Cooking is the gold standard for good eating right? You know what you are putting into your food and you don’t have to think twice about the way it is prepared (unlike at some restaurants). However, Dr. Brian Wansink of New Mexico State University reviewed 18 classic recipes in seven editions (1936, 1946, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1997 and 2006) of the infamous Joy of Cooking over a 70 year period. He found that the calories in these recipes crept up over time. So, the Spanish Rice your great-grandma made in 1936 certainly isn’t the Spanish Rice you made from the 2006 Joy of Cooking.
So, what contributed to this change? According to Dr. Wansink, in more recent editions the serving sizes morphed and higher calorie ingredients were substituted for their lower calorie counterparts. As Dr. Wansink has told us before, we eat with our eyes so if you put a larger portion size in front of most of us, we’ll still polish it off.
What a fascinating experiment to take on and examine recipes over time. I never would have thought of doing this since the mid-1900s were characterized by what I call the Joy of Crisco and Lard – good grief, could it really get worse than that? I would have assumed that the 2006 edition (at the very least) would have moved away from the trans-fat love affair we had for years in this country. And, we certainly know more about nutrition and health now than we did in 1936. Doesn’t that mean we are wiser? Certainly there are more “healthy” cookbooks dawning store shelves with a recipe analysis for each page (containing calories, fat, protein, carbohydrate etc.). But apparently our knowledge hasn’t translated into more Joyous Nutrition in recent years.
This experiment has a few take-home messages. First, we should take a close look at the recipes we are using. Cooking isn’t like baking (finicky). Most high calorie, high fat ingredients can be nixed in favor of their lower calorie counterparts. Secondly, it is important to take a look at our serving sizes (keeping in mind that your stomach is about the size of your fist) and ask yourself “am I really so hungry I need to finish off this entire plate?” Oh, and about those plates – they’ve grown in size too. I only know this because my mom’s collection of plates from my grandparents day are noticeably smaller than today’s troughs.
While I still love the Joy of Cooking (hey, I used it as a master child chef in the kitchen; my mom’s edition has pages stuck together thanks to my experiments), I’ve moved on to healthier cookbooks with recipes that are both delicious and healthy. And when all else fails, I call my good friend Chef Monica who always has a brilliant idea for whipping up a tasty dish. Sometimes the best ideas don’t come from a cookbook but instead years of experience.