People Always Look Skinny in Old Photos!

ninelives58

. . . Let's face it, fifty years ago if you ate a cookie, someone in the family had to bake it.

Well I'm over fifty years old and I can tell you that they had PLENTY of processed and pre-packaged goodies back then. In fact, some of them were even worse than the products they sell now. I think the major problem nowadays is our distorted view of what a proper portion is. Look at McDonald's. When I was a kid, an adult would order a burger, fries and drink equivalent in size to what they sell as their kiddie meal now. This and the fact that after work/after school activities have gone from physically active things to sitting on ones behind in front of a computer or TV screen for hours.

juliesummers

Processed foods, corn syrup, food additives, artificial sweeteners, fast food, "conveniences" that reduce our need to be active, GMOs, Monsanto, portion sizes, etc.

beccyleigh

If you have time watch the whole series of The Supersizers eat..... tv show.

It's an English show, a comedienne & food writer live & eat an era, so medieval, tudor, 70's, 20's etc & it is amazing how different fashions influenced the English diet.

The ones from the 70's & 80's is particularly interesting as it explains how the advent of processed & conveniences foods changed the diet of the working man & woman & not for the better. 100 years ago the working masses were slim & lean because of their diet & lifestyle but if you were wealthy you generally were fat as you were having multi coure dinners & eating alot of "show off" ood. Created by your cooks to impress & amaze.

I love this show, very funny but incredibly educational too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQlanfOun64

Fatbuster205

I am guessing very few parked themselves on the couch fir the night with a pint of Ben and Jerrys and/or family size bag of potato chips.....

You are so funny! LOL!

lipglossjunky73

It's the big bad Americans...... Ooooohhhhhh.......

Fatbuster205

This is not a new topic, I know. It's common knowledge that obesity is an issue now. But won't it always be an issue if the lifestyle we *naturally* fall into is one that conflicts with good health? When we all used to walk places, cook our own food, etc,, we didn't do it because we were watching our weight. We *had* to do it and it scarcely crossed our minds to go about it any other way.

Maybe I'm having a "this is unfair!" moment but I can't help but think that we spend so much as a society punishing people for being overweight when what we're actually asking them to do is go against human nature. It's hard to cure laziness when people are already programmed to look for the best and easiest way to do things.

This is my deep thought for the day, incidentally.

That is not by nature. That is definitely "nurture"

Totally agree - we have to address our life styles - which is what we are doing here!

nehushtan

When I was growing up it was fairly infrequent that we went out to eat. Now it's practically the default option for many... I know before dieting I went out quite a lot.

Also, when we ate at home the portion sizes were never as large as what we are served today in a restaurant. Restaurants have one-upped each other to offer gargantuan meals, appetizers, deserts and of course buffets in order to compete for our dining dollars.

I'll bet that even when we (Americans) eat at home these days we unconsciously super-size our meals to match what we are familiar with from going out to eat so often.

ksefchik

I agree with you girls -- I was born in 1970, and I don't think I stayed inside much at all when the weather was good. And I helped my mom maintain 3+ acres of yard and fields, and hauled firewood. My parents still do all that stuff, and they're 71 and 73, and still in good shape.

I also wonder if more additives and artificial sweeteners in everything is having an impact. I know we had some of that growing up (Cheetos was one of my favorite snacks, not to mention TV dinners when mom and dad were out), but...? I also wonder about the hormones in meats. I try not to be a nutjob about this stuff, but I wonder if that's why teenagers look like they're 25 by the time they're 12...?

Personally, I think it's the advent of processed foods in general that has done the most work in making us fatter. Taking the OPs original breakfast, now the biscuits are made from finely processed flour and not made at home. The flour in the gravy itself goes the same. In fact, I would be surprised if any gravy now sold on market shelves are actually made using rendered animal fats, like they used to be.

