why were people so skinny in the 70s?

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Replies

  • Strawberrypig
    Strawberrypig Posts: 5 Member
    I think it probably had a lot to do with being raised by parents who lived through the war years. I would assume theimpact would produce parents who were less willing to indulge in what would be considered excess-driving everywhere, eating out, large portions , etc.
  • NotAnotherLogin
    NotAnotherLogin Posts: 8 Member
    Something I've not seen mentioned yet is that meat was far more expensive in the 1970s than it was today. The idea of having meat with every meal, particularly beef, was completely unheard of. Usually it was at a single meal of the day.

    And as others have noted, all of the processed crap. To make matters worse, they're feeding our plants processed crap so even vegetables and fruits often don't have the same nutrient levels they once did.
  • pinkraynedropjacki
    pinkraynedropjacki Posts: 3,027 Member
    In the 70s they did drugs & smoked. What other answer do you need? Now people still do that but they also eat more cause serving sizes got bigger.
  • laele75
    laele75 Posts: 283 Member
    I agree with the played outside everyday. My single mother worked two jobs, but my brother was 13, so he watched us after school and on vacations, with a neighbor around to be a responsible grown up if we needed one. We rode bikes for miles, played on school equipment, yes, there were trips to the convenience store for candy, but when you had to bike several miles to get there and back, yeah. We never played inside, our parents would have fits about breaking things.

    Unfortunately, the world isn't the same place, safe enough for children to run around outside from dawn until dusk. But maybe if we all got off our butts and walked our kids to the park, we could at least get back some of the activity level.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    Something I've not seen mentioned yet is that meat was far more expensive in the 1970s than it was today.

    A McD cheeseburger in 1955 was $0.19. In today's dollars, that's nearly double the cost of a McDouble off of the value menu.
  • Cindyinpg
    Cindyinpg Posts: 3,902 Member
    Well I grew up in the 70's and ate Mcdonald's once a week, ate school lunch every day (tater tots, pizza, sloppy joe's, lasagne etc.) drank soda, and ate lots of candy (went to the candy store everyday after school). So why was I so skinny? I never sat still and played till dinner time. So physical activity was the main reason.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    Yep, I remember being far more active than kids are now. In school, gym class and participation in sports was usually compulsory. We rode bikes or walked everywhere and very few kids were sitting around inside all evening. Our parents kicked our butts outside to play or do chores, before dinner and after.
  • eazy_
    eazy_ Posts: 516 Member
    Bump
  • Cindyinpg
    Cindyinpg Posts: 3,902 Member
    Our government has recently hidden ingredients in our food that cause weight gain and illness. It's not a conspiracy theory, it's been proven.
    Oh really? And where is this proof? Wouldn't it make more sense for a government to have a healthy populace, who are capable of working and paying taxes, rather than using medical resources?
  • Qskim
    Qskim Posts: 1,145 Member
    McDonalds has been in Australia 30 years approx. Yet obesity in Australia has doubled in the last 20. Microsoft has filtered into homes in the last 20. Emails are full of calories :)
  • Nimnyn
    Nimnyn Posts: 69 Member
    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?

    cocaine and diet pills (speed)
  • littleknownblogger
    littleknownblogger Posts: 67 Member
    More physical activity, less processed food.
  • Debbie_Ferr
    Debbie_Ferr Posts: 582 Member
    Clothes were different too. Jeans didn't stretch and came up to your waist. Skirts and pants didn't have waistbands that stretched. If you put on a pound or two you took it off quickly as your clothes became less comfortable. Clothes were expensive to replace. You grew out of them by becoming taller, not wider.

    Good point !!
  • Featherweighttt
    Featherweighttt Posts: 23 Member
    Basically everything about modern life is making us fat. The 'convenience' revolution has made us lazy, taken us completely out of touch with our more basal needs. Food has not always been a daily indulgence available for a tiny price, it used to be just food that your body needed to run with occasional treats for social or familial purposes. We substitute the natural highs of exercise endorphins and meaningful relationships with food loaded with fat, sugar and carbs to spike our systems and release dopamine. We sit at screens and talk to each other while shovelling crap in our mouths instead of walking over to see them and getting away from the food. We are SORROUNDED by food and food advertising now, and it is so much more readily available. Most people think that they're going to drop dead if they go without 2000 calories everyday and don't eat like clockwork, we are completely oblivious to the minimums our bodies actually need to survive on so we are constantly in excess. What most people consider a diet now would have been the average daily intake 30-40 years ago.
  • zensugi
    zensugi Posts: 76
    I was a kid in the 1970s and people should forget a bit about easy stereotypes. Most people didn't growth their food in the garden and there were plenty of fast food outlets around, and we did get remote controls near the end of the 1970s. However:

    * Portion sizes were much smaller.
    * We did have much more exercise because we spent a lot longer playing outside. My parents would rarely drive me somewhere; I had to walk or cycle.
    * We did eat out less often.
    * We ate food with much more fat but less sugar.
    * Food was proportionally ore expensive.

    We still ate plenty of ice cream and candy, but smaller servings. Concerning GMO, I can't see any relationship: they became more important post-2000 (with small use starting around 1986). We replaced a lot of flavor from fat by sugars, following the fat scare from the early 1970s.

    At the end of the day is personal responsibility and, for many people, being fat became normal. When I see morbidly fat people walking around I find it scary, borderline disgusting.
  • TMLPatrick
    TMLPatrick Posts: 558 Member
    Confirmation Bias.

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