why were people so skinny in the 70s?
Replies
-
bennettinfinity wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »I said our increase in sugar consumption. My point was not that a single chemical caused the nations obesity problem, That was the single thing you two looked for to try to make the debate about. I was saying the American lifestyle changed. That is all I was saying in my original post. We became more sedimentary with our jobs, they found cheaper ways to make different forms of sugar that sometimes you have to be a chemist to find on a label. I am saying we need to go back to how society lived in the 60 and 70's in regards to eating. Compare a big Mac today with a big mac from when we were kids? The calorie contents are massively higher than when we were children. That is what I was trying to say in the beginning. All the list of chemicals that someone mentioned was a quote I put in my post answering someone else about all the chemicals.
You wrote: "The increase in chemicals and the massive amounts of sugar being consumed by the American public was on a steep climb up." If you want to remove the first part of the sentence and focus on the sugar, that's fine. But people can only respond to what you wrote, not what you *meant* (at least until you clarify).
Do you have a source for the Big Mac today being bigger than it was when we were children? I ask because McDonald's themselves says it is the same size (with the exception of the new, specially labeled limited offer of the "Grand Mac") and if they're not being truthful, I'd like to know the source for that claim.
No, I do not have a source for the calories of a big mac when we were kids. You know why, cause they did not keep track of that information or it is a proprietary secret, which they will not share. Do you think that a big mac and a coke was 1150 calories 30 years ago? If it was that means we are consuming way more then we did 30 years ago, but I find it hard to believe that cokes product has changed, I do not know the exact number of times, would it not reason that McDonald's has changed their recipes and hamburgers and ingredients as well and lied to the American public about it? I'm just saying.
I suspect the Big Mac was the same size.
What I think is different is what we ordinarily order. Then adults would get a cheeseburger or maybe a Quarter Pounder and small or large fries, but the largest size fries now is much larger than then.
My mom got diet coke if we went to McD's back then, and that's what I'd get now (but I don't usually get McD's, since I'm not a fast food fan, although I may have to go to Long John Silvers now I know I can!). So calories from soda would be irrelevant to me, '70s or now.
In the '70s we went occasionally and I got a burger (I didn't like cheese on them yet) with small fries and a small orange drink. I don't think Happy Meals existed yet. I bet the calories from my order would be the same.
Just checked and it looks like Diet Coke was introduced in '82, so I don't know what my mom would have gotten in the '70s. Did McD's have Tab?
Also, for the record, I didn't get the orange drink because we thought it anything but soda. I just liked it best and could only get it at McD's (or other fast food).
I worked at McDonald's in 1981 and can confirm that the diet drink was Tab - at least in my area.
Thanks! I know my mom drank Tab sometimes, so I'm sure that's what she would have ordered.0 -
I can’t speak to the 70s but the orange drink was not carbonated in the 90s.0
-
lemurcat12 wrote: »
Of course, it's not exactly hard to get a black coffee at Starbucks or even just a coffee with milk if one likes a latte sort of thing. That foods are available doesn't mean people have to choose the higher cal options.
Yes but it's an option, and it wasn't there at the time. One of those drinks and the extra calories from a supersize meal can easily give you 600+ extra calories a day.
I mean, how many people start MFP and are dumbfounded when they find out that their favorite drink is 1/3 of the calories they can eat if they want to lose weight? (I know, the menu mentions calories, but most people don't know how much they should eat either).0 -
I was a teenager and about half my current weight.1
-
lemurcat12 wrote: »
Of course, it's not exactly hard to get a black coffee at Starbucks or even just a coffee with milk if one likes a latte sort of thing. That foods are available doesn't mean people have to choose the higher cal options.
Yes but it's an option, and it wasn't there at the time. One of those drinks and the extra calories from a supersize meal can easily give you 600+ extra calories a day.
I mean, how many people start MFP and are dumbfounded when they find out that their favorite drink is 1/3 of the calories they can eat if they want to lose weight? (I know, the menu mentions calories, but most people don't know how much they should eat either).
Not that I was a regular latte sipper, by any stretch of the imagination... But I sure was shocked when I found out how many calories my favorite latte was. Now I only had a latte maybe once or twice a month... But the calories are so...many... that I don't want them at all now. Just not worth it. LOL I enjoy my black coffee just as well for practically zero calories LOL0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »
Of course, it's not exactly hard to get a black coffee at Starbucks or even just a coffee with milk if one likes a latte sort of thing. That foods are available doesn't mean people have to choose the higher cal options.
Yes but it's an option, and it wasn't there at the time. One of those drinks and the extra calories from a supersize meal can easily give you 600+ extra calories a day.
