When these first gained popularity it wasn’t for their nutrients — it was for entertainment! Remember chia pets? Those green, plant pets grown from Chia seeds that came in every shape from porcupine to panda? Who knew you could have taken those seeds and put them in your smoothie?
Ten years ago, as far as the Western world was concerned, most milk products came from cows. Any white liquid from anything else just wasn’t milk. Now, with all the studies about the harmful effects (not to mention fattening) of dairy, even the most generic supermarkets have five types of milk that don’t come from cows.
Millet almost seems like a vintage grain — like something our ancestors in the 1800s would have eaten. Today it’s one of the most popular types of flour for gluten-free eaters. You can find millet flour right next to Mrs. Butterworth’s pancake mix.
Long before we realized that white carbs were the enemy of our waistlines, we would have asked, “Why would you ever eat squash instead of pasta?” Now, spaghetti squash is everywhere! And we don’t mind the major calorie cuts that come with putting our pesto on squash instead of fettuccine.
Today, nutritionists rave about seaweed as a source of iodine — a nutrient we’re almost all deficient in. But go back a decade and Americans were hardly into sushi enough to accept eating green stuff that grows on the bottom of boats, let alone buy snack packs of dried seaweed.
Show someone an agave plant 10 years ago and they’d ask, “How am I supposed to get something edible out of that prickly thing?” Now, there are almost as many bottles of Agave nectar in the store as there are honey. And it’s a favorite among mixologists for sweetening drinks.
OK, green juices were around 10 years ago, but they were only downed by the “health freaks,” the yoga instructors, and occasionally by your regular civilian on a spa weekend. Today, almost everyone understands the benefits of juicing, and you can bet there were a lot of $100-plus-juicers under Christmas trees this season.
For the longest time, we were told to avoid egg yellows at all costs. Restaurants were making bank, charging us $2 extra to simply remove the yolk from our omelet. Today, we know most of the nutrients in an egg are contained within the yolk.
Jalapenos are everywhere today — in your cocktails, your muffins, in your candy — but not long ago, they were only for the brave and the heat-tolerant. Only recently did we acknowledge the extent to which this spicy vegetable has cancer-fighting properties, anti-inflammatory properties, and weight loss powers.
Oh the good old American peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You couldn’t get anybody to mess with that classic a decade ago. Peanuts may have been the only nut we would tolerate being turned into butter. Today, plenty of health-conscious eaters have replaced peanut butter with cashew butter, almond butter and of course sunflower-seed butter.