Of course, people that ate that example breakfast didn't get fat immediately because
a) People did more manual labor. It's hard to think of any technological advance that doesn't involve *someone* doing less physical labor. Technology has advanced much since then.
b) Getting fat off of that breakfast takes time, especially if you then go and work on the farm that produced it for the rest of the day.
c) It is likely that you were served a smaller portion back then, simply because animals were not as big and factory farming was only getting revved up.
d) The amount of meat that we're now taking in, per capita, is far larger than it used to be. It's likely that the breakfast the OP described was normal back then because it was simply awesome that we were able to get that many meats, in those quantities, at the table without going broke. Historically, humans have eaten relatively small amounts of meat out of a diet of mostly vegetables (excluding certain African and Mandarin tribes). In other words, that breakfast was a novelty. If you could afford to eat that (even at industrial food prices) you're still talking a lot of money. Leading me to the next point:
e) That's a rich person's breakfast. Or it's a farmer's. Either way, I think it's pretty safe to say that unless you're one of those two people, you didn't eat that every day. You probably ate a packaged cereal instead. Which is just as bad, IMHO.

SueInAz

. . . Let's face it, fifty years ago if you ate a cookie, someone in the family had to bake it.

Well I'm over fifty years old and I can tell you that they had PLENTY of processed and pre-packaged goodies back then. In fact, some of them were even worse than the products they sell now. I think the major problem nowadays is our distorted view of what a proper portion is. Look at McDonald's. When I was a kid, an adult would order a burger, fries and drink equivalent in size to what they sell as their kiddie meal now. This and the fact that after work/after school activities have gone from physically active things to sitting on ones behind in front of a computer or TV screen for hours.

I was born in 1966 and I have to agree with this. Processed foods have been around for 100 years or so, they are not "new". Listen to old radio shows and you'll hear advertisements for sugared breakfast cereals and other processed foods. Oreos are 100 years old this very year! Twinkies have been in lunchboxes since 1930. It's not the processed foods themselves but the fact that over the past 100 years they've become a staple in our diets instead of the occasional treat.

You also have to look at soda. Coca-Cola has been around since 1886 but it was something most people had very occasionally and only a few ounces at a time. Today, people drink sugared sodas with every meal, and often between. They drink 44 ounce thirst busters instead of an 8 ounce glass. Keeping in mind that that 44 ounces of Coke equals about 500 calories you can easily see where this one habit alone can easily cause a weight problem for millions of people.

missy_1975

Oops, forgot to mention I married in early 2007 and I know marriage is supposed to be the death knell for anyone's girlish figure.

Lol! Not always, I'm 2 dress sizes smaller now than when I got married 6 years ago :happy: Mind you, hubby seems to have gained what I have lost!

hannahbellelechter

I was born in 1990 and I hardly ever was inside, weather permitting. I danced, did gymnastics, and generally did a LOT of running around. Of course my mom would feed us the occasional McDonald's and order pizza every once in awhile but she mostly cooked meals at home. When I got older I sat on the computer more than went outside, chose the easier drive-thru than cooking my own meals, etc. It really has nothing to do with the era, I think, but your decision making.

amysj303

I was reading an article in the paper this weekend about one researchers theory on why obesity has sky rocketed:

in part, "Women in the 1950s and 1960s — think Betty Draper on the hit TV show "Mad Men " — were generally advised to restrict weight gain in pregnancy to as little as 10 pounds. Inadequate nutrition in some of these women could easily have programmed their babies to catch up on growth during infancy — and studies suggest such growth spurts increase the risk of later obesity."



Read more: 1950s women may have triggered obesity epidemic - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/fitness/ci_19658388#ixzz1iRBMNQo8
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

havingitall

When I was growing up it was fairly infrequent that we went out to eat. Now it's practically the default option for many... I know before dieting I went out quite a lot.

Also, when we ate at home the portion sizes were never as large as what we are served today in a restaurant. Restaurants have one-upped each other to offer gargantuan meals, appetizers, deserts and of course buffets in order to compete for our dining dollars.

I'll bet that even when we (Americans) eat at home these days we unconsciously super-size our meals to match what we are familiar with from going out to eat so often.

I have to agree. I was born in 1962. We very rarely ate out. Maybe once or twice a year. It was a financial thing. My Mom made nearly everything from scratch. I learned to bake when I was about 6 years old and cook full meals when I was 10. My Mom worked part time, but we still helped around the house a lot.

