Eating With Uncle Sam

Presents dozens of recipes and historical tidbits that have made their way into the National Archives collections.

The UNCLE SAM DIET is based on the new 2005 US Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Based on solid science, it's an eating style that you can stay with and thrive on. No gimmicks here, and no fads. Dr. Keith Ayoob, a registered dietitian and associate professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, uses the USDA's new dietary guidelines to design an eating plan based on good, wholesome foods. It's simple...it's safe...and it works! * Lots of good foods—from all food groups–so you never feel hungry. * Weekly menus for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks–you can even have a latte or two! * Huge, hungry man's servings of vegetables and fruits–every day. * Delicious whole grains–muffins, breads, bagels and more. * Nutritious snacks for hunger attacks Got kids? Great! These guidelines are good for anyone age 2 and older. The new Dietary Guidelines are chock-full of great changes for you and your family. Dr. Ayoob takes the "nutrition-ese" out of the government's gobbledygook and gives you meal plans and recipes that are easy to use and delicious. The result? This Uncle Sam is here to stay. "Obesity is a disease of excess–excess calories and excess sedentary activities. The cure is to balance calories in with calories out."–Keith Ayoob (quoted in IFIC, Food Insight, March/April 2003)

"What's Cooking, Uncle Sam?, based on an exhibition at the National Archives in Washington, DC, is a collection of records exploring the history of food policy in the United States"--

This is Volume 7, Number 1, Spring 2012 edition of Museums and Special Issues reflective discourse journal. This edition looks at Eating Together in Our Changing World and the questions of What is the food movement? Were we talking about new food technologies? Community gardens? Depictions of food by artists? Seed banks? Health? All rooted in food, all relevant, all happening in museums, but what was the heart of the issue? Why are we talking about food? Perhaps it is because when we talk about food, we are talking about our most basic connection to each other and the earth we share.

Through memoirs, oral histories, and letters, Deborah Dash Moore charts the lives of 15 young Jewish men as they faced military service and tried to make sense of its demands.

Between 1937-41, the tragic past of the fullback for the University of Kentucky football team was a guarded secret. No one was sure where he had come from. And no one knew why he never spoke about his family. All they knew was that Claude Hammond was extremely tough. Claude was an orphan from a mean Appalachian coal town. He witnessed his own mother's murder and lived on the streets before being taken in by distant family members. He knew, somehow, that he was his family's only hope for a future. Through courage and sheer determination, Claude transformed his own life and the lives of his family members, putting his own children as well as nieces and nephews through college. He was a catalyst, transforming a family from tragedy and poverty to education and prosperity. Claude kept his past a secret, even from his own children. As a college student in the 1970s, the author discovered the shocking facts about his father's childhood. How Claude overcame tragedy is an inspiring story.

Eating Right in America is a powerful critique of dietary reform in the United States from the late nineteenth-century emergence of nutritional science through the contemporary alternative food movement and campaign against obesity. Charlotte Biltekoff analyzes the discourses of dietary reform, including the writings of reformers, as well as the materials they created to bring their messages to the public. She shows that while the primary aim may be to improve health, the process of teaching people to "eat right" in the U.S. inevitably involves shaping certain kinds of subjects and citizens, and shoring up the identity and social boundaries of the ever-threatened American middle class. Without discounting the pleasures of food or the value of wellness, Biltekoff advocates a critical reappraisal of our obsession with diet as a proxy for health. Based on her understanding of the history of dietary reform, she argues that talk about "eating right" in America too often obscures structural and environmental stresses and constraints, while naturalizing the dubious redefinition of health as an individual responsibility and imperative.