Some Common Foods Millennials Eat Daily That Were Wildly Rare Decades Ago

Food & Drink
Some Common Foods Millennials Eat Daily That Were Wildly Rare Decades Ago
Some Common Foods Millennials Eat Daily That Were Wildly Rare Decades Ago
Don’t Try This At Home: The Dumbest Food Trends On The Internet | CaterQuip, Photo by caterquip.co.uk, is licensed under CC Zero

Foods are kinda wild, right? What we eat is constantly changing. How and where we find it is always shifting. Things you grab today might have seemed totally foreign before.

Snacks, ingredients, or restaurants that exist today were impossible to find decades ago. Thinking about it can sometimes feel mind-blowing.

This got us thinking about a talk we heard. Someone asked older folks online about foods they love now that were not common before. The answers provided a glimpse into food’s history.

It really showed how much the food scene has changed recently. We decided to look into some surprising food examples. Get ready for some everyday items that were once very rare.

According to people who lived through past culinary shifts, including the 60s, 70s, and even later years, let’s see things that are now common but were unheard of then.

Hummus
File:Hummus Dip (30863436677).jpg – Wikimedia Commons, Photo by wikimedia.org, is licensed under CC BY 2.0

1. **Hummus**: Prepare yourself because hummus—that creamy dip you see everywhere now—yeah, back in the day, it was nearly unheard of by most people. It’s truly wild to think about this staple food.

This dip comes from Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions. Now you see it everywhere you go. It has become a main dip and spread for so many of us.

It often shows up on menus and in fridges. Someone told a wild story about hummus when they were a teen in the 80s. This happened at a festival they went to.

The vendor asked if they wanted it on their sandwich. They honestly thought “hummus” meant dirt back then! Can you picture mistaking this tasty food for soil?

It sounds like a scene from some comedy show. This confusion arose because it was unknown outside certain groups. Despite the funny mix-up, they tried it.

They were adventurous and said, “Okay, sure, why not?” They agreed to try what they thought might be dirt-like food. Guess what happened next when they ate it?

It tasted absolutely delicious to their sixteen-year-old self. That was a truly unexpected and delightful surprise. That first bite must have felt like a revelation then.

It showed them a whole new world of flavor. It proves how much food has changed over time. Something common now was once a strange, unknown treat.

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Yogurt
Jawline Diet : What to Avoid and What To Add in Your Diet, Photo by bonappetit.com, is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

2. **Yogurt**: Okay, let’s chat about yogurt for a minute. Today, stores have aisles full of it, every type. Greek, Icelandic, dairy-free, with fruit everywhere—the list is long.

It’s a go-to breakfast, snack, and also a dessert option. But this huge variety wasn’t the case in the 1960s and 1970s. Hold on, because it gets interesting.

Someone recalls only having Dannon plain yogurt growing up. It had fruit on the bottom with tons of sugar added. Yeah, that was pretty much your only choice.

It wasn’t the healthy food we see it as today. It felt more like a specific sweet dairy product. Another person saw TV ads for yogurt in the 1960s.

These ads showed skiers on snowy mountains. They said this new food tasted “refreshingly delicious” at that time. Intrigued by the ads, they asked their mother to buy some.

They finally got to try the stuff being advertised. The result? They declared it was the most vile, sour pudding they had ever tasted. Ouch, that must have hurt.

Limited choices back then weren’t always great, it seems. Especially compared to the many tasty yogurts we have today. You can truly appreciate how far yogurt has come now.

This food has improved a lot in taste, texture, and availability.

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More Apple Varieties
File:Golden Delicious, SweeTango, Granny Smith, and Gala apples 4.JPG – Wikimedia Commons, Photo by wikimedia.org, is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

3. **More Apple Varieties**: Next up, let’s talk about apples. You probably walk into a store and see tons of varieties. It seems like apples have always had this many types, right?

