Disclaimer: I honestly believe that my parents were operating on what information / media messages were available at the time. Since we all at one point or another struggled with weight, and my father had hereditary heart issues looming, artificially-sweetened stuff and low-fat versions of items dominated, based on the belief that we'd lose weight and keep my dad's heart healthy that way. I think that in many ways, my parents were truly, honestly trying to do their best. Little did we know... anyway:
The BIRTHDAY CAKES...oh, the birthday cakes. My mom used Betty Crocker mixes and frostings to make delightful-looking cakes. Not just for us family members; she was paid to make them for families in our neighborhood, so that cake mix and frosting was frequently in our house. Imagine my horror when (as an adult) I realized that they are by and large trans fats, very high on the ingredient list!! "But guess what?" moms in my childhood and teenage years would say (more or less), "If you want to make a baked good mix healthy, you just skip the oils and/or eggs and add applesauce as a substitute!"
SnackWells, and other low fat desserts. Also lots of Entenmann's.
Fat free commercial salad dressings - which, it turns out, almost all contain high fructose corn syrup.
Diet sodas, by the gallon. OK, not the gallon, but we drank a lot of diet soda as a family - even as young kids and teenagers. I'd get into quarrels with my friends over what was better: diet or regular. The basis of the arguments was "Which is better - being fat or having cancer?" (Even in the '90s we knew that there was something fishy about aspartame, but kept drinking it since there wasn't OVERWHELMING {hit ya over the head with a cast iron frying pan} proof that it was worse for us than being fat. Ironically we never considered the possibility of eliminating soda from our diets altogether.)
Conventionally produced skim milk. Because it was good for us. Ahem.
Low-fat / fat-free coffee creamers. Blergh. More trans fats and corn syrup solids.
Pasta salads. (Dressed with fat-free Italian dressing, of course!) I never liked'em, but they were the staple of our community's pot luck events.
Kool-Aid, and Crystal Light, both which were of the artificially sweetened variety.
I distinctly remember my mom gathering us as a family and informing us that there were going to be some changes to our diets for the healthier, for my dad's sake, so we were going to eat less meat and more pasta-based meals. (facepalm)
