why were people so skinny in the 70s?
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Tacklewasher wrote: »Sorry to jump ahead, but I'm amused by all the "home cooking" that went on in the 70's.
We had frikken TV dinners 2-3 nights a week. Those damn tinfoil covered things where you had to pull it put halfway and peel the tinfoil off the desert or some fool thing.
3 tv channels and no xBox made a bigger difference to me than the level of MSG in my food vs kids today.
I used to want them ONLY for the dessert, and not the brownie, which was really gross, but the cranberry apple dessert ...oh, and the corn. The meat / potatoes part was meh at best. lol1 -
dgarwood8181 wrote: »I said our increase in sugar consumption. My point was not that a single chemical caused the nations obesity problem, That was the single thing you two looked for to try to make the debate about. I was saying the American lifestyle changed. That is all I was saying in my original post. We became more sedimentary with our jobs, they found cheaper ways to make different forms of sugar that sometimes you have to be a chemist to find on a label. I am saying we need to go back to how society lived in the 60 and 70's in regards to eating. Compare a big Mac today with a big mac from when we were kids? The calorie contents are massively higher than when we were children. That is what I was trying to say in the beginning. All the list of chemicals that someone mentioned was a quote I put in my post answering someone else about all the chemicals.
You wrote: "The increase in chemicals and the massive amounts of sugar being consumed by the American public was on a steep climb up." If you want to remove the first part of the sentence and focus on the sugar, that's fine. But people can only respond to what you wrote, not what you *meant* (at least until you clarify).
Do you have a source for the Big Mac today being bigger than it was when we were children? I ask because McDonald's themselves says it is the same size (with the exception of the new, specially labeled limited offer of the "Grand Mac") and if they're not being truthful, I'd like to know the source for that claim.7 -
I only wanted the mash potatoes and the meat sauce.2
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lemurcat12 wrote: »(I loved Long John Silvers, and if they still exist beats me where to find one, not near my current place at all.)
There are 3 of these near me, each at least 40 minutes away in opposite directions. Every once in a blue moon I get a hankering for some.
The cracklins are the best... we have one within 5 minutes of our house.6 -
Tacklewasher wrote: »Sorry to jump ahead, but I'm amused by all the "home cooking" that went on in the 70's.
We had frikken TV dinners 2-3 nights a week. Those damn tinfoil covered things where you had to pull it put halfway and peel the tinfoil off the desert or some fool thing.
3 tv channels and no xBox made a bigger difference to me than the level of MSG in my food vs kids today.
I don't think it's food either. I mean if course it isn't good to eat all processes food nutrition-wise but activity really makes a difference to what you can eat and calories burned. I like whole foods and eat them most of the time but I am still very obese. I tend to gain weight When I am making things like cake, even from scratch. People made deserts in the past too. The problem is when you are not very active even a small desert with three meals a day can make you gain weight. When I exercise and move a lot even I as a big eater find it pretty hard to meet my calorie goals for weight loss. The only time I have issues is when there are a lot of high calorie sweets around.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »I said our increase in sugar consumption. My point was not that a single chemical caused the nations obesity problem, That was the single thing you two looked for to try to make the debate about. I was saying the American lifestyle changed. That is all I was saying in my original post. We became more sedimentary with our jobs, they found cheaper ways to make different forms of sugar that sometimes you have to be a chemist to find on a label. I am saying we need to go back to how society lived in the 60 and 70's in regards to eating. Compare a big Mac today with a big mac from when we were kids? The calorie contents are massively higher than when we were children. That is what I was trying to say in the beginning. All the list of chemicals that someone mentioned was a quote I put in my post answering someone else about all the chemicals.
You wrote: "The increase in chemicals and the massive amounts of sugar being consumed by the American public was on a steep climb up." If you want to remove the first part of the sentence and focus on the sugar, that's fine. But people can only respond to what you wrote, not what you *meant* (at least until you clarify).
Do you have a source for the Big Mac today being bigger than it was when we were children? I ask because McDonald's themselves says it is the same size (with the exception of the new, specially labeled limited offer of the "Grand Mac") and if they're not being truthful, I'd like to know the source for that claim.