Well, actually, no, that’s not true. Back in the day, your choices for apples were much smaller. People remember that time clearly now.

The selection mainly offered just a few kinds to choose from. The most common were Red Delicious and McIntosh apples. If you wanted to try something different, it was hard.

The options felt quite limited back then. The supposedly “exotic” ones found sometimes? Those were Golden Delicious and Granny Smith apples. It’s hard to imagine so few choices for apples.

The variety today, each with a special flavor, is vast. This simple act of picking an apple has changed. It has become a decision with many tasty options now.

This is far from the few choices of the past. Your basic apple has gotten way more interesting over time.


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sushi on black ceramic plate
Photo by Jakub Dziubak on Unsplash

4. **Sushi, Nigiri, and Sashimi**: Okay, listen up, fans of raw fish and seasoned rice. This one is absolutely wild to think about. Sushi is everywhere these days. You can find it from fancy spots to grocery store grab-and-go sections. It’s a popular meal choice for people nationwide. But decades ago, it was very different indeed.

Someone shared what they’d tell their 16-year-old self. They said telling that younger version of themselves that they love raw fish now would make them laugh. This shows how strange raw fish seemed to many.

Growing up back in the day, it wasn’t normal food. It wasn’t part of the usual American diet and wasn’t widely understood. Sushi appeared as something new and exotic later.

This was mainly the case in the 1990s, outside cities or coastal areas. One funny story involves wasabi and a friend. At a fancy restaurant, they saw a green blob.

They thought it was guacamole on their plate. They quickly ate the whole wad on a chip! Yowza, that must have burned.

They still laugh about that fiery, quick moment. It shows how new and unfamiliar sushi was back then. There was room for hilarious mistakes.

This happened as sushi entered the food scene for many. It definitely made an impression early on.

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Vegetarian Options
Vegetarian paella, Spanish recipe, Photo by cookipedia.co.uk, is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

5. **Vegetarian Options**: For anyone living a plant-based lifestyle today, finding food is easy. Most places, from casual to fancy, have options. Stores are full of meat alternative products.

But believe it or not, being vegetarian was hard once upon a time. It was a serious, real challenge back then. Someone’s brother became vegetarian in 1985.

They remember that there weren’t many options back then. They called eating out anywhere a “nightmare” experience. Even pasta places often had meat in their sauces.

It sounds frustrating to have so few choices. Finding meat in things you thought were safe was common. A lifelong vegetarian agreed with this.

The availability of choices is a huge difference from their youth. They went from eating mostly french fries and side salads, which were the only reliable things without meat at that time.

Now they get substantial food like veggie burgers. This is true even in really rural areas. This change in vegetarian food is truly big news.

It was a massive and very positive transformation.

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Olive Oil
Benefits of Olive Oil in Skincare — The Moher Soap Co., Photo by squarespace-cdn.com, is licensed under CC Zero

6. **Olive Oil**: Today, olive oil is a kitchen must-have. It sits on many counters and in pantries. We use it for cooking, roasting, making dressings, and dipping bread.

It’s very useful and can be found everywhere now. But there was a time, not long ago, when it wasn’t common. It wasn’t the main cooking fat for many homes.

Instead of olive oil, people used lard back in the day. Yes, animal fat was the primary cooking fat then. Someone shared a detail many can relate to.

Their mom kept a can of bacon grease under the sink. That bacon fat was their specific replacement for lard in cooking. Comparing bacon grease to liquid olive oil shows a big shift.

It shows changes in common cooking practices and what ingredients were used. Lard is still used in some old recipes and for pastries. But olive oil is everywhere now.

Its daily use shows how pantry basics have changed a lot. Culinary habits have shifted significantly over the years.

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Ruby Red Grapefruit
ruby red grapefruit | Stacy Spensley | Flickr, Photo by staticflickr.com, is licensed under CC BY 2.0

7. **Ruby Red Grapefruit**: Grapefruit is a nice citrus fruit, often eaten at breakfast. Or it is sometimes used in salads. But the kind you see and eat now is different.

