Yea, though they were all ignorant about the dangers of processed foods, they all prepared Real Food regularly and it was really the mainstay. One of my grandfathers, ion particular, was an avid hunter, fisherman, and and gardener.

my great-grandparents never used Crisco. They did a lot of baking with "suet." There are short generation times in my family, I knew 11 of my grandparents and great-grandparents. Most of them did not eat this processed junk. My maternal grandmother's father lived to 88. While he did eat an awful lot of sugar, he was an avid gardener, ate lots of homegrown veggies, and he was always known for eating the fat on his steak first. He would chew it between his front teeth with his mouth open in order to gross all the kids in the family out. Now I know how smart he was! (The fat, not the bad table manners.)

Sorry, I had to make that silly comment after wearing some pretty ugly polyester shirts in my youth – thanks Mom.

Kidding aside – excellent post, but Monica has a point. Society as a whole has been caught up with scientific improvements on nature for a long time and this is one symptom of that. I am all for scientific progress, which includes missteps and back tracking at times. The involvement of government makes turning back more difficult as the status quo becomes institutionalized with powerful lobbying by parties feeding at the public trough.

Errors by scientists and corporations are one thing – they are inevitable in a free society (and even more so in a regulated collectivist society), but are subject to correction when open debate is possible. Government subsidies and direct involvement in health care and agriculture are by far the biggest problems in perpetuating many of the myths that are killing people prematurely. Most people are smarter than the governments that claim to know best. Many corporations simply want to make money and the easiest way to do that when you are already big and powerful is to foster the status quo and feed the political machine that makes the rules. Unfortunately, many corporations are happy to encourage governments to protect us from our freedom to choose.

Real political freedom would lead to faster positive changes in our health and wealth – I am not holding my breath. Governments and too many businesses would lose their ill-gotten power.

I avoid any and all canned foods packed in cottonseed or soybean oil nowadays.

My mother used to fry chicken in Crisco, and use it in baking, all the while decrying the fact that people used to use lard for all these things. It may not have been healthy, but her fried chicken was delicious.

Since we were of Jewish descent, there was yet one more reason for avoiding lard (at least back then), although we frequently ate bacon.

Supposedly lard is just wonderful in baking. If you're making pastry, supposedly nothing else gives the fantastic texture that lard does. Have not tested this out myself, as I do not produce any kind of baked goods anymore (other than meats).

As for the rest, I agree with you that it's up to us. Caveat emptor sort of thing. BUT, if they actually withheld information from the public on the danger of their product (plenty of companies have) then I think they should be sued for fraud and negligence. I just don't think there's a case for that in *this* case, that's all. This type of trash is pretty standard marketing fare for most new products early to mid 1900s. Artificial was routinely touted as better. For foodstuffs, too.

The anarchist, free marketer in me says that in no way should Proctor & Ganble face or have faced any governmental interference, objection, or other intransigence motivated machinations for political cheer leading.

That leaves it to us. Is my post highly inflammatory? Youbetcha. Just as inflammatory as crystallized cottonseed oil.

Luvs.