why were people so skinny in the 70s?
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Haha, no offense, but no thanks. The only thing great about the 70's was the cars:laugh: I truly appreciate the technological progress that has been made in the last 40 years. I don't know how we lived without the internet and I love the fact that we can communicate like this. Plus I don't believe there's anything wrong with HFCS... good luck with your challenge though. :flowerforyou:I had no idea there would be so many responses for this question. Thank you so much everyone out there who has answered so far! I am going to start a new diet called project: 70s.
Here are the criteria to those who would liked to join me:
1. no internet (oxy moron since im here typing but I'm going to quit using the internet, if i absolutely have to, i will go on no longer than 10 minutes per day, and also standing)
2. i will be more active, i will not sit as long as there is daylight, i will go on walks, rollerskate, and go outside
3. eat home cooked meals, and even baked goods here and there, everything and i mean everything is going to be made from scratch! even bread, it will be fun to try out recipes. fruits and veg are good too. NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP! if you HAVE to eat something not home cooked, no more than 5 ingredients on the ingredient list and if one must have pop, opt for pepsi throwback or mexican coke: we're going full out 70s.
so these are the main criteria, some may say this is crazy but this will equal weight loss for sure, if they were skinny in the 70s, we can be skinny too! be more active, home cooked meals, less time sitting around on internet! lets go!
i understand this isnt for everyone, i consider myself an extremist, i was simply born in the wrong generation, i am starting my new lifestyle beginning tomorrow!0 -
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.
^^This0 -
As a child of the 70's we certainly did not have internet, cable TV or Mom anad Dad to give us what we wanted. We rode our bikes or walked to friends houses. Dinner time was everyone at the table for a real meal not take out crap. As for sex, drugs and rock and roll, well maybe
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I am a foreigner and in the last 27 years I have only visited the US. However in 1976 I moved to a 5000 people town in Northern Iowa. The town has a very well known college, is the seat of a well known insurance company and had other good chances for employment, but basically it was/is an agricultural town ( corn, soy and pork production ).
In the almost ten years I lived there no one walked ( most streets did not even have sidewalks ), most people went by car, even if it it was only two blocks to the post office, Hy-Vee or Safeway. I lot of people I knew had cable and kids did not really play outside a lot, because most of them were really busy with after school activities, many of them in 4-H......the same was true for vacations. Lots of kids went to camp ( day camp or or weeks at a time ), music camp, math camp etc, had summer school, especially if both parents worked, which was already popular then or helped their parents on the farm.
After reading all of the thread, I really wonder if this small town was just a weird exception, because I really can't and won't say that what so many people reported was probably true for the 50's and 60's, but not so much anymore in the second half of the 70's.
I also did not think that people were that skinny. They were maybe not extremely obese, but many were definitely overweight. My then-husband's family lived in various places over Iowa and Minnesota and it looked to me that they were pretty much the same. So why did I have such a direct opposite experience from many of the people who reported in this thread ?
I am from the German Black Forest where we truly walked a couple of kms to school, in winter on skis.....of course my childhood and youth were much earlier . I was 30 when I moved to Iowa and remember very clearly thinking that Americans were kind of lazy, stuck in front of their TV a lot and eating out at chain restaurants ( Country Kitchen, Sambo's, Howard Johnson, Golden Coral and Westtern Sizzler if I remember right were the most popular ones) a lot . It is true portions were smaller then, but still really big for someone from the European hinterland. What really never ceased to amaze me was the lack of sidewalks....there was nowhere to walk safely.......the same was btw. true for Waterloo and Cedar Falls the two biggest town close to us.
PS: I also remember lots of people eating frozen TV dinner from " Hungry Man " stuff to pot pies and those with a bit more awareness ( or maybe $$$) eating Stouffer's. Lots of Mac & Cheese, Tatertot casseroles , brownies, ice cream by the gallon...at least that is my experience.0 -
we certainly did not have internet, cable TV
i remember having to get up and physically turn the knob on the tv to change channels1 -
You make plenty of good points. I was just a kid in the 70's, but I remember plenty of overweight people, fast food restaurants and plenty of overeating going on, as well as plenty of other unhealthy habits. Our memories get coloured by nostalgia. There was certainly a ton of smoking going on, everywhere you went.... the only exception was hospital rooms where there was oxygen. Everywhere else was fair game. And if you needed information about something, you had to truck your butt to the library and hope that THAT letter of the encyclopedia hadn't been checked out by someone else. :laugh: There was an awful lot of drinking and driving going on too, and you don't see that nearly so much anymore. We've made a lot of progress in some good directions.I am a foreigner and in the last 27 years I have only visited the US. However in 1976 I moved to a 5000 people town in Northern Iowa. The town has a very well known college, is the seat of a well known insurance company and had other good chances for employment, but basically it was/is an agricultural town ( corn, soy and pork production ).