It looks and tastes different from what was standard before. If you picture a grapefruit now, what do you see? You likely think of the nice, sweet red flesh inside, right?

That is the most common type you see now. According to someone’s clear memory of stores, grapefruits used to be yellow. And they were also very tart back then.

That intensely sour yellow grapefruit was the only normal kind. You really didn’t see other types available. Then the sweeter Ruby Reds started showing up (in my world) later.

They came around in the late 1980s. This felt like a brand new and exciting option. The change happened gradually over time.

The Ruby Red type became so popular. Now, they literally can’t find yellow grapefruit anywhere around them! All that’s available is the Ruby Red kind there.

They correctly note that it is the better of the two flavors. It is amazing how a rare fruit became the standard one so quickly.

Okay, food history fans, let’s look again at foods that quickly became popular. They went from almost unknown to being seen everywhere in just a few decades. Be prepared to view some common things quite differently now. The world of food holds many surprises for us all. You can discover them with little effort today.

We’ve talked about weird things before, like how sushi and hummus felt alien then. The journey through food history doesn’t end here for us. We have more amazing changes to discover from people remembering earlier food days. Their memories help us see these big differences clearly now.

Let’s keep going down this path, learning about good food. We shall see what other basic items were once hard-to-find treasures indeed.

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Lettuce Varieties Other Than Iceberg
New Lettuce | These are mini heads of lettuce. They’re about… | Flickr, Photo by staticflickr.com, is licensed under CC BY 2.0

8. **Lettuce Varieties Other Than Iceberg**: Think about your salad bowl right now; just consider it. You have romaine, spring mix, and butter lettuce in it. Arugula is also common; the options are endless for everyone now. Go into most any grocery store and pick from the many leafy greens available. The choices seem quite varied and easy today.

But go back in time a few years, or even decades ago. The salad scene looked completely different for shoppers then. For a long time, if you needed lettuce, you had only one choice. Yes, it was the familiar crunchy iceberg lettuce that people bought most often.

It acted as the standard, the default lettuce type that everyone used. This was the only option available for many folks wanting salad. The idea of picking types based on feel or taste simply didn’t exist at all. It’s wild how much this simple store section has grown in variety over the years.

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Thai Food
Thai Food – 23 Most Famous Dishes | Travelertopia, Photo by travelertopia.com, is licensed under CC Zero

9. **Thai Food**: Do you crave some pad thai now and then? How about a green curry dish or a hot tom yum soup? Finding a Thai restaurant is as simple as finding pizza places in many cities today. It has become a widely loved food that is easily found across the country.

But this yummy cuisine was not always available to most Americans everywhere. One person said Thai food did not exist where they were living before. It was completely off the minds of nearly everyone then.

This shows a bigger trend happening lately. International foods have become much more available and are liked by more folks now. They once stayed mainly in certain communities or very large cities. Now, Thailand’s tastes are just a quick trip or delivery away for many folks. It shows a big change in how we get food like this now.

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Birria
File:Birria de Mexico.jpg – Wikimedia Commons, Photo by wikimedia.org, is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

10. **Birria**: Have you seen those great-looking tacos or quesadillas anywhere? They often have tender slow-cooked meat inside and are often served with a dipping sauce. That is birria, and it has become super popular recently indeed. Social media shows videos and pictures of many people enjoying it quite a lot.

Birria seems like it’s everywhere suddenly, doesn’t it? It is the latest food trend that grabbed attention from many people quickly. For many, this was a rather unknown regional Mexican dish until it started showing up more lately.

Someone shared this exact sentiment about it online. They said, “Birria. Where have you been all my life?” It captures perfectly that feeling of a tasty food appearing suddenly for many eaters. Its fast rise proves that food trends happen and make niche foods widely known rather fast these days.

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Binding:         Product Group: Grocery
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