Yahoo Lifestyle Older Adults Are Sharing The Now-Common Foods That Didn't Exist When They Were Growing Up, And As A Gen Z'er, I'm Floored
Recently, Redditor u/Dull_Procedure2586 asked the older adults of the Reddit community to share the now-common foods that didn't exist while they were growing up, and as a Gen Z'er, I'm shook. Here are some of the responses that, depending on your age, will either have you nodding your head at the memories or widening your eyes in surprise:
1."Flavored and fancy coffees, like mochas. I worked at Dunkin' in the '80s, and you could have your coffee one of two ways: regular or decaf. In the early '90s, I started putting hot chocolate powder in my coffee, and everyone gave me a shocked look and asked what the hell I was doing. I wish I ran with that idea. Same thing with Arnold Palmers. I used to be a bartender and mixed sour mix and iced tea together. I was ahead of my time in the beverage department; I just didn't know it."
2."Hummus was uncommon in my area until the early 2000s."
3."You can get food all the time now, whereas before, you used to only be able to get foods that were in season. Things like grapes, strawberries, watermelon, oranges, and more used to only be available in a single season, so we relied more on canned fruit. I remember when kiwis first started appearing. Everyone was like, 'What is that?'"
4."Bottled water."
"I remember my uncle ranting about bottled water every time he saw it when it first started becoming ubiquitous in the '90s. He couldn't understand why anyone would pay for water (and create all that plastic waste) when pretty much everyone could have all they wanted for free from the tap. But he was an old country boy who had never lived anywhere that didn't have good well water or a natural spring on the property. I don't think he realized how funky some tap water can be."
5."Made-to-order fast food. If you went to McDonald's in the 1970s, all the hamburgers came with ketchup, mustard, pickles, and chopped onions. If you wanted a plain hamburger or one without onions, you paid, stepped out of line, and waited. After the cook made the next batch of burgers, he'd separate your order out and put it together. It wasn't really 'fast' food; it could take as long as 10 minutes — more if the cook forgot about your special order."
6."Salad greens other than iceberg."
"Especially kale. That used to be the stuff they'd decorate the edges of salad bars with and wasn't intended for eating."
7."Flavorless tomatoes. Younger people would be surprised that tomatoes used to take like...tomatoes. Unless younger people have eaten garden-grown tomatoes, millions of people have no idea how good a tomato can actually be. But for the past 30 or more years, the emphasis has been on creating produce that keeps well throughout shipping, storage, and display, with little regard to flavor or texture. Grocery store tomatoes might as well be easily stacked squares just to get across the reality that they're nothing more than facsimiles."
8."Anything premade at the grocery store."
9."Natural-colored pistachios. Why were they dyed red?"
10."Energy drinks."
11."Tofu was hard to find and typically only found in 'health food' stores."
12."Quinoa. I only heard of it as an adult."
13."PROTEIN. Protein powders for shakes back in the '80s and '90s would gag a maggot. And there weren't a whole lot of brands to choose from. The powders and premade stuff now are delicious. Also, pre-workout, intra-workout, electrolytes, and a host of other supplements didn't even exist back then. Even though Gatorade came out in the '60s, we weren't drinking it at sports practices and games. You had tap water coming out of a PVC pipe with holes drilled in it."
14."Any apple that wasn't a Red Delicious or Granny Smith."
15."My mother was born in 1931, and she said that when she was young, lamb was very cheap and a common meat to get at the butcher's. Compare that today where lamb is, like, $30 for a pound."
16."Gluten-free foods."
17."Kettle-cooked potato chips were not around 40 years ago, and I can recall moseying down a Manhattan supermarket snack food aisle sometime after that amount of time and spying something called 'Hawaiian Kettle Potato Chips' amidst the Lays and other brands prevalent back then. I bought a bag and was floored. They were so different."
18."Flavored seltzer, Mexican food being available throughout the country, meals at movie theaters, and non-dairy 'milks.'"
19."Ranch dressing was not around when I was a kid, and I did not have it until I was a teenager. If I recall correctly, it wasn't even bottled yet. My mom would buy a package of dried ingredients and mix it with buttermilk."
20.Lastly: "European sweets and candies and spreads like Nutella were very hard to get. And if your specialty store ran out, it took six weeks to get it replenished. We had this specialty German deli that sold Kinder chocolate, Nutella, and Haribo, but now you can have it in a day off Amazon Prime."
Excuse me, but pistachios were dyed what color?! If you're an older adult, what common foods are there now that didn't exist back in the day? Let us know in the comments, or you can anonymously submit your response using this form!
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
