I read somewhere that, with the new foods available (and not always healthy!) today, if you ate what you found in your grandmother's kitchen, you'd be healthier. I think it should be your great-grandmother's kitchen, since many young people here today, that would put them into the 1970's (NOT a good time to advocate eating junk foods!)

My grandmothers fed their children from their kitchens in the 1930's and 1940's. Before Coke and McDonald's and a lot of pre-packaged foods. There were canned foods for sure, with a shelf life a lot less than the preservative-laden stuff we have today.

My grandmother had a garden and canned produce. I remember the rows of colorful jars lining the wooden shelves in the cool, darkened basement. Rows of green peas (I remember shelling those peas!) and orange carrots, green pickles and yellow mustard pickles, yellow corn, vermillion tomatoes (both sauce and chunked), white pickled fish, tan chicken bits, creamy stews in jars. We knew what went into those jars of food.

She had tins in the kitchen, filled with sugar, flour, baking soda, tea, coffee. Crystalline jars of maple syrup (she lived in Quebec, a hotbed of maple syrup makers). She had a wooden potato bin and woven strands of small onions and garlic hanging in the corner. She used spices and vinegar and oil and butter and real cheese in her cooking.

Her plates were 8 inches across, not 12 inches like today. Measure your plate and see how much room on it you have to fill to make it look "full".

I am emulating my grandmother's kitchen, filling it with wholesome foods, and eating smaller portions. I think that's the trick, prepare it yourself and eat sparingly.