In the almost ten years I lived there no one walked ( most streets did not even have sidewalks ), most people went by car, even if it it was only two blocks to the post office, Hy-Vee or Safeway. I lot of people I knew had cable and kids did not really play outside a lot, because most of them were really busy with after school activities, many of them in 4-H......the same was true for vacations. Lots of kids went to camp ( day camp or or weeks at a time ), music camp, math camp etc, had summer school, especially if both parents worked, which was already popular then or helped their parents on the farm.
After reading all of the thread, I really wonder if this small town was just a weird exception, because I really can't and won't say that what so many people reported was probably true for the 50's and 60's, but not so much anymore in the second half of the 70's.
I also did not think that people were that skinny. They were maybe not extremely obese, but many were definitely overweight. My then-husband's family lived in various places over Iowa and Minnesota and it looked to me that they were pretty much the same. So why did I have such a direct opposite experience from many of the people who reported in this thread ?
I am from the German Black Forest where we truly walked a couple of kms to school, in winter on skis.....of course my childhood and youth were much earlier . I was 30 when I moved to Iowa and remember very clearly thinking that Americans were kind of lazy, stuck in front of their TV a lot and eating out at chain restaurants ( Country Kitchen, Sambo's, Howard Johnson, Golden Coral and Westtern Sizzler if I remember right were the most popular ones) a lot . It is true portions were smaller then, but still really big for someone from the European hinterland. What really never ceased to amaze me was the lack of sidewalks....there was nowhere to walk safely.......the same was btw. true for Waterloo and Cedar Falls the two biggest town close to us.
PS: I also remember lots of people eating frozen TV dinner from " Hungry Man " stuff to pot pies and those with a bit more awareness ( or maybe $$$) eating Stouffer's. Lots of Mac & Cheese, Tatertot casseroles , brownies, ice cream by the gallon...at least that is my experience.1 -
we DID have cable TV in those days.... and it was relatively new so everyone was in on it... we just didn't have 100 sports channels... lmao we had PLENTY of fast food, all of what we have today and then some... pop, soda, nothing was diet soda back then though.... we did have outdoor skating rinks (gone now) and the comment about basketball goal in every yard is very appropriate too....
In all, we just did more exercise then than we do now....
So sad to see how it has all changed... and to think on how it will change going forward.
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in answer to: "Fast food wasn't so prevalent for one. Wasn't too many commercials as well. Not that excuses the rest of us who have partaken. Also people, as others have said, were far more active, no cable, no internet, no cell phones.
Are you kidding? I drank many many TABS, (pukie pink can) which had saccharine in it. And virtually countless fast food and cereal commercials, mainly McDonald's and Burger King, Wendy's, and KFC. Also Captain Crunch, Twix cereal, frosted flakes (tony the tiger), etc.
It's true that there weren't that many TV stations, No CNN or news programs, and usually only 1/2 hour of local, and 1/2 hour of world news. And at 2 a.m., the stations went off the air, usually heard the star spangled banner then static afterward.0 -
Microwave ovens came main stream in the mid 70s. Hot food in a minute. When you could buy a stove/oven combo for under $400, our first microwave was $800. We were never come home from school and have PB&J people. Actually didn't eat them until I was much older. I wanted food. My mom had stuff delivered to the house once a week. All those cheeseburgers, pork sandwiches, etc. that you could get in convience stores that were in the freezer and you could pop them in the microwave. Looking back now, I realize how nasty they were. My parents were both at the store we owned, and we got home at 3, and dinner would not be ready until 6 or 6:30. I think that, and the beginning of cable TV and Pong was the beginning of the bloat.1
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Flower Power0
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Cocaine.0
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I was born in 1960 and grew up in what was a very typical UK household for the time - Dad worked, Mum stayed at home, three kids, one car.