There were different options.
Not saying it's not easier to find things to overeat on now; I think it is. But this idea that some seem to have that people didn't have opportunities to eat a whole lot in the '70s is weird.I mean, how many people start MFP and are dumbfounded when they find out that their favorite drink is 1/3 of the calories they can eat if they want to lose weight? (I know, the menu mentions calories, but most people don't know how much they should eat either).
I don't know; I've always (since being an adult) been pretty sensitive to wasting calories on drinks, so I find it amazing that people didn't know (also amazing that people don't realize those coffees are big desserts). But in college I drank coffee that was half milk and drank a lot of it (free in the dining hall), and yet was not fat. I bet a lot of people added sugar or cream (I didn't, but that was personal taste, I've always hated sweetened coffee), and people were mostly not fat (this was the late '80s and early '90s, but a college campus that is probably still mostly healthy weight).
On 70s stuff, I think some common restaurants had smaller portions, but I recall plenty that had big portions too, not fast food (but even now a burger from a pub or restaurant is going to have more calories than an average fast food restaurant, so beats me why people are so focused on fast food). I loved steak when I was a kid, and I recall driving cross country when I was 8 and stopping at various restaurants and wanting a steak and ordering from the adult menu and the waitress telling my parents it would be too big for me (I always was small for my age, and at that age was thin) and them saying it was fine and me eating it all and feeling weirdly congratulated.
You'd think I'd have gotten fat as a result, but no, I wasn't fat until well into adulthood.
Anyway, I recall hating to go out with my grandparents because they always wanted all you can eat buffets, that was a place you could eat a lot. I also recall places with unlimited salad bars (the stuff on it was not all low cal, trust me). The latter might be the '80s, but probably not that different.0 -
I guess I knew that lattes had calories... But in my weight-gaining days, I never paid attention to any calories... Never ever give it a thought. If that seems disingenuous... I can't help that. It just never occurred to me to even consider the calories.0
-
I edited because that seemed harsher than I meant it, and you posted before me and I wasn't responding to you and didn't want it to seem I was.
I don't think it's surprising that people didn't realize the calories they were consuming, I get that. That was largely me at one point, it's super easy to do.
I mean more like people who claim to have been watching calories and to have been misled because who would ever have dreamed whatever it was (insert obviously high cal food) had lots of calories.2 -
What I remember most about MickeyDee's in the 70's is that we had to park, get out of the car and walk (GASP!) to, and enter the building in order to order and pick up our food.
This whole drive through, order, pay and consume without getting out of the car started much later - maybe in the mid-80's when I was in college. I did not trust it, and still parked and walked in - unless it was a rough or unknown area of town and late at night.0 -
What I remember most about MickeyDee's in the 70's is that we had to park, get out of the car and walk (GASP!) to, and enter the building in order to order and pick up our food.
This whole drive through, order, pay and consume without getting out of the car started much later - maybe in the mid-80's when I was in college. I did not trust it, and still parked and walked in - unless it was a rough or unknown area of town and late at night.
Probably why Dad liked A&W. Sit in the car and they put the trays on your window.10 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »I edited because that seemed harsher than I meant it, and you posted before me and I wasn't responding to you and didn't want it to seem I was.
I don't think it's surprising that people didn't realize the calories they were consuming, I get that. That was largely me at one point, it's super easy to do.
I mean more like people who claim to have been watching calories and to have been misled because who would ever have dreamed whatever it was (insert obviously high cal food) had lots of calories.
Okay that makes more sense thanks for the clarification1 -
What I remember most about MickeyDee's in the 70's is that we had to park, get out of the car and walk (GASP!) to, and enter the building in order to order and pick up our food.
This whole drive through, order, pay and consume without getting out of the car started much later - maybe in the mid-80's when I was in college. I did not trust it, and still parked and walked in - unless it was a rough or unknown area of town and late at night.
Not where I grew up. Mickey D's, Jack in the Box, etc. drive-throughs were definitely a thing in the '70s. That was when Jack in the Box had the big, springy clown head thing on the drive-up speaker to order through. Not to mention A&W restaurants (of A&W Root Beer fame), where you parked and ordered through a speaker, and a car hop brought your meal out to you on a tray that hooked to your car window.5 -
What I remember most about MickeyDee's in the 70's is that we had to park, get out of the car and walk (GASP!) to, and enter the building in order to order and pick up our food.
This whole drive through, order, pay and consume without getting out of the car started much later - maybe in the mid-80's when I was in college. I did not trust it, and still parked and walked in - unless it was a rough or unknown area of town and late at night.
