I think a lot of boomers and gen-x’s grew up eating canned spinach which was probably pretty gross

I think there's a further trend of people just not knowing how to cook and so just making really mediocre-to-bad food and dealing with it. Like neither of my grandparents were good cooks apart from a small handful of dishes they actually understood how to make well, and the same goes for my mother. I grew up eating stuff like unseasoned, unwashed rice that was overcooked alongside rubbery ham, and anything involving vegetables was done even worse to the point that the smell alone was enough to turn your stomach. I had to learn on my own how to actually cook good food and even that would have been impossible without the internet and easy access to people sharing even just things like basic best practices.