What If:
        In our own history Paracelsus, whose ideas about health gave us the modern diet, was adopted only in northern Europe.  English, German and French speaking countries in Europe, the U. S., Canada and Australia are the followers of this diet.  The Islamic and Spanish worlds remained isolated from this new dietary theory.  It is not that hard to imagine Paracelsus remaining a minor doctor in Germany, with his ideas never being accepted.  Northern Europe keeps its dietary theory centered on cooking and the four elements.  What then?

        Mainstream Fast Food:
        You might ask, what is the different from OTL?  Think of it.  Today, the beginnings of the fast food chains were burgers.  This German cuisine would be different without the change.  Beef became the meat only after the Revolution in Cooking of the 17th Century.  Before, it was too dry, and poultry was preferred.  Imagine going to Sandwich Baron, and ordering a Turkey Sandwich with a special Almond Sauce, a side order of Roasts (Roasted Potato Strips) seasoned with Sugar, and a nice Warm Grape Juice.
        First, we look at the Turkey Sandwich.  To the alternate cooks of this world, Poultry in general are a perfect meat.  They are slightly hot, and slightly wet.  Beef might be popular, but because of its dryness it must be stewed in a soup.  And soups, in this TL and our own, are not a popular item at fast food restaurants.  So poultry sandwiches are the norm.
        Next, there is the Almond Sauce.  Like poultry, almonds are slightly wet and slightly hot.  They compliment the Turkey greatly, and give it a nice flavor.  To form the liquid of the almond sauce, there might be some milk added.  It too is hot and wet.  Sugar would also be added.  As you can begin to see, sugar would not be just for desert.  It is found throughout the meal.
        The Roasts are the alternate cook’s version of fries.  Root vegetables like potatoes are already dry and cold, and frying them only makes them hot, still leaving them dry.  What must be done to the potatoes is a good roasting, to give both heat and wetness.  Sugar, being a common seasoning, would be added for taste instead of salt.  It can be assumed that to handle them, the Roasts are shaped like the fries of OTL.
        Drinks were usually served warm in the old diet system, and that would have carried over into the AH.  Wine was a near perfect drink, and to counter its coldness and dryness it was served warm with seasonings of, you guessed it, sugar.  Because it is alcohol, I doubt wine is served at fast food restaurants.  Instead they have grape juices, served warm with sugar.  And so you have the mainstream fast food meal of this Alternate Cooking World.

        Other Fast Foods:
         Yes, this could have happened.  Unless you go to one of the smaller fast food chains, instead of the main stream ones.  Like today, you will have fast food restaurants selling Mexican cuisine (unchanged from OTL). Muslim and Indian cuisine (more popular because of their similarities to the alternate cooking) and good old Southern cooking (very alternate.)  Seafood would be popular only along the coast, as a fishermen’s diet.  Fish are far too cold to be consumed by the human body.
        Let us drive over to FVB, Franklin Veggie Bar.  This good old Southern fast food chain is almost without meat.  Instead, it focuses on the tastes of the lower Southern class, serving fresh fruits and vegetables.  Recently they have entered into the Sandwich wars with their line of goobers sandwiches, and a tomato biscuit in the morning.
        It can be argued that perhaps the healthiest diet in America is that of the Southerner.  A blend of Native African tastes and the available foods in the South, it makes heavy use of the most abundant food in the South, plants.  It takes less energy to grow the plants, and many are eaten raw.  Being poor, they did not bother with trying to make their food meet the ideas of healthy.
        Climate in the South is suited for the growing of fruit and other vegetables.  In Florida and other tropical regions of the South, this would mean a diet of oranges and other citrus fruit.  The fact that most citrus fruits have a tough skin would make them very easy for travel.  Farther north, local fruits such as apples or pears would be grown, although their skin isn’t as tough as the citrus fruits.
        The goober, and other nuts for that matter, would also play an important part in the diet, as they did in OTL.  Goobers have become a very large staple in the diet.  The largest role they play is that of a replacement for meat.  In a form of very chunky peanut butter, they are a cheap substitute for meat.  The tomato biscuit is a classic of the South even in OTL, and more so in this AH.

        Comments:
        It is a generalization, but perhaps true, to say that the cooking of the English and that of the Germans is very similar.  They can both be put under the heading of Mainstream Fast Food that we talked about.  Southern European cuisine, such as the Italians, Spanish and Greeks, would be unchanged.  The change in the tastes of English and Germans would made them more open to the tastes of Muslim and Indian cooking.
        Many might get the idea that the ideas on what is healthy remain unchanged from 1650 to 2000 in this AH.  That is not so.  The ideas behind the diet have faded away, just like our own history.  We do not take about Sulfur, Mercury or Salt making up our diet.  Instead there are proteins, fats, sugars, carbohydrates and so on.  Science has progressed in this AH, but tastes still linger to the past.  And isn’t that true with our own world?