Not where I grew up. Mickey D's, Jack in the Box, etc. drive-throughs were definitely a thing in the '70s. That was when Jack in the Box had the big, springy clown head thing on the drive-up speaker to order through. Not to mention A&W restaurants (of A&W Root Beer fame), where you parked and ordered through a speaker, and a car hop brought your meal out to you on a tray that hooked to your car window.
This was true were I grew up as well... the only place we actually got out of the car was for pizza.0 -
People smoked a lot more. Thinner but now dying of lung and heart disease2
-
4
-
So I'm trying to figure out why people were so skinny about 40 years ago vs today....here are some reasons i can think of and i want to know yours:
1. little to none high fructose corn syrup
2. more activity.....people didnt sit on their computers and smart phones all day
these are just two main ones i can think of, anyone else have any ideas?
Both of those are true, plus people cooked normal food at home instead of eating so many restaurant meals.5 -
smaller plates, bowls, portion sizes4
-
stevencloser wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »I said our increase in sugar consumption. My point was not that a single chemical caused the nations obesity problem, That was the single thing you two looked for to try to make the debate about. I was saying the American lifestyle changed. That is all I was saying in my original post. We became more sedimentary with our jobs, they found cheaper ways to make different forms of sugar that sometimes you have to be a chemist to find on a label. I am saying we need to go back to how society lived in the 60 and 70's in regards to eating. Compare a big Mac today with a big mac from when we were kids? The calorie contents are massively higher than when we were children. That is what I was trying to say in the beginning. All the list of chemicals that someone mentioned was a quote I put in my post answering someone else about all the chemicals.
You wrote: "The increase in chemicals and the massive amounts of sugar being consumed by the American public was on a steep climb up." If you want to remove the first part of the sentence and focus on the sugar, that's fine. But people can only respond to what you wrote, not what you *meant* (at least until you clarify).
Do you have a source for the Big Mac today being bigger than it was when we were children? I ask because McDonald's themselves says it is the same size (with the exception of the new, specially labeled limited offer of the "Grand Mac") and if they're not being truthful, I'd like to know the source for that claim.
No, I do not have a source for the calories of a big mac when we were kids. You know why, cause they did not keep track of that information or it is a proprietary secret, which they will not share. Do you think that a big mac and a coke was 1150 calories 30 years ago? If it was that means we are consuming way more then we did 30 years ago, but I find it hard to believe that cokes product has changed, I do not know the exact number of times, would it not reason that McDonald's has changed their recipes and hamburgers and ingredients as well and lied to the American public about it? I'm just saying.
A Big Mac and coke aren't even 1150 calories today.
But I would guess you would find a very small % of this combination ordered without the fries. This includes a 32 oz drink. I know at least in my area you could not get a 32 oz soda at McDonald's and there were no free refills either, anywhere in the 1970's.
1 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »Another place I remember going to as a kid (which blows my mind) is Sambo's. I do not recall the menu.
Also Big Boy's.
Sambo's was a direct competitor to Denny's which was pretty much like it is now. Most open 24 hours, any food served any time, more known for breakfast items. The ones around campuses were very popular after the bars closed on the weekends.1 -
Multi-factorial discussion of the causes of obesity here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC518905/
And if you really want to dig deep - Obesity System Influence Diagram: http://www.shiftn.com/obesity/Full-Map.html
(Note what's at the center of it, and what all factors eventually point back to - energy balance.)5 -
Packerjohn wrote: »stevencloser wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »I said our increase in sugar consumption. My point was not that a single chemical caused the nations obesity problem, That was the single thing you two looked for to try to make the debate about. I was saying the American lifestyle changed. That is all I was saying in my original post. We became more sedimentary with our jobs, they found cheaper ways to make different forms of sugar that sometimes you have to be a chemist to find on a label. I am saying we need to go back to how society lived in the 60 and 70's in regards to eating. Compare a big Mac today with a big mac from when we were kids? The calorie contents are massively higher than when we were children. That is what I was trying to say in the beginning. All the list of chemicals that someone mentioned was a quote I put in my post answering someone else about all the chemicals.
You wrote: "The increase in chemicals and the massive amounts of sugar being consumed by the American public was on a steep climb up." If you want to remove the first part of the sentence and focus on the sugar, that's fine. But people can only respond to what you wrote, not what you *meant* (at least until you clarify).
Do you have a source for the Big Mac today being bigger than it was when we were children? I ask because McDonald's themselves says it is the same size (with the exception of the new, specially labeled limited offer of the "Grand Mac") and if they're not being truthful, I'd like to know the source for that claim.
