Should you buy an ingredient that everyone used to eat?
Popularity fades faster than usefulness.
Possibly. Declining popularity does not automatically reduce an ingredient's nutritional, cultural, or culinary value.
Modern tastes create the illusion that older choices were mistakes.
The hidden mechanism is cultural turnover. Ingredients disappear from everyday life because lifestyles, technology, and preferences evolve.
Imagine a grain once eaten daily that slowly disappears as faster and more convenient foods become popular.
A second-order effect develops because forgotten ingredients sometimes return. New generations rediscover old foods and assign them entirely new meanings.
People often think food history moves in a straight line. It often moves in circles.