        Other Groups:
        Like all societies, there will be groups who wish to change the ideas on health.  Today we have people who are against eating any source of carbohydrates.  And so they turn their back on breads, perhaps the most loved food in the world.  Or you have Vegetarians, wishing to limit their intake of meat or get rid of it at all.  This world has similar groups.
        Being over weight isn’t as much as a problem as in OTL.  Although the mainstream diet isn’t heavy in fruits and vegetables, nor is it high in fats based on butter and lard.  Sugar is perhaps the deadliest threat, more so than our own world.  Diet trends focus on the danger of Sugars, not fatty foods.
        It was known even in 1600 that sugar could be dangerous.  But it is so sweet, so loved.  Although most will eat sugar gladly, there is a growing trend of people that wish to limit their intake of sugar, some removing it completely from their diet.  Some are happy with the diet of the Southerners, but others attempts to avoid even natural sugar in fruits.

        Cooking Seeds:
        Now let’s look at some other possible changes from diet, and a quick run down on how they could have changed the world we eat in.  In the future, I might come back to these and make an essay out of them.  Or maybe you’d like to.  As always, I’m willing to post anything sent to me.

        No Sugar:
        “Under its whiteness, sugar hides a great blackness and under its sweetness a very great acrimony, such that it equals aqua fortis [nitric acid].”  Joseph Duchesne, physician to Henry IV of France.
        “Sugar, distilled by itself, yields a liquor scarcely inferior to aqua fortis. . . . Therefore it is very probable that mixing sugar with almost all our food, and taken to so great a degree, from its daily use, renders the blood and humours salt and acrid; and consequently scorbutic.”  British physician Willis
        During the Revolution in Cooking in the 17th Century, many wanted to do away with Sugar completely.  In our history, sugar was limited to only one dish in a meal, desert.  But what if this had been taken to the extreme?  The Revolution changed tastes for Northern Europeans greatly.  Why not limit sugar too?
        Sugar was consumed by Northern Europe in great amounts.  With this market closed, prices for sugar would drop drastically.  This would have large effects on the Caribbean, which depended on the money from Sugar.   A greater importance would be placed on colonies producing things other than Sugar.  France would but a greater priority on New France, and Britain would do the same to the 13 Colonies.
        Could this world see France keep New France, instead giving up its Caribbean possessions?  Or would Britain work to keep the 13 colonies, with their worth being greater because of the diverse market they offered.  And what of the Spanish colonies?  This single change could drastically effect the history of the Caribbean, and beyond.

        The Grandeur that was Roast:
        Ethiopia, the original home of Coffee, was not some barren no man’s land in history.  It was an agricultural center for millet growing as early as 5000 B.C. and in contact with other cultures.  It can be very plausible to assume that Coffee is discovered sooner than our history, and spreads to other cultures.  One of the most practical use for rudimentary Heronian steam technology is to make espresso.  Could this start a Culinary Age of Steam?  Does Steaming become the center of the cycle of food?    Thanks to Weaire Gavin Allen for this idea.

        Empty America:
        Tomatoes, pineapples, avocados, chocolate, corn, peppers, potatoes, tobacco, and more are all foods that come from the Americas.  But what if the Americas had been empty, without humans?  There are no farmers, and therefore no domesticated crops.  How does the history of Europe continue without the potato for the Irish, or the tomato for the Italians.  And that’s without thinking of the political effects of an empty America!
        Population would probably be smaller.  Without the large number of introduced foods to Europe, the Irish and other groups wouldn’t have the boom in population they did in our history.  In addition, there would be no great Aztec or Inca Empire for the Spanish to build their colonies on.
        From the beginning, America would be very frontier.  Without the Indians, the Europeans have to learn what to plant, and when.  Colonization takes longer than our history, with many lives lost in colonization attempts.  Without the Line of Demarcation, the English colonists might never revolt.  If there even is an English colonial Empire in America.

        North American Empire:
        The two cultural hearths of America were the Aztecs and Incas.  Although there were great mound builders in North America, they did not contribute a lasting influence to foods.  Botanists and scientists have wondered about the effect on our cultivated fruit if North American had been a cradle of civilization.  What if the native plums, cherries, crabs, grapes, mulberries, and walnuts had been cultivated for thousands of years in the New World?
        This would have a great effect in the settlement of North America than food.  It’s plausible that De Soto would rank up there with Cortez and Pizarro.  The Spanish might control the former lands of the Aztecs, Incas, and this North American Empire.  Culinary tastes of today are a blend of European Spanish, and the tastes of the Aztecs, Incas, and the North Americans.

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