There certainly was convenience food and as my Dad worked for Birdseye we probably had more than most - but it was all home cooked and therefore portion controlled. Most of our food though was cooked from scratch. Eating out was much less frequent and takeaways were very rare. Blaming sugar is frankly ludicrous - it was almost a given that tea and coffee had sugar added and few people used artificial sweeteners as they tasted so bad at that time.
Hard to know if we really ate less but certainly ate differently, three square meals a day and less snacking.
The kids were all expected to get themselves to school - none of this being ferried everywhere by car. If you wanted to see your friends you walked or cycled there. Far more outside play than happens now - the stereotypical "jumpers for goalposts"! It seems far too common now that kids need to have everything organised for them and taken here and there by their parents.
For me the biggest difference is the activity levels - hours and hours are now routinely spent sitting down staring at a screen (TV, gaming, online...).2 -
I was born in the 70s. To be honest I'm glad I was born when I was and grew up with a mother who was very nutrition conscious. Even though we didn't have a lot of money she was very resourceful and always made sure our meals were balanced. Eating out or fast food was a rarity and a luxury.
We did have some sugary and processed food, but as a family we were really into sports. We did have video games but my parents were pretty good about kicking us off and making us go outside. Kids that were teased for being "fat" would probably just be considered "a little chubby" now.
It's not just the food alone, it's a perfect storm of things that have caused obesity to rise. We stress about our jobs to maintain a certain standard of living, many of us deal with grueling commutes and taking time out to exercise can be an uphill battle, plus ready made food at first glance seems like an easy solution. Just seems like life has become so much more complicated and stressful. Living healthy and well can be done, just takes more effort and planning now, I think. Sigh.0 -
I was born in the 60s so remember growing up in the 70s. In my case, living in a small rural village, there were no takeaways other than the local chip shop and that was a special, special treat. The economy in the early part of the 70s was screwed in the UK - inflation through the roof and blackouts common so money was very tight. We also had a period of a 3-day working week. What I remember is that my Mother grew and foraged as much as possible. We didn't eat a huge amount of meat (expensive!) and what we did eat tended to be game we or friends hunted and even roadkill - she used to go out on her bicycle early in the morning looking for any pheasants or rabbits that'd been hit and were fresh.
TV - well we didn't have one at all until I was around 8yrs old and when we did, there were 3 channels. Weekends and holidays it was a case of going out to play with friends and coming back for dinner in the evening. Everyone walked or bicycled to school on their own as well. There were obviously fewer time-saving gadgets as well.
So for us it was a combination of mostly home-cooked food that was portioned, very low availability of fast food and much, MUCH more active lifestyles.0 -
I'm guessing it's the cocaine.0
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They were more active and less being on a computer. They had a Mother at home to see to their activities and their food in take. They didn't eat fast food as much.2
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I was born in 1970 so the 70s are my childhood years. These are the main differences as I perceive them...
- As children we were a lot more active. We spent most of our free time roaming the local countryside and woodlands, and as long as you were home before it got dark, or you rang if you were staying for dinner at a friend's house, those were the only rules. In a group of children aged anywhere from 6 to 14 we would be miles away from our houses and without adult supervision and no one bat an eyelid about it. Children now are ferried to an hour of structured activity here or there (music lesson, ballet, swim club, football etc) but largely spend their time sitting around at home in front of some screen. I have a vague collection of my friend getting "pacman" in the 80s, but there was no internet.
- We were expected to make our own way to school. In my case this was a combination of walking, using a bus and walking again... a journey of about 75 mins. Today most get driven to school.
- We were expected to do some chores. Nothing much but just stuff like cleaning our own rooms, laying a table, doing some dusting, clean a car. I see very few friends of ours ask their kids to do anything.
- I couldn't just help myself to food or sweets whenever I liked. It just wasn't acceptable. Now I see kids wordlessly entering the kitchen, open a cupboard, take a bag of crisps, and stroll back to their room. No questions asked.
- Mum cooked from fresh ingredients. There wasn't that culture around delivery meals yet, I was raised in Germany and the first McDonalds opened in Munich in 1971, and soon they were in every large city. But we lived in a small town and the nearest McD is about 45 mins drive away. To this day still the small town where I went to school still doesn't have a McDonalds, but it's now awash with other burger and kebab places where kids eat after school.