No, I do not have a source for the calories of a big mac when we were kids. You know why, cause they did not keep track of that information or it is a proprietary secret, which they will not share. Do you think that a big mac and a coke was 1150 calories 30 years ago? If it was that means we are consuming way more then we did 30 years ago, but I find it hard to believe that cokes product has changed, I do not know the exact number of times, would it not reason that McDonald's has changed their recipes and hamburgers and ingredients as well and lied to the American public about it? I'm just saying.
A Big Mac and coke aren't even 1150 calories today.
But I would guess you would find a very small % of this combination ordered without the fries. This includes a 32 oz drink. I know at least in my area you could not get a 32 oz soda at McDonald's and there were no free refills either, anywhere in the 1970's.
That's almost a liter bottle. I can't even finish that much soda in a whole day, nevermind a single meal. A 1.5l bottle lasts 2-3 days for me.5 -
stevencloser wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »stevencloser wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »I said our increase in sugar consumption. My point was not that a single chemical caused the nations obesity problem, That was the single thing you two looked for to try to make the debate about. I was saying the American lifestyle changed. That is all I was saying in my original post. We became more sedimentary with our jobs, they found cheaper ways to make different forms of sugar that sometimes you have to be a chemist to find on a label. I am saying we need to go back to how society lived in the 60 and 70's in regards to eating. Compare a big Mac today with a big mac from when we were kids? The calorie contents are massively higher than when we were children. That is what I was trying to say in the beginning. All the list of chemicals that someone mentioned was a quote I put in my post answering someone else about all the chemicals.
You wrote: "The increase in chemicals and the massive amounts of sugar being consumed by the American public was on a steep climb up." If you want to remove the first part of the sentence and focus on the sugar, that's fine. But people can only respond to what you wrote, not what you *meant* (at least until you clarify).
Do you have a source for the Big Mac today being bigger than it was when we were children? I ask because McDonald's themselves says it is the same size (with the exception of the new, specially labeled limited offer of the "Grand Mac") and if they're not being truthful, I'd like to know the source for that claim.
No, I do not have a source for the calories of a big mac when we were kids. You know why, cause they did not keep track of that information or it is a proprietary secret, which they will not share. Do you think that a big mac and a coke was 1150 calories 30 years ago? If it was that means we are consuming way more then we did 30 years ago, but I find it hard to believe that cokes product has changed, I do not know the exact number of times, would it not reason that McDonald's has changed their recipes and hamburgers and ingredients as well and lied to the American public about it? I'm just saying.
A Big Mac and coke aren't even 1150 calories today.
But I would guess you would find a very small % of this combination ordered without the fries. This includes a 32 oz drink. I know at least in my area you could not get a 32 oz soda at McDonald's and there were no free refills either, anywhere in the 1970's.
That's almost a liter bottle. I can't even finish that much soda in a whole day, nevermind a single meal. A 1.5l bottle lasts 2-3 days for me.
You can see why there is a problem then. Many people are getting this with every meal away from home.
I was out at lunch yesterday with co-workers. There were 9 of us, 4 normal weight and 5 significantly overweight/obese.. To a person the normal weight people ordered water, plain iced tea or diet soda. All the rest ordered regular soda. The glasses were at least 24 oz and the waitress brought refills. Woman that sits across from me at work drank the regular soda and when we got back to work went to the machine and got a 20oz regular Coke. These are all well paid individuals with college degrees, not someone who is needing calories from any source to survive.
This is why any professional who works with weight loss patients/clients will try to get them off regular soda first thing. Big bang for the buck in elimination/reduction of empty calories.5 -
stevencloser wrote: »That's almost a liter bottle. I can't even finish that much soda in a whole day, nevermind a single meal. A 1.5l bottle lasts 2-3 days for me.
Yeah, was never a problem for me. A liter of pop with lunch was normal up to a couple years ago. Now it's that much water.
5 -
This content has been removed.
-
Different social circles are obviously different. The vast majority of adults I know ALWAYS get non sweetened iced tea, water, or diet soda with lunch or dinner out (unless dinner involves alcohol, when they might use calories on that). Of course, the vast majority of adults I know also don't get fast food for lunch -- I never see anyone in my office doing so, it's quick serve places (which can be just as high cal, depending) or they bring lunch.
The much smaller number of people I know who get non diet soda are mostly not overweight (probably because they are the ones who never had a reason to start with diet soda, although most women I know fat or thin drink diet if they drink soda).
I do think that's probably not the case in all social circles, and certainly some kids drink way, way too much soda, but clearly lots of people who never drink regular soda have had weight issues.
