Our vocabulary has really undergone many changes in the last 100 years. Below is an advertisement that appeared in a 1904 Ladies’ Home Journal.  At first glance, the phrase “Receipts for Frozen Dainties” conjures up an image of someone leaving the receipt for their Fruit of the Looms outside overnight in a chilly car.

In fact, “receipt” is an old word for recipe, and a “dainty” is not an undergarment but a small pastry - suitable for high tea, I’d imagine.

But laying all that to the side, the clown pictured below looks more like a psychotic axe murderer than a gracious host.

Other than promoting emotional eating, I'm not sure how this image is supposed to help sell the advertised products.

Thanks to the miracle of hydrogenation, we have “shortening” products such as Crisco. Shortening, I’ve since learned, is a nice word for white fat products that remain solidified regardless of room temperature. And the process of hydrogenation is also not a good thing.

The word betrays its etymology. Hydrogen gas is forced into shortening products (such as Cricso) to make it more solid. The irony is that, these shortening products were originally marketed as being good for one’s health.

Oopsie.

The jury is still out on hydrogenated oils, but more and more, it appears that foods with hydrogenated oils are extremely hazardous to one’s long-term health.