Before tractors and mechanical labor savers farmers used to walk behind their plows and harvesters. To get the energy they needed for such laborious work they ate pig fat... a one pound block each morning. That's why they fattened pigs up. A pig was properly fattened if it could NOT be prodded to walk more than 100 yards.

The problem was that when they retired they kept eating the fat and got very fat themselves, leading to the sterotype of old farmers being fat.
JLK

>Curtis;
>
>There was a show on PBS a few years ago. A sculptor was given the task to reconstruct the face of a skull and had no details to go on other than the skull was from a member of Custer’s 7th Calvary who died at the famous battle. The sculptor explained she was using techniques developed by a German Anthropologist in 1893. Part of the technique had to do with diet – what people ate.
>
>After several hours layers of clay were added to the skull and the face began to take shape. Meanwhile, the people who produced the show had found ancestors of officers who died at the battle. The skeleton of the skull had an officer’s uniform and narrowed the possibilities to one. The family was found and contacted and had a photograph of their ancestor who died at the Little Big Horn.
>
>A comparison of the picture and the sculpture was made and there was no doubt – this was the same person! The sculptor was asked how she was able to reproduce such an accurate representation and responded: “We did not eat potato chips in the 1870’s!
>
>An interesting observation and one that has prompted me to explore what the American diet consisted of during the 19th century. Prepared foods did not exist. Refrigeration? Americans began eating more beef around the 1870’s or so.
>
>I have a friend from Oklahoma, who told me he was raised on a farm and his family was poor. He said: “We always had food – milk, pork, beef, eggs, cream, cheese, and bacon. Now they tell us these things are no good for us”!
>
>Today we have a choice and in general we are taught what to eat by our parents. Our job is to learn what is good for us and develop good nutritional values. Not an easy task but important for our health and the health of our families!
>
>Tom