WylieOwlVintage. “Vintage Betty Feezor Cookbook Carolina Recipes 1960s.” Etsy, https://www.etsy.com/listing/500228714/vintage-betty-feezor-cookbook-carolina?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=betty%20feezor&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&organic_search_click=1.

Published in 1964, Betty Feezor’s Carolina Recipes (also written by Betty Feezor) is a cookbook with over 800 recipes, which chronicle low calorie and special diet menus from the time. [1] Betty Feezor was a graduate from the University of Tennessee who studied Home Economics and after having finished school, lived with her husband and children in Charlotte, NC. In June of 1953 Feezor was featured on a cooking show on the local Charlotte broadcasting network WBTV and went on to publish her first cookbook entitled Betty Feezor’s Best in 1957; both of which received exceptional praise and viewer/readership. It should also be noted that Betty Feezor was a member of the Home Economics Association and American Women in Radio and Television, and would often appear as a commentator on popular fashion shows from the time. [2] Although Feezor’s first publication may have centered more on traditional recipes, it is interesting, and perhaps revealing, that she emphasizes new low-calorie, low-fat, and low-salt recipes in her second publication.

As this applies to our chapter in American Appetites, Betty Feezor and her cookbook demonstrate the growing concern around diet and nutrition in the United States and in North Carolina in the 60’s.  Although there might have been an emphasis placed on nutrition in earlier times, it appears the rise in fast food culture has proven troublesome for the health of Americans most recently. Today, premiums are placed on healthy and nutritious food sources as opposed to their convenient and lower cost alternatives, and because of this, there is less equitable access to real solutions to a daunting health crisis.

 

 

[1] Feezor, Betty. Betty Feezor’s Carolina Recipes. Dowd Press, 1964, second cover.

[2] Feezor, Betty. Betty Feezor’s Carolina Recipes. Dowd Press, 1964, fourth cover.

 

– Matt Barnard