No, I do not have a source for the calories of a big mac when we were kids. You know why, cause they did not keep track of that information or it is a proprietary secret, which they will not share. Do you think that a big mac and a coke was 1150 calories 30 years ago? If it was that means we are consuming way more then we did 30 years ago, but I find it hard to believe that cokes product has changed, I do not know the exact number of times, would it not reason that McDonald's has changed their recipes and hamburgers and ingredients as well and lied to the American public about it? I'm just saying.8 -
WinoGelato wrote: »No specific group of foods (ie sweets), individual food (chocolate), or ingredient (sugar or HFCS) makes a person fat. The consumption of too many calories, regardless of the source (HFCS, sugar, chocolate, sweets, processed foods or Whole Foods) puts a person in a calorie surplus above their daily calorie burn and causes weight gain over time.
But there are high calorie foods that make it super easy to eat too many calories and gain weight.0 -
dgarwood8181 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »I said our increase in sugar consumption. My point was not that a single chemical caused the nations obesity problem, That was the single thing you two looked for to try to make the debate about. I was saying the American lifestyle changed. That is all I was saying in my original post. We became more sedimentary with our jobs, they found cheaper ways to make different forms of sugar that sometimes you have to be a chemist to find on a label. I am saying we need to go back to how society lived in the 60 and 70's in regards to eating. Compare a big Mac today with a big mac from when we were kids? The calorie contents are massively higher than when we were children. That is what I was trying to say in the beginning. All the list of chemicals that someone mentioned was a quote I put in my post answering someone else about all the chemicals.
You wrote: "The increase in chemicals and the massive amounts of sugar being consumed by the American public was on a steep climb up." If you want to remove the first part of the sentence and focus on the sugar, that's fine. But people can only respond to what you wrote, not what you *meant* (at least until you clarify).
Do you have a source for the Big Mac today being bigger than it was when we were children? I ask because McDonald's themselves says it is the same size (with the exception of the new, specially labeled limited offer of the "Grand Mac") and if they're not being truthful, I'd like to know the source for that claim.
No, I do not have a source for the calories of a big mac when we were kids. You know why, cause they did not keep track of that information or it is a proprietary secret, which they will not share. Do you think that a big mac and a coke was 1150 calories 30 years ago? If it was that means we are consuming way more then we did 30 years ago, but I find it hard to believe that cokes product has changed, I do not know the exact number of times, would it not reason that McDonald's has changed their recipes and hamburgers and ingredients as well and lied to the American public about it? I'm just saying.
A Big Mac and coke aren't even 1150 calories today.7 -
dgarwood8181 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »I said our increase in sugar consumption. My point was not that a single chemical caused the nations obesity problem, That was the single thing you two looked for to try to make the debate about. I was saying the American lifestyle changed. That is all I was saying in my original post. We became more sedimentary with our jobs, they found cheaper ways to make different forms of sugar that sometimes you have to be a chemist to find on a label. I am saying we need to go back to how society lived in the 60 and 70's in regards to eating. Compare a big Mac today with a big mac from when we were kids? The calorie contents are massively higher than when we were children. That is what I was trying to say in the beginning. All the list of chemicals that someone mentioned was a quote I put in my post answering someone else about all the chemicals.
You wrote: "The increase in chemicals and the massive amounts of sugar being consumed by the American public was on a steep climb up." If you want to remove the first part of the sentence and focus on the sugar, that's fine. But people can only respond to what you wrote, not what you *meant* (at least until you clarify).
Do you have a source for the Big Mac today being bigger than it was when we were children? I ask because McDonald's themselves says it is the same size (with the exception of the new, specially labeled limited offer of the "Grand Mac") and if they're not being truthful, I'd like to know the source for that claim.
No, I do not have a source for the calories of a big mac when we were kids. You know why, cause they did not keep track of that information or it is a proprietary secret, which they will not share. Do you think that a big mac and a coke was 1150 calories 30 years ago? If it was that means we are consuming way more then we did 30 years ago, but I find it hard to believe that cokes product has changed, I do not know the exact number of times, would it not reason that McDonald's has changed their recipes and hamburgers and ingredients as well and lied to the American public about it? I'm just saying.
