In recent decades, dramatic increases in Americans’ obesity rates have led some nutrition activists to call for a return to the dietary norms of earlier times when homemakers spent more time in meal preparation. Using archival data from unique survey records gathered in Upstate New York in 1936 and 1952, we provide descriptive information on the quality of the diets using measures of the variety of foods served and a modified version of U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Healthy Eating Index. Our multivariate analyses focus in on the relationships between diet quality and sociodemographics, homemakers’ time use, and household technology. We conclude that the typical Upstate New York diet of the 1930s was not of high quality, but improvements had occurred by the early 1950s. Our multivariate analyses reveal that access to modern kitchen technology had a strong, positive association with diet quality while homemakers’ time devoted to food-related activities was only weakly linked.

中文翻译：

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20 世纪上半叶农户和非农户的饮食质量：技术变革和妇女工作的作用

近几十年来，美国人的肥胖率急剧上升，导致一些营养活动家呼吁恢复早期的饮食规范，那时家庭主妇会花更多时间准备膳食。利用 1936 年和 1952 年在纽约州北部收集的独特调查记录的档案数据，我们使用所提供食物的种类和美国农业部健康饮食指数的修改版本来提供有关饮食质量的描述性信息。我们的多变量分析侧重于饮食质量与社会人口统计、家庭主妇的时间使用和家庭技术之间的关系。我们得出的结论是，1930 年代典型的纽约州北部饮食质量不高，但到 1950 年代初出现了改善。