This is interesting!!!

TamTastic
TamTastic Posts: 19,224 Member
in Chit-Chat
I love looking at old magazines and recipes/menus from the turn of the last century or from the early 1900's. It is always interesting to see how we've evolved!! lol! I found this as the recommended calories from 1931.


The Joy of Cooking recommends the following daily allowances , based on Food and Nutrition National Research council:
Men - moderately active
Men - very active 3000 calories
4500 calories

Women - moderately active
Women - very active 2500 calories
3000 calories

Children under 1 year 200 calories per kilogram (2.2 pounds)

Children 10 - 12 years 2500 calories from 1931 cookbook



And this is another "guideline":
Recommended calories from 1912 Cookbook

No specific Calories are established. However, the following are the "specific" guidelines:

"The proper diet depends largely upon the occupation. People of sedentary habits and brain workers need more digestible food than the day laborer -- therefore, the necessity of mixed diets; but diets should be varies as well as mixed, and the true housekeeper in planning meals thinks what was served at the preceding meal.....Huger and thirst are provided by nature as guides in the choice of food, and if the bodily conditions are normal, these as a rule, are safe guides to follow."

Replies

  • TamTastic
    TamTastic Posts: 19,224 Member
    I love looking at old magazines and recipes/menus from the turn of the last century or from the early 1900's. It is always interesting to see how we've evolved!! lol! I found this as the recommended calories from 1931.


    The Joy of Cooking recommends the following daily allowances , based on Food and Nutrition National Research council:
    Men - moderately active
    Men - very active 3000 calories
    4500 calories

    Women - moderately active
    Women - very active 2500 calories
    3000 calories

    Children under 1 year 200 calories per kilogram (2.2 pounds)

    Children 10 - 12 years 2500 calories from 1931 cookbook



    And this is another "guideline":
    Recommended calories from 1912 Cookbook

    No specific Calories are established. However, the following are the "specific" guidelines:

    "The proper diet depends largely upon the occupation. People of sedentary habits and brain workers need more digestible food than the day laborer -- therefore, the necessity of mixed diets; but diets should be varies as well as mixed, and the true housekeeper in planning meals thinks what was served at the preceding meal.....Huger and thirst are provided by nature as guides in the choice of food, and if the bodily conditions are normal, these as a rule, are safe guides to follow."
  • renae77
    renae77 Posts: 3,394 Member
    Yea look at how it was back then and we are still more overweight now than we were then. Weird huh?
  • TamTastic
    TamTastic Posts: 19,224 Member
    Yea look at how it was back then and we are still more overweight now than we were then. Weird huh?
    Yeah, I guess even sedentary workers still moved more than we do now! lol!
  • renae77
    renae77 Posts: 3,394 Member
    Isn't that a shame? Makes you just wanna get up and get going when you think about all that.
  • mburris
    mburris Posts: 55
    :yawn: Monday! Yuck! I really think that people are so overweight now because of the lives we lead. Life is so busy, but not active. Women work outside the home more, but we don't have to do the manual labor that our grandparents and great-grandparents did. My grandmother had to kill and pluck chickens, milk cows, keep house, and raise 5 kids. Lots of exercise. Just don't think I'm going to pluck chickens, I'll stick to my bike.
  • TamTastic
    TamTastic Posts: 19,224 Member
    Isn't that a shame? Makes you just wanna get up and get going when you think about all that.
    Exactly! I think "modern conveniences" have made us work a lot less hard. I mean, even cooking is easier. We don't have to churn butter or fill a stove with wood to cook! LOL! We can even just pop it in the microwave!

    Maybe we should all use cast iron! At least that will give us a workout trying to carry it!! :laugh:
  • renae77
    renae77 Posts: 3,394 Member
    Yea that is for sure. We do have a few cast iron pans, but they only get used for making cornbread now. That is very seldom too! Life has become such a convenience. (sp)
  • annhjk
    annhjk Posts: 794 Member
    Another component of that time frame is that there wasn't fast food every 6 steps and they didn't eat many things that were processed.

    I wonder if they really ate that many calories, or maybe the calorie count is more acurate now.
  • 1Corinthians13
    1Corinthians13 Posts: 5,296 Member
    My...soon-to-be-ex-husband's paternal grandparents are amazing. They are both in their 80's and in great mental and physical shape, living on their own. His grandmother makes everything herself - from ketchup to applesauce to butter and juice. She serves her grandchildren whole milk with sugar and vanilla as a dessert. She makes her own bread and sauces and EVERYthing. She even complained when Crisco stopped using transfats - said it doesn't cook the same.

    Yet, she is not overweight. She is mentally and physically strong (even though she's a very tiny lady - one time she even fell down the basement steps without any broken bones).

    Makes you think the biggest difference is portion size.
  • DjBliss05
    DjBliss05 Posts: 682
    I think I am going to call myself a "brain worker" for a few days and see what reactions I get!

    :laugh:
  • TamTastic
    TamTastic Posts: 19,224 Member
    My...soon-to-be-ex-husband's paternal grandparents are amazing. They are both in their 80's and in great mental and physical shape, living on their own. His grandmother makes everything herself - from ketchup to applesauce to butter and juice. She serves her grandchildren whole milk with sugar and vanilla as a dessert. She makes her own bread and sauces and EVERYthing. She even complained when Crisco stopped using transfats - said it doesn't cook the same.

    Yet, she is not overweight. She is mentally and physically strong (even though she's a very tiny lady - one time she even fell down the basement steps without any broken bones).

    Makes you think the biggest difference is portion size.
    Absolutely!

    Just like why Europeans are thinner too, even in France..........where they created rich foods! They just eat less of it!
  • TamTastic
    TamTastic Posts: 19,224 Member
    I think I am going to call myself a "brain worker" for a few days and see what reactions I get!

    :laugh:
    Did you read the other thing about "How to keep your husband? LOL!

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