A Sept. 5, 1979, Taste story on a Ladies' Home Journal survey provided a perfectly preserved snapshot into Carter-era American dining and cooking habits, including:
• In almost three-fourths of households surveyed, everyone dined together. Compare that with a 2009 study by the NPD Group, a Chicago-based market research firm, which put the figure at roughly 47 percent.
• Just 2 percent said they had dinner at a fast-food restaurant the previous day. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison, but a 2009 Associated Press study found that 27 percent of respondents purchased a fast-food dinner during the past week.
• Ninety-four percent of women said they did most of their family's grocery shopping. "There's a lot of noise about men becoming fascinated with cooking, but ... the survey found that only 2 percent of the dinner preparation was done by a husband on his own," reported Patricia Tregellas, the magazine's director of communications.
• Only 4 percent of men surveyed said they were the household's primary grocery shopper. Thirty years later, the Nielsen Co. reported a much larger figure: 38 percent.
RICK NELSON
