I think that because of the emphasis made by the pundits of the mainstream diet/nutrition world that "whole wheat" flour is so much "better" than ordinary flour many people have no idea that "white flour" is made from wheat too.

I don't think you're an idiot. It's unfortunate that so many people are leaving school and their childhood homes without even the most basic notions of what food is and where it comes from. It's a failure of parenting and schooling IMHO.

Parents have an obligation to pass on life-skills to their children, things like cooking and financial skills. They can't just expect their kids to get everything from school.

My mom made an effort to pass on all her skills to me: Sewing, cooking, gardening... pretty much everything she had been taught. My dad did too. I did some work on my own cars until I could afford to pay someone else and I still fix things around the house.

Unfortunately there was a gender bias and I doubt the boys got nearly as good an education in home skills as I got. I think I was the lucky one really.

Maybe it's because my parents were raised on farms, but they passed all that knowledge along. I would have too, had I reproduced.

I don't know why I didn't know this particular situation, because my Mom is actually an amazing chef. She is always in the kitchen, and one of my favorite things are her homemade loaves of bread. I think a lot of this case in point comes from the fact that I HATE to cook, hate recipes, and am only in the kitchen when absolutely necessary. My Mom and I are so much alike in personality but could not be any more opposite when it comes to homemaking skills. She has always taught me to clean/cook/even tried to teach me to knit. I fail at all of the above. lol It's all good though, because where I lack in homemaking areas, I make up in others. Good thing the kids have Hubby, who enjoys cooking.

Yeah... I actually did get a cooking class in school but mostly I had wood shop, metal shop, that sort of "elective". What is interesting to me looking back is that in wood shop, we got to handle some pretty serious and potentially dangerous tools, like drill presses, table saws, jig saws. In metal shop, we handled molten metal and used a grinder to remove burrs. I even got to use a lathe and a milling machine. And did some gas welding! But in cooking class, it was as if they were afraid to let us cook because someone might get hurt. Half the stuff wasn't even really cooking, it was just combining already ready ingredients. For example, we made jello from a box and put it together with store-bought lady fingers and ice cream.

This is a very sad thread.

Okay, I have decided I am going to sit down with my grandsons and ask them some basic questions.....And I do not mean about sex! LOL

Um, isn't this one of the first things you learned about food? What do people think flour is...honestly?

LOL! Well, my daughter is more educated about food than me. She went through a vegan stage.. and got really sick, and then went back to eating meat, and eating very naturally. She's gradually cut rice, beans, all wheat (gluten intolerance) she eats grass fed beef, organic veggies, cooks with real butter or olive oil.

But, I was the one who taught her what is in stuff, how to read a lable, etc.

My brother and I learned to cook from Mum while we were growing up. Actually, he took to it even more than me! He and a buddy used to get in the kitchen after school and make the mother of all messes. One time, I got home from my later classes (I'm older) and they'd made green pancakes. They assured me they were delicious, but of course they'd eaten them all. Then they tried for years to work out how they actually made them in the first place! I have no clue what could have been in them.

One time Mum came home and found pancake-batter in the ceiling.

They were both about eight years old at the time...

Nowadays, my brother will cheerfully cook a roast to perfection or attempt to use the latest molecular gastronomy breakthrough to craft the perfect dessert (if it doesn't require NASA tech).

When I lived in student housing a couple of years ago, though, the other students (typically a bit younger than me) would often wonder if I was a chef, because I could make such exotic dishes as chicken salad, omelets, crockpot stews or coffee cup panna cottas. I mean, maybe the panna cottas were exotic, but they're hardly hard to make!

Children are supposedly drawing rectangles when asked to draw a fish, and really narrow rectangles when asked to draw a potato. That's scary!

These stories shocked and depressed the hell out of me. But, then I remembered that one of my closest friends recently argued with me at the movies that popcorn is good for you because corn is a vegetable. I had to send her numerous links before she would concede that corn is a grain (although when made into oil, it is classified as a vegetable oil by whatever authority classifies these things). I agree that there are generations of people now who have only seen "food" come out of a package and the wholesomeness of this "food" is constantly reinforced by diabolically clever advertising.

Ironically, on a hopeful note, there is so much illness now that people ARE beginning to ask questions about their food and I believe that movement will continue to grow, slowly but surely. I live in a city condo building with a large garden, devoted to lawn and flowers. Some of the mothers lobbied for, and got, a vegetable patch so they could teach their toddlers about growing food. At the time I thought it was a nice idea, but this thread has taught me how vitally important it is.

Hilarious! This had me busting out laughing yesterday. I had to explain to my office-mate why.

It does make you think they've probably never looked at a label. Of course, I think sometimes it only says "flour". Now, to someone like me, flour could mean almost anything but on an ingredient label it only means flour from wheat.

I wonder, if you lead one of these people down a logical path if they'd get it.

What is bread made from?

"Flour"

What is flour made from?

... Flowers?

Some days you just need some validation.

I read this then sat down with my ten year old ds. He knew wheat flour was wheat, he knew white flour was wheat, he knew french fries don't have wheat "they're just potato and salt, mom".

So, I'm not a horrible parent after all lol.

This made me cackle out loud!

Delaney

I dearly love to cook! And I find the children drawing rectangles for fish and potatoes very scary!

We had fish fingers just once or twice as kids. The reason was my brother had stayed over at friends' houses and seen them in the fridge, and was curious as to what they tasted like. So we tried them out. Not a hit.

Today I was eating a salad carrots, made of baby spinach, celery, cucumber, broccoli, red bell pepper, smothered in Ranch dressing, bleu cheese crumbles and real bacon bits. My friend looked at and asked if I was still doing Atkins and then said "Atkins isn't healthy, you need fruits and vegetables". I was tempted to tell her that bell peppers and cukes were fruits, but I was afraid she would die of shock.

Before lunch she said that I looked great. Go figure.