I'm interested in a narrative of how the American diet is different
from 50 and 100 years ago?  What's different in what we drink, have
for snacks, and in routine breakfast/lunch/dinners?

Please limit hyperlinks to good narratives.

Hi! Thanks for the interesting question. 

I found the following sources that will fit the information you
require.

The first is an article at the University of Houston about the history
of the American diet.

“Before the Civil War, there were four major food traditions in the
United States, each with English roots. These included a New England
tradition that associated plain cooking with religious piety. Hostile
toward fancy or highly seasoned foods, which they regarded as a form
of sensual indulgence, New Englanders adopted an austere diet
stressing boiled and baked meats, boiled vegetables, and baked breads
and pies. A Southern tradition, with its high seasonings and emphasis
on frying and simmering, was an amalgam of African, English, French,
Spanish, and Indian foodways. In the middle Atlantic areas influenced
by Quakerism, the diet tended to be plain and simple and emphasized
boiling, including boiled puddings and dumplings. In frontier areas of
the backcountry, the diet included many ingredients that other English
used as animal feed, including potatoes, corn, and various greens. The
backcountry diet stressed griddle cakes, grits, greens, and pork.”

“One unique feature of the American diet from an early period was the
abundance of meat--and distilled liquor. Abundant and fertile lands
allowed settlers to raise corn and feed it to livestock as fodder, and
convert much of the rest into whiskey. By the early nineteenth
century, adult men were drinking more than 7 gallons of pure alcohol a
year.”

“During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, change in
American foodways took place slowly, despite a steady influx of
immigrants. Since World War II, and especially since the 1970s, shifts
in eating patterns have greatly accelerated. World War II played a key
role in making the American diet more cosmopolitan. Overseas service
introduced soldiers to a variety of foreign cuisines, while population
movements at home exposed to a wider variety of American foodways. The
post-war expansion of international trade also made American diets
more diverse, making fresh fruits and vegetables available year
round.”

“Food in America” by the Gilder Lehman History Timeline
http://www.gliah.uh.edu/historyonline/food.cfm 

Another well made article about food history could be found at this
link and first appeared at the Chicago Sun Times in 1999.

“Dining Through the Decades”
http://www.leitesculinaria.com/features/dining.html 

In this packaged food timeline, we could get a better idea on what
Americans buy in their grocery stores in those days.

“TWENTIETH CENTURY TIMELINE EDIBLES & QUAFFABLES”
http://www.geocities.com/foodedge/timeline.htm 

The following is an anecdote of what the food was like in the early
20th century.

“Although there seems to be a trend now back to cooking from scratch,
during the middle 1900s, the prepackaged and convenience food
phenomenon began in earnest. Strangely, home cooks embraced shortcuts
with a passion, and the advertising industry with their recipe
pamphlets and product test kitchens determined what we ate. That was
how it happened that my mom in California and your mom in Montana both
made a lime Jell-O salad with cottage cheese and pineapple. From that
time forth, for the majority of Americans, "making soup" meant opening
a can. For this reason, this web site devotes much of its space to
familiar brand name foods, and the joy that our shared popular culture
can bring. I'd like to welcome you to my web site, where we can
remember it all together.”

“American Food Century 1900 – 2000”
http://www.geocities.com/foodedge/  

Finally a very good resource of information regarding the evolution of
the American diet could be found at the Food History website.

Food Notes – from Food History
http://www.foodhistory.com/foodnotes/index.htm  

Search terms used: 
“American diet” history
“American food” history 

I hope these links would help you in your research. Before rating this
answer, please ask for a clarification if you have a question or if
you would need further information.

Thanks for visiting us at Google Answers.

Regards,
Easterangel-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by omnivorous-ga on 12 Oct 2002 11:48 PDT

Good job easterangel -- but that's too many links for a GA researcher
who sees too many web pages in a week.

Only one clarification question: how do I improve my Google page rank?

Just kidding!!!

Okay -- a serious question: did you see anything that had quantitative
numbers for consumption of various items (I saw the note on whiskey --
yeow!!)?

This was just a curiousity question, not homework or work-related.

---

Clarification of Answer by easterangel-ga on 12 Oct 2002 16:01 PDT

Hi I'm back. Sorry if I saturated you with the links though, I just
don't want to miss anything but apparently I still did. It's a good
thing that the first clarification question was a joke but I have to
admit that I fell off my chair when I saw that one.   :)

Back to the business at hand. The only numbers I got were regarding
the composition of American diet in 1900 as compared to 1990.

                              1900     1990
Complex Carbohydrates          48%      14%
Protein                        20%      20%
Fat                            22%      42%
Simple Carbohydrates           10%      24%

"The Six Stages of Nutrition" by Moss Greene
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art3216.asp

The others were just anecdotes so not much figures and value there.
Well I hope this helps. I'm going to get back to my chair now...

Thanks for the nice rating!

Good job.  Too many hyperlinks.  But they're interesting ones.