- We didn't think we were particularly "skinny". I can't remember as a girl even thinking about my weight. Out of a class of 30 there were only 2 overweight girls in my class, who by todays standards would be considered normal.
That's about it I think...0 -
I am from the German Black Forest where we truly walked a couple of kms to school, in winter on skis.....
:laugh: Yes I remember growing up in Germany, walking half an hour to the bus stop in knee-deep snow and somehow the school buses still always used to run. Now in the UK, the whole country comes to a grinding half over a couple of flakes and schools are closed for "health & safety". :huh:1 -
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?
Well, my mom was not really skinnier than my sisters in the 70's and 80's. She was around 110-120 and the sister most like her in height was around 115-120 at the same age, so I don't think there is necessarily much of a difference between them. Though, I am the bigger sister and weighted significantly more. I wore a bodymediafit device and found that I am actually more active than I thought just having a little boy, taking care of the house and shopping. Quite a few days I get up to 8000 steps just doing those activities.
Unless you don't really do anything at all and sit on your butt all day you are probably more active than you think.
Documentaries like Forks Over Knives say it has a lot to do with the food we eat because you can eat a little oil for the same calories as a lot of vegetables and you will still feel hungry but if you eat the vegetables you will not. So, now we are getting a lot of calories from different foods and not realizing what we are eating because the full signals in the stomach are not being signaled.
The other problem is that people just like to eat and eat too much. It is a pleasure and makes you feel good. 100 years ago people had to ration what they ate or they would starve. Today, we do not have to ration our food so we just eat what we want. It really does not cost that much every month to eat what you want during the month, definitely within a normal budget.2 -
I was born in 1970 so the 70s are my childhood years. These are the main differences as I perceive them...
- As children we were a lot more active. We spent most of our free time roaming the local countryside and woodlands, and as long as you were home before it got dark, or you rang if you were staying for dinner at a friend's house, those were the only rules. In a group of children aged anywhere from 6 to 14 we would be miles away from our houses and without adult supervision and no one bat an eyelid about it. Children now are ferried to an hour of structured activity here or there (music lesson, ballet, swim club, football etc) but largely spend their time sitting around at home in front of some screen. I have a vague collection of my friend getting "pacman" in the 80s, but there was no internet.
- We were expected to make our own way to school. In my case this was a combination of walking, using a bus and walking again... a journey of about 75 mins. Today most get driven to school.
- We were expected to do some chores. Nothing much but just stuff like cleaning our own rooms, laying a table, doing some dusting, clean a car. I see very few friends of ours ask their kids to do anything.
- I couldn't just help myself to food or sweets whenever I liked. It just wasn't acceptable. Now I see kids wordlessly entering the kitchen, open a cupboard, take a bag of crisps, and stroll back to their room. No questions asked.
- Mum cooked from fresh ingredients. There wasn't that culture around delivery meals yet, I was raised in Germany and the first McDonalds opened in Munich in 1971, and soon they were in every large city. But we lived in a small town and the nearest McD is about 45 mins drive away. To this day still the small town where I went to school still doesn't have a McDonalds, but it's now awash with other burger and kebab places where kids eat after school.
- We didn't think we were particularly "skinny". I can't remember as a girl even thinking about my weight. Out of a class of 30 there were only 2 overweight girls in my class, who by todays standards would be considered normal.
That's about it I think...
I agree with you about not just going out for activities with the neighborhood kids. Some neighborhood kids will do that but the one I grew up in did not. My mom noticed that was a major change from her childhood. She used to play a lot with the neighborhood kids and says she had an idealic childhood.
As far as eating out, I find I can actually gain just as much weight just eating normal healthy food around the house if it is not strictly regulated in quanitity, so fast food is not necessarily the enemy as far as weight goes. I can actually gain more weight eating normal foods.
I grew up doing chores and walking to school and I was still overweight by about 30-40 lbs. on average. We lived in the country during my teenage years, so I had quite a few chores and I was still about the same amount overweight.
For me, I have just always had a problem with wanting to eat too much. I am not sure how you learn to not eat so much consistently. I have lost weight multiple times only to gain it back.0 -
Tapeworm expermiments kept me skinny in the 70s...
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