How many calories were the Big Mac then? And how do you know?4 -
Good point above about less manual and more desk jobs now.
And yeah, everyone was already eating fast food, but I'm quite sure you couldn't have 'supersize everything' back then (I could be wrong though).3 -
I just want to say that of all the things people have pointed out that contribute to the general decline of activity in today's society (and I agree with most of them), blaming the remote control is just silly. How many calories did anyone actually expend repeatedly walking to the tv to change the channel, really? Increased tv time, sure, along with games (we had a rudimentary D & D game that I wasted too many hours on, although I probably would have spent those hours reading), but blaming the poor remote seems a little over-the-top.
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WillingtoLose1001984 wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »No specific group of foods (ie sweets), individual food (chocolate), or ingredient (sugar or HFCS) makes a person fat. The consumption of too many calories, regardless of the source (HFCS, sugar, chocolate, sweets, processed foods or Whole Foods) puts a person in a calorie surplus above their daily calorie burn and causes weight gain over time.
But there are high calorie foods that make it super easy to eat too many calories and gain weight.
Of course there are...and there are also a lot of high calorie, nutritious whole foods that make it easy to eat too many calories and gain weight.
I eat a primarily whole foods focused diet...I put on 8-10 Lbs every winter like clock work.1 -
dgarwood8181 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »I said our increase in sugar consumption. My point was not that a single chemical caused the nations obesity problem, That was the single thing you two looked for to try to make the debate about. I was saying the American lifestyle changed. That is all I was saying in my original post. We became more sedimentary with our jobs, they found cheaper ways to make different forms of sugar that sometimes you have to be a chemist to find on a label. I am saying we need to go back to how society lived in the 60 and 70's in regards to eating. Compare a big Mac today with a big mac from when we were kids? The calorie contents are massively higher than when we were children. That is what I was trying to say in the beginning. All the list of chemicals that someone mentioned was a quote I put in my post answering someone else about all the chemicals.
You wrote: "The increase in chemicals and the massive amounts of sugar being consumed by the American public was on a steep climb up." If you want to remove the first part of the sentence and focus on the sugar, that's fine. But people can only respond to what you wrote, not what you *meant* (at least until you clarify).
Do you have a source for the Big Mac today being bigger than it was when we were children? I ask because McDonald's themselves says it is the same size (with the exception of the new, specially labeled limited offer of the "Grand Mac") and if they're not being truthful, I'd like to know the source for that claim.
No, I do not have a source for the calories of a big mac when we were kids. You know why, cause they did not keep track of that information or it is a proprietary secret, which they will not share. Do you think that a big mac and a coke was 1150 calories 30 years ago? If it was that means we are consuming way more then we did 30 years ago, but I find it hard to believe that cokes product has changed, I do not know the exact number of times, would it not reason that McDonald's has changed their recipes and hamburgers and ingredients as well and lied to the American public about it? I'm just saying.
If you don't have a source, then I'm not sure how you propose to compare a Big Mac from "when we were kids" to today. You're asking me to just accept your assertion that a Big Mac today is bigger. In the US today, a Big Mac has 540 calories. Without any reliable indication that it was less in the past (and no, I don't consider your general belief that it's "hard to believe" especially reliable), I don't know why I would assume McDonald's is lying about this -- especially since they have been transparent about changing the sizes of other products (like french fries and sodas).
Accusing McDonald's of lying just because you're saying it stands to reason they would? No. I don't consider that sufficiently convincing.
