why were people so skinny in the 70s?

rachaelbarton

portion sizes at restaurants were smaller. the size of an average hamburger has nearly doubled.

NH_Norma

1. No Internet.
2. No video games.
3. Home cooked meals (from scratch)
4. Kids played outside after school.
5. Parents didn't drive kids everywhere, we rode our bikes or walked.

THIS! Plus chores...like hauling/stacking wood.

NH_Norma

1. No Internet.
2. No video games.
3. Home cooked meals (from scratch)
4. Kids played outside after school.
5. Parents didn't drive kids everywhere, we rode our bikes or walked.

6. Don't forget the evil Sugar!!!

Sorry, not sugar. My nickname was beanpole, and we would occasionally eat brown sugar on bread and butter. NONE of us were fat then.

SnicciFit

People cooked meals at home instead of going out to eat or popping a pizza in the oven.

ETA: less convenient foods.

la8ydi

It's really funny to read everyone's different perspectives of the 70s - even the differences of the people who grew up during them! I was a child of the 70s - we had 3 tv stations - and watched cartoons on Saturday mornings. If the sun was out, we were outside. I don't remember my mom driving me anywhere - I walked or rode my bike. As far as the poster who said that EVERYONE was smoking...must be a difference in parts of the country, because I didn't know ANY kids who smoked. We ate a lot of homemade stuff, but we also ate frozen pizza and tv dinners and stuff - so I think it really boils down to activity level. No cable. No internet. No video games. No computers. No cell phones. Get outside and DO something.

FredDoyle

1. No Internet.
2. No video games.
3. Home cooked meals (from scratch)
4. Kids played outside after school.
5. Parents didn't drive kids everywhere, we rode our bikes or walked.

6. Don't forget the evil Sugar!!!

Sorry, not sugar. My nickname was beanpole, and we would occasionally eat brown sugar on bread and butter. NONE of us were fat then.

Damn straight. One of my favorite after school pick me ups was toasted white bread with butter ans corn syrup spread on.
Then back outside until dinner....

jayce54321

Coke.

hookilau

Don't know about anyone else, but we ate a great deal of fat compared to the 80's and beyond, did a lot of recreational drugs & lots and lots of physical activity (again, compared to today).

For the record, I was a child in the 70's but it wasn't unusual for kids to be 10 or 11 yrs old and smoking cigarettes and drinking. Movies like Foxes and Bad News Bears (with Tatum O' Neil) weren't too far off from the truth, at least in Astoria, NY it wasn't.

Off topic, was Astoria still primarily Italians and Greeks back then also?

Hell yes.

All those ladies dressed in black hanging out their windows yelling at us kids from time to time, mostly Greek, Italian and Yugoslavians. Imagine being the only brown person for miles with THE MOST Italian first and last name ever :sick: They HATED me :laugh: Back then, you could yell racial slurs at children and no one gave a crap. There were very few kids allowed to play with me on the block, so we used to run the neighborhood (up to Steinway St.) and roam around getting into all sorts of trouble :blushing:

ETA: they would throw water out the window on you if you did something they didn't like such as hang out on their stoop or sitting on the car etc...

I remember thinking I'd never find someone to be my boyfriend because there was no one else who looked like me. I thought I'd be alone forever. It never occurred to me (because it was just not done) to go with an American boy. Facepalm.

NH_Norma

I think it really boils down to activity level. No cable. No internet. No video games. No computers. No cell phones. Get outside and DO something.

Huh...and that's my theme to get back in shape. Not that there will be NONE of those things, but certainly get outside and DO something.

whitebalance

People cooked meals at home instead of going out to eat or popping a pizza in the oven.

Dang... Now I want a pizza....

ETA something on topic: Parents weren't all scared that their kiddos could be abducted if left outside without supervision for more than five minutes... so kiddos were left outside without supervision for more than five minutes. I was outside constantly, and even as a Brownie in third grade I walked the mile or so from school to the troop meeting. And I was one of the sickly ones!

And yes, restaurant food was a once-a-week thing at most. I mean, I live on the stuff now. Mom's home cooking is the once-a-week treat now.

michael1976_ca

1. No Internet.
2. No video games.
3. Home cooked meals (from scratch)
4. Kids played outside after school.
5. Parents didn't drive kids everywhere, we rode our bikes or walked.

even in the 80's growing i had to walk to school or later in age take the city bus. i wasn't into sports but i almost always was out side playing with friends or cousins it was good back then. i still rember getting the first nintendo system before that we played card games

percypat

This show is great. (this is part 1, but all 6 parts are there)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIwJYRX4BjU

Its been a couple of years since I watched it, but the gist was that they burned SO many more calories just day-to-day

Here's a link to the full thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TLfKKppElU

You're right, going by this the food in the seventies was actually pretty bad. Lots of processed food and alcohol ... But heaps and heaps more exercise.

Love this show.

BrianSharpe

1. No Internet.
2. No video games.
3. Home cooked meals (from scratch)
4. Kids played outside after school.
5. Parents didn't drive kids everywhere, we rode our bikes or walked.

6. Don't forget the evil Sugar!!!

Sorry, not sugar. My nickname was beanpole, and we would occasionally eat brown sugar on bread and butter. NONE of us were fat then.

Molasses on bread was one of my favourite after school snacks.

Chores........yup, shoveling snow in the winter & cutting grass with a push mower in the summer (and that was also my first "job" along with having a paper route)

bluefox9er

the 'power' of aggressive marketing, easier access to people for marketing messages and corporations whose thirst for profit at any cost is unquenchable...

fast food nation gets governments elected.

SnicciFit

They ate real food, mostly fresh and there were a lot less genetically modified foods (if any) around. Portion size was also smaller.

Growing up, my mother made home cooked meals every night from fresh ingredients. We had a different dessert every night but none of us were fat. We had takeaway fish and chips every Friday night, but that was the only take away in our lives. Very occasionally went out for Chinese dinner special occasions.

We also played sport and walked to and from school every day. Only had one car in the family so walking was the way to get around. If I wanted to go to a girlfriends house (as a teen), I walked there and back.

Life was much simpler.

It's funny, because these days I think most people would consider the home cooked meal the special occasion!

tificreole

Less junk food then. People cooked at home more. Not as much advertising for food. Generally less exposure to food product.
No masterchef programs. Less cars, people too the bus and walked more...

SoDamnHungry

Ate less, moved more.

ninu13

Agree, with the Disco dancing! :drinker: