salty. There are many more options and its easier to access recipes. I think that there are also better quality ready meals and frozen options available. I think that fruit generally is better quality now. I honestly don't think that things did have a better flavour then.

[hc4361]

And mine, canary, proper doorstep bread toasted over the fire, a thick layer of dripping and a generous sprinkling of salt. Happy days.

Breast of lamb so fatty the grease ran down my chin.

[Canary42]

I don't think you could buy an avocado 50 years ago. ;-D

[237SJ]

Meat had more flavour in those days because the animals (breeds) were smaller. As everything (fruit etc) the smaller it was, the more flavour it had.

[hc4361]

Meat was definitely more fatty, which adds to the flavour

[woofgang]

hc you can still get the same meat from specialist butchers and farm shops, its just there is more choice now.

[pastafreak]

I think the trend developed to breed leaner animals... particularly pigs...as it was decided that's what people wanted. It was part of the low fat trend. But taste was lost in the process.

[Gromit]

Food is no better nor worse than 50 years ago - it is exactly the same.
Possibly your taste buds have changed through age or other factors (such as smoking).
Just as sight and hearing can degenerate with age, so can taste.

[woofgang]

spath you can still get the same un tampered with food.....there is more choice that's all.

[jno]

50 years ago most food was only available seasonally. Now most of it is available for much longer if not year-round. Now maybe you think an apricot in August tastes worse than it used to; but an apricot in January tastes better than no apricot in January.

[Barmaid]

Actually Spath, I think the stuff we spray on our crops is far safer today. In the 1950s there was huge development in chemical pesticides which were used quite regulary. A lot of these were banned in the 1990s. (Stuff like metasystox, I can still remember that smell).