Here's some feedback, just from me to you. When you state something as if it is a fact (compare a Big Mac in the past to today) and the person you're debating has to research themselves to find out there is no factual basis for your claim, it doesn't inspire trust and confidence. I don't think you're deliberately being deceptive, but I think you've playing very fast and loose with accurate information. It might be helpful if you limited your claims to things that were documented or you had actual data to support. Feel free to ignore, this is just something I've found helpful in online debating.10 -
Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »I said our increase in sugar consumption. My point was not that a single chemical caused the nations obesity problem, That was the single thing you two looked for to try to make the debate about. I was saying the American lifestyle changed. That is all I was saying in my original post. We became more sedimentary with our jobs, they found cheaper ways to make different forms of sugar that sometimes you have to be a chemist to find on a label. I am saying we need to go back to how society lived in the 60 and 70's in regards to eating. Compare a big Mac today with a big mac from when we were kids? The calorie contents are massively higher than when we were children. That is what I was trying to say in the beginning. All the list of chemicals that someone mentioned was a quote I put in my post answering someone else about all the chemicals.
You wrote: "The increase in chemicals and the massive amounts of sugar being consumed by the American public was on a steep climb up." If you want to remove the first part of the sentence and focus on the sugar, that's fine. But people can only respond to what you wrote, not what you *meant* (at least until you clarify).
Do you have a source for the Big Mac today being bigger than it was when we were children? I ask because McDonald's themselves says it is the same size (with the exception of the new, specially labeled limited offer of the "Grand Mac") and if they're not being truthful, I'd like to know the source for that claim.
No, I do not have a source for the calories of a big mac when we were kids. You know why, cause they did not keep track of that information or it is a proprietary secret, which they will not share. Do you think that a big mac and a coke was 1150 calories 30 years ago? If it was that means we are consuming way more then we did 30 years ago, but I find it hard to believe that cokes product has changed, I do not know the exact number of times, would it not reason that McDonald's has changed their recipes and hamburgers and ingredients as well and lied to the American public about it? I'm just saying.
How many calories were the Big Mac then? And how do you know?
I looked it up on their menu on line, which the government says they have to post. It is 540.2 -
dgarwood8181 wrote: »Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »I said our increase in sugar consumption. My point was not that a single chemical caused the nations obesity problem, That was the single thing you two looked for to try to make the debate about. I was saying the American lifestyle changed. That is all I was saying in my original post. We became more sedimentary with our jobs, they found cheaper ways to make different forms of sugar that sometimes you have to be a chemist to find on a label. I am saying we need to go back to how society lived in the 60 and 70's in regards to eating. Compare a big Mac today with a big mac from when we were kids? The calorie contents are massively higher than when we were children. That is what I was trying to say in the beginning. All the list of chemicals that someone mentioned was a quote I put in my post answering someone else about all the chemicals.
You wrote: "The increase in chemicals and the massive amounts of sugar being consumed by the American public was on a steep climb up." If you want to remove the first part of the sentence and focus on the sugar, that's fine. But people can only respond to what you wrote, not what you *meant* (at least until you clarify).
Do you have a source for the Big Mac today being bigger than it was when we were children? I ask because McDonald's themselves says it is the same size (with the exception of the new, specially labeled limited offer of the "Grand Mac") and if they're not being truthful, I'd like to know the source for that claim.
No, I do not have a source for the calories of a big mac when we were kids. You know why, cause they did not keep track of that information or it is a proprietary secret, which they will not share. Do you think that a big mac and a coke was 1150 calories 30 years ago? If it was that means we are consuming way more then we did 30 years ago, but I find it hard to believe that cokes product has changed, I do not know the exact number of times, would it not reason that McDonald's has changed their recipes and hamburgers and ingredients as well and lied to the American public about it? I'm just saying.
How many calories were the Big Mac then? And how do you know?
I looked it up on their menu on line, which the government says they have to post. It is 540.
Thirty years ago then, I know what they are now.6 -
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sorry I added the grand big mac to the nutritional calculator on their site....a coke and regular big mac is 8303
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Do you have a source for the Big Mac today being bigger than it was when we were children? I ask because McDonald's themselves says it is the same size (with the exception of the new, specially labeled limited offer of the "Grand Mac") and if they're not being truthful, I'd like to know the source for that claim.