As well, we were outside all the time; summer or winter. Staying inside was boring and probably meant you had to help around the house!

capriciousmoon

I've always thought it's odd how the "obesity epidemic" seemed to come out of nowhere. I was born in 1983. When I was in school it was rare to see any kids that were overweight, maybe only one or two in a class. Now suddenly most people are overweight or obese? It's weird.

AnninStPaul

There was also a lot less snacking, a lot less soda, and many fewer artificial sweeteners, in addition to the smaller portion sizes and higher activity levels others have mentioned.

Personally, I blame the use of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which was launched in the 1970s.

michelefloyd

Dlcam, Sue and Missy, thank you for the responses personal to my situation. It was a complete error on my part to suggest I was keeping off 60 pounds I'd gained, by the way. I freaking wish! No, I meant to say I was working off 60 pounds. At the end of the day, I can blame my age and circumstances but that's not going to shed the pounds. Boo hoo hoo.

All of these answers are fascinating because clearly they're all clues to what is troubling 2/3 of the population in more than a few countries.

Westerners more lazy? Definitely! I remember when I ventured into becoming environmentally conscious my friends initially wouldn't walk from one store to another within the same shopping center. Oh no, we had to drive from one side of the parking lot to the other.

Processed food, sweeteners, modified food? I don't know as much about this on an expert level, but it makes sense and certainly has been stated for years with apparently no one refuting it.

Easier, more sedentary life? This one really made me think because it's very interesting that the increase in obesity has skyrocketed since VCR/DVD/blu-ray/Netflix and the almighty internet became popular. I certainly sit on my *ss a lot more than when I was a teen. Thing is, last time I didn't have a computer I was a teenager. I'm just not sure how to fill the time because I'm really not keen on hanging out at the mall or cinema.

Finally, food education? Maybe this is the answer to all of the above until we're living like the Jetsons. I certainly don't want us to go the Wall-E path. MyFitnessPal has helped me become aware of what I thought were small indulgences, but actually were sabotaging my attempts at moderation. Logging the exercise I'm doing is also very appealing to my self-competitive nature.

Going back to the top of this post, whining is going to get me nowhere but still, it's not something we should accept as our lot without some discussion.

jadedone

I think that the food additives will play a role as well. Packaged foods before either didn't exist or were made with regular stuff. Today, you couldn't recreate 90% of packaged goods at home without a chemistry set.

it_be_asin

I think a lot comes down to portion size. We ate less food when I was a kid. I remember sharing a family size pizza between a family of 4 people (mum, dad, and me and my little sister) - the pizza cost about $18, but in the late 80's and early 90's this was a lot more in real dollars. These days, the pizza costs the same money, but my salary has doubled since I started working just over 9 years ago. And I have only been promoted once. These days, so many people buy a large pizza for $10 from pizza hut and eat it all by themselves. When I was growing up, that would have been expected to feed at least two, if not three people.

I remember eating 1 cup (if that) of 3 different veggies and two lamb chops or half a steak as a pretty typical dinner when I was growing up. Granted, this was my dinner when I was about ten or so! Or maybe two sausages with two slices of bread and tomato sauce if mum was busy that night. At recess, I might have had one piece of fruit, and when I was a teenager a 20g snack pack of chips. I might have had 1 or 1.5 sandwiches for lunch made on the small sandwich loaves we got when I was a kid, not the bread you get now which can be twice the size of the 80's sandwich loaf. And I felt like a pig eating 1.5 sandwiches on those little baby 80's slices of bread.

ShapeUpSidney

In the US, obesity besets the impoverished more than those with money. Convenience foods are cheaper than healthy, whole foods. A gallon of milk certainly costs more than Sunny D or Coca-Cola. These foods are bought by the lower classes, often single mothers, with very little time to prepare meals. At what point did the government make it possible for people to use "welfare" funds to purchase junk food? I'm pretty sure the timing lines up perfectly with the onset of the obesity epidemic.

ShapeUpSidney

Back in the 60s and 70s, if you were poor, you went to the food bank and got giant jars of pb, loaves of bread, and a log of government cheese.

Now, if you're on welfare, you go to BJs and get jumbo sized cheetos and a 30 rack of Mountain Dew with EBT.