why were people so skinny in the 70s?

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Replies

  • 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.
  • kitza101
    kitza101 Posts: 99 Member
    I don't know how much skinnier people were on average in the 70s, and I haven't bothered to look. But I think in general our lives are just running on a different framework to how they did then - obviously, with changes in technology, Our work lifestyles and expectations of how you will work have changed too, in Australia at least. People in Australia on average currently work longer hours than ever before, and do more overtime/work weekends and take less holidays. I know for me at least, living that lifestyle was a contributor to my gaining weight, as I was just too tired and drained to prioritise my health.
  • hillarysmith21
    hillarysmith21 Posts: 25 Member
    That's such a good question. Fast food simply wasn't as prolific. More home-cooked meals. I feel like portions have gotten bigger, too.
  • pinkraynedropjacki
    pinkraynedropjacki Posts: 3,027 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 :)


    I know mine are. Have you seen some of the calorie laden emails I get from Chocolate covered Katie? Proof right there :flowerforyou:
  • __Di__
    __Di__ Posts: 1,659 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?

    Basically they were helluva lot more active. You are correct re sitting at computers at home etc, that definitely doesn't help! There were not half as many fast-food places about from what I remember either, meaning people didn't have as much change of getting that extra burger or hotdog or kebab as they can do now and would often have to wait until they could eat.
  • xmysterix
    xmysterix Posts: 114 Member
    Processed food was HUGE in the 70s. Dude, microwaves had *just* become affordable :D I think you'll find that the main reasons were incidental activity related. Despite the 70s not being terribly long ago (ahem, yeah, don't correct me), the first basic cable channel arrived in 76, no home computing, people regularly walked (or biked, for kids) to school or work where they could, most people washed dishes by hand, hung out laundry, etc. There were fewer fears (mostly due to lack of information) of banishing your kids to the outdoors unsupervised every evening. Food wise, average folks usually ate out at restaurants only on rare special occasions and the majority of young adults and older teens in the 70s were raised by parents and grands who lived through war rationing and/or The Great Depression which gave them an entirely different approach to eating.

    Side note: there are a lot of studies that show WW2 rationing in the UK (more strict than other countries) was one of the healthiest diets ever in UK history...erm...assuming they didn't run out of your rationed goods.
  • GolfBird1
    GolfBird1 Posts: 57
    Fast food was a rare treat, not an everyday occurrence.



    ^^^^^ This! And as kids we had to make our own entertainment - climbing trees, building camps .......
  • smantha32
    smantha32 Posts: 6,990 Member
    they ate real food instead of packaged crap without perservatives, high sodium, high fat etc. as well as being more active with less technology available. instead of sitting at a computer all day or a tv (from my understanding a tv was more of a luxery at that time), and since the economy was better people prolly had more money to go out and be social, as well as just going out and enjoying the day. less transportation probably which would result in more walking or biking as well (i would imagine). these are just my guesses.

    I always played outside,
    my mom made home cooked meals that didn't come out of a box,
    sodas were a treat we got a couple times a month (and they were 10oz bottles) and we had to walk half a mile to the convenience store to get one,
    and we didn't even own a TV until I was about 11. We rented one every Sunday to watch the Disney movie Sunday evening and that was it.
  • LauraElectric
    LauraElectric Posts: 51 Member
    White stuff.....that went up a certain cavity.......and roller-disco?

    Sigh, my perfect friday.
  • paleojoe
    paleojoe Posts: 442 Member
    IMO they ate a little less and moved a little more... sadly I think it really is that simple.
  • thebigcb
    thebigcb Posts: 2,210 Member
    More active

    They ate less

    And they didn;t eat **** food
  • conniehv40
    conniehv40 Posts: 442 Member
    i had gym every day--we changed into uniforms and showered afterwards. We did track n field, gymnastics--you name it, were learned it in gym--even square dancing! My mom drove me NOWHERE. Bike it or walk. A snack was a homemade cookie--dinners were at the table with meat and potatoes. How many meals did I eat at a restaurant as a teen with friends-zero. As a kid with my parents? Very few times-more on vacations or birthdays. My lunches from home to school had the sandwich, the apple thrown on top, I bought milk and maybe a bag with 2/3 cookies--again, my mom probably made the cookies.... We watched very little tv and when we did, it was my dad's tv. I WAS THE CLICKER! We had 4 channels-cbs, nbc, abc and pbs. If he wanted to watch something else, I got up and turned the dial! Ha. My brothers mowed the lawn with a gas mower, but had to walk. We literally were outside every day.... sledding or riding bikes.
  • michellemybelll
    michellemybelll Posts: 2,228 Member
    ...Drugs.
    yeah, this is what popped into my head first.
  • FabulousFifty
    FabulousFifty Posts: 1,575 Member
    I totally agree with every word of this! We were outside during the day, riding bikes, playing hopscotch, swimming. Meals were served three times a day. In between, there was a bowl of fruit on the counter. Clean and simple living.....minus technology! I ad a library card to keep me busy in my spare time! Good memories. :)
  • SkinnyWannabeGal
    SkinnyWannabeGal Posts: 143 Member
    I was born in the 80s, but I used to eat a lot more food back then and was a lot thinner. My grandma had a home cooked meal made from scratch ready for dinner every night. There was no soda in the house, water with every meal, no microwave, no tv dinners and I was highly active. If I wanted to go somewhere, I had to walk for miles and miles on end. I went to the beach a lot and would spend the whole day there every summer and eat only dinner, but it was a huuuuge dinner. I did intermittent fasting without knowing it and didn't have a weight issue like nowadays. My family has been eating calorie heavy home cooked meals for as long as my grandmother was able to cook, but none of us were overweight back then. Ah, the good old days.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,261 Member
    There's many Countries where the average person is still thin.....weird I know, but true.
  • sarahthin
    sarahthin Posts: 210 Member
    People had gardens and grew much of there own food and kids played outside constantly. Now days you have to make your kids go outside. It wasn't much eating out like people do now and it definitely wasn't any SUPER SIZE IT. LOL
    Was raising my kids in the 70's and they were constantly outside, meals were from scratch and eating out didn't start for us until the 80's when they were in high grads with more activities and not as much time to cook.
  • kennie2
    kennie2 Posts: 1,170 Member
    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.

    sums it up!
  • da1128
    da1128 Posts: 212 Member
    Nearest McDonald's was 20 miles away from where I live. There wasn't a McD's on every corner like there is now.

    We were active and spent a lot of time outdoors doing physical things. We didn't sit around all day behind a computer keyboard, we had to get up to answer the telephone, and some of us had to actually get up to change the channel on the television.

    Microwave meals and snacks in a minute weren't an option. We actually had to cook our own meals. Pizza was a once a week treat, if that.

    We danced a lot. If we wanted to go somewhere, we walked or rode a bike.

    In short, we didn't eat junk food and we moved our badonkadonks!
  • kymarai
    kymarai Posts: 3,728 Member
    I agree with a lot of these posts. As a child, we were always outside. Even inside we were playing not sitting in front of something. I think though what is missing in the responses is pride. People took pride in their appearance. If we went out, we were dressed nicely. If my parents were going to a party even at someone's house, they were dressed up. People took pride in their appearance. People don't seem to care anymore.
  • lainie644
    lainie644 Posts: 19 Member
    People were emotionally happier at that time and didn't need food for comfort, and
    We had less convenience-foods and restaurants.
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