It is probably the same size, but I am old enough that I remember when a cheeseburger was just a cheeseburger and it was a big thing when the Quarter Pounder was first introduced. If I recall correctly, also large fries instead of just the little white packets..... The proliferation of stores is amazing too. When I was growing up there was one McDonalds in a town. Where I live now there are four inside city limits and at least one in each of the neighboring small towns.1 -
hopiemama33 wrote: »Do you have a source for the Big Mac today being bigger than it was when we were children? I ask because McDonald's themselves says it is the same size (with the exception of the new, specially labeled limited offer of the "Grand Mac") and if they're not being truthful, I'd like to know the source for that claim.
It is probably the same size, but I am old enough that I remember when a cheeseburger was just a cheeseburger and it was a big thing when the Quarter Pounder was first introduced. If I recall correctly, also large fries instead of just the little white packets..... The proliferation of stores is amazing too. When I was growing up there was one McDonalds in a town. Where I live now there are four inside city limits and at least one in each of the neighboring small towns.
I don't doubt the claim that there is a wider variety of *larger sandwiches* available today than there may have been in the 1970s. It's the specific claim that McDonald's increased the size of the Big Mac that I'm questioning. I'd just like more support for the claim than "it stands to reason they would."4 -
dgarwood8181 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »dgarwood8181 wrote: »I said our increase in sugar consumption. My point was not that a single chemical caused the nations obesity problem, That was the single thing you two looked for to try to make the debate about. I was saying the American lifestyle changed. That is all I was saying in my original post. We became more sedimentary with our jobs, they found cheaper ways to make different forms of sugar that sometimes you have to be a chemist to find on a label. I am saying we need to go back to how society lived in the 60 and 70's in regards to eating. Compare a big Mac today with a big mac from when we were kids? The calorie contents are massively higher than when we were children. That is what I was trying to say in the beginning. All the list of chemicals that someone mentioned was a quote I put in my post answering someone else about all the chemicals.
You wrote: "The increase in chemicals and the massive amounts of sugar being consumed by the American public was on a steep climb up." If you want to remove the first part of the sentence and focus on the sugar, that's fine. But people can only respond to what you wrote, not what you *meant* (at least until you clarify).
Do you have a source for the Big Mac today being bigger than it was when we were children? I ask because McDonald's themselves says it is the same size (with the exception of the new, specially labeled limited offer of the "Grand Mac") and if they're not being truthful, I'd like to know the source for that claim.
No, I do not have a source for the calories of a big mac when we were kids. You know why, cause they did not keep track of that information or it is a proprietary secret, which they will not share. Do you think that a big mac and a coke was 1150 calories 30 years ago? If it was that means we are consuming way more then we did 30 years ago, but I find it hard to believe that cokes product has changed, I do not know the exact number of times, would it not reason that McDonald's has changed their recipes and hamburgers and ingredients as well and lied to the American public about it? I'm just saying.
I worked in McDonald's in the mid 1980s when I was a kid.
The big mac is the same - two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun.
There were two sizes of fries - small and large. Now there is small, medium, large, and supersize.
There were hamburgers, cheeseburgers, double hamburgers, double cheeseburgers - and then there were quarter pounders (with and without cheese). All of them seem to be the same size in my mind's eye today as the ones I handled so much in the 80s.
Soda sizes are different - I don't remember the small size, but I do know that the current small size used to be a medium and the current medium used to be a large. The large is way bigger than it was back then.
The ice cream cone and sundae vary based on who is making it - but they are about the same size.
One thing that is noticeably different is the egg mc muffin. What used to be a fairly thick piece of Canadian bacon now resembles a super thin slice of ham. That makes me mad.
On a related note (but not related to McD's):
If anything, some things are shrinking and they're charging more money for it...
Ice cream - used to come in half gallon cartons. Now most of them are nowhere near that.
Yogurt - used to be an 8 oz cup for a single serving of yogurt - now it's 5 or 6 oz.
Granulated sugar - used to be a 5lb bag. Now it's 4lbs.
Candy bags and candy bars - while they offer "super" or "sharing size" - the standard size of many of them are smaller along with an increase in price.
This is not to make us healthier but to maximize profits. I see it with a lot of non-calorie items like this as well - coffee used to be 16 oz / 1lb. Now it's 11, 12, and 13 oz.
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