Anyway, I think quitting regular soda (or cutting way back) if you are someone who consumes a lot or can easily do that is a really good idea. It would have been irrelevant for me, I never drank regular soda as an adult (and don't drink much soda anyway). That's one reason why I think focusing on soda in a fast food place is a little misleading, many will choose not to use calories on a drink. (If someone does, well, obviously that should be factored in.)2 -
janejellyroll wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »I believe the main reason for obesity is our food sources. Almost everything is now processed with MSG or "Natural Flavors" and that causes you to eat more. Look at the labels of the food you eat, MSG is now hidden on the labels, and in the manufacturing. Some sources: MSG, "Natural Flavors", Yeast Extract, Citric Acid, Soy Sauce. The list goes on and on. I recently discovered this and removed all the food in my home that was high in Glutamates, it was about 90% of the food in my pantry. I also believe there is a strong case that it is the cause of other neurological problems like Autism.
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/IVhistoryOfUse.html
In the 70's mothers still shopped two to three times a week, so food was in their whole state when prepared. Breakfast, lunches, and dinners were prepared with some consideration involved and not by a microwave. Although food processing was invented in 1809 by Nicols Appert for bottle stuff for French troops. The flooding of processed foods in America did not become mainstream till the introduction of the microwave oven to the American public. While the first microwave was sold publicly in 1955 as "radarange", it was so big and expensive the general public could not afford it. It was not until the 1970's when the mass production brought down prices to a point that middle-class families could afford to buy microwaves for their homes. Now the processing of our foods is in high gear. 1977 economy forces mothers out of the kitchen and back into the workforce, so families could afford to send their kids to college and retire without starving to death. This introduced snack foods, fast food restaurants that were cheap in comparison to feeding a family of 4 at home. The increase in chemicals and the massive amounts of sugar being consumed by the American public was on a steep climb up. Physical education in the late 70's and early eighties is being decreased in schools across the country along with an unhealthy lunch offering to students, cause mothers were no longer packing lunches as often. The late 70's enters television sets in every home, the first home computers and the Atari gaming system which drove kids and parents alike from healthy outdoor activities with family to indoors gathered around some device that entertains them, but does nothing for their need for an active lifestyle. If you look at the data being published the late 60's and early 70's was the beginning of the obesity problem in America. It also did not help that with these new processed foods, you got more and more chemicals which hamper our health and nutrition. Just my 2 cents as an Emergency Room Nurse on the subject.
I'm completely unclear why you think being an emergency room nurse gives you authority speaking about historical, cultural, and economic trends of the 1970s.
A friend of mine's wife is an RN, and she knows about as much about nutrition as I do about non-Euclidean geometry. Listening to her talk about nutrition is like an episode of the Dr. Oz show, so that appeal to authority doesn't hold much water for me.
Yeah, I have a lot of nurses in my family. I've learned that some of them can be very expert in specific areas that they work in regularly (my mom, for example, knows a great deal about intensive care/end of life issues because that is where she practices), but that doesn't often translate into general knowledge about nutrition or even medicine outside of their general area of focus.8 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »On 70s stuff, I think some common restaurants had smaller portions, but I recall plenty that had big portions too, not fast food (but even now a burger from a pub or restaurant is going to have more calories than an average fast food restaurant, so beats me why people are so focused on fast food).
ditto.
0 -
Packerjohn wrote: »
But I would guess you would find a very small % of this combination ordered without the fries. This includes a 32 oz drink. I know at least in my area you could not get a 32 oz soda at McDonald's and there were no free refills either, anywhere in the 1970's.
32 ounce drinks didn't become a thing until 7-11 introduced the Big Gulp. Even then, it took years for the Big Gulp to be considered normal and adopted by other FF chains. It was a novelty for a long time after it was launched.
McDonald's fries were always offered in multiple sizes but the portions were much smaller. I want to say that the current medium is the former large and the former small is now only available in the kids meal!
Ditto drinks. If I recall, a small drink used to be about 8 ounces, a regular drink was 12 ounces and a large was 16. Now I think it's 16, 24, and 32 or something ridiculous like that.0 -
I regularly drink 32oz of water or diet pop at every meal, I don't think it's that hard. I think food is way more readily available now. Back in the day, my mom said she had to save up money just to buy a snack and rarely snacked outside meals. Now if you go into any school/office/etc there is free food galore. I wasn't working back then, but was office treats so readily available all the time? Every office I go into has a plethora of cookies, chocolate, high calorie laden treats available almost daily for free.3
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.6K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.3K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.6K Fitness and Exercise
- 431 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.6K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.8K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions