why were people so skinny in the 70s?
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Cheap food wasn't as readily available as it is now, more things are automated now, plus of you're going by people you see on media, thinner people are probably overrepresented compared to the whole population.4
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Fast food was more expensive, more of a luxury. Kids were allowed outside to play more - not many alternatives. Portion sizes all around were smaller.1
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Prescription diet pills like fenfluramine, phentermine, and phenylpropanolamine. Also ephedra to a lesser degree.
Cocaine was pretty significantly more popular in the 90s than the 70s, yet waistlines still grew so I'll say it was not coke. Meanwhile the belt got tightened on the use of prescription weight loss drugs around the 90s.2 -
I see a lot of people mentioning playing outside. As a child of the 70's all of that outside playing didn't keep me from gaining weight as an adult it only kept me more fit then. I don't doubt it is a factor in childhood obesity today but if the adults were thinner you'd have to look at their eating and activity.
There were a few chubby kids in my area, but from K-8 (I was born in 1965) I only remember one obese boy, and NONE in high school and I went to a highschool with 3200 students. Although my mother had a car, I did not learn to drive until 25 (and still haven't ever had a car) so that had something to do with it--I grew up in New York City. You walked or took public transportation. And if you took the bus or subway you had to GET to it (walking) and also most likely had to stand up part of the way.
Adults were considerably thinner. My mom has some coats that belong to my grandmother and when I was a child and teen, she was plump and probably the biggest you would see women those days in the 1970s. I tried on one of her coats at when I weighed about 175 lbs. (I'm 193 now, on my way to 137) and I could not button it. I also wore one of my mother's coats when I was in college, as well as some of her dresses that she wore in her late teens and 20s. I was about 115 lbs. and a size 3 or 5 at the time (today's 00 or something like that). The majority of teens and women today are not the size of my mom, but more the size of my grandmother who was considered plump at 5'7" and probably 150 lbs.1 -
Gosh, such great answers. Less fast food, more walking, less couch potatoing, and Portion Sizes are a huge difference. Plus, sugar is now in just about everything! Even fast food salads have added sugar. We ate dessert, but sugar wasn’t in everything else we ate. Good post3
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Just out of curiosity has anyone actually confirmed that people in the 70s were skinnier than they are now?
I mean objects appear larger on instragram than they do in real life. That and boob jobs and butt injections.
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mutantspicy wrote: »Just out of curiosity has anyone actually confirmed that people in the 70s were skinnier than they are now?
I mean objects appear larger on instragram than they do in real life. That and boob jobs and butt injections.
I was alive in the '70s. Can confirm there were fat people.11 -
mutantspicy wrote: »Just out of curiosity has anyone actually confirmed that people in the 70s were skinnier than they are now?
Yes, there are statistics kept. There were plenty of fat adults, but fat children were quite rare and the obesity and overweight numbers were lower than now (and average BMI was lower).4 -
I was a teen in the 70's. My mother cooked and we ate at home. She didn't fix prepacked food for convenience and it was meat and vegetables. And whatever she fixed, you ate it or did without.
Eating out was a treat and it was RARELY crap. Kids were outside running and playing instead of sitting inside playing video games. We didn't keep colas or sugar drinks at home. You got milk or water. We didn't keep sweets all the time either, except Nilla Wafers. My Mother worked a lot of that time but managed to get everything done and cook good meals. I don't know how she did it all.
I was a child in the 70s and the following were our general meals:
Breakfast: bacon or sausage, scrambled eggs, white bread toast lathered in butter, cereals like Captain Crunch / Lucky Charms / Cookie Crisp / Count Chocula / Fruity Pebbles that basically consisted of globs of sugar and food dyes, orange juice, and chocolate milk (sometimes). Occasionally grease was used from the bacon or sausage to make gravy and then it was poured over biscuits saturated in butter.
Lunch: nitrates infused bologna (with uncertain meat-like contents), mayonnaise, cheese, and white bread sandwiches, Little Debbie snacks, and bags of Fritos/Lay's/Cheetos/Doritos/etc. in our brown bag lunches. In high school, my daily lunch was a bowl of greasy chicken nuggets, some sort of dipping sauce, a candy bar, and a Coke, occasionally sneaking off to McDonalds.
Dinner: while we did have vegetables with each meal (although often fried), grease (Crisco was a staple) and breading were the norm, sugary drinks like Hawaiian Punch and Kool-Aid (in addition to milk) were served, and butter and salt were liberally applied.
I just shared to show that we weren't very discriminating with our diet and didn't eat anything resembling a "healthy" diet. We simply ate things in smaller portions and were physically active all of the time. Video games were just coming out and we were allowed to play them sometimes during the evening or on rainy days, but otherwise, we were outside on our bikes, running around, or playing sports.
Epilogue: this diet hit my parents hard when they reached their 40s and beyond. High cholestrol, hypertension, pre-diabetic, heart issues, strokes, etc. Both were popping a medicine cabinet's worth of prescription pills every day and having medical procedures done constantly. I'm approaching my 50s and have none of this because I eat differently and excercise.
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I was skinny because I was an teen/young adult...0
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Bry_Fitness70 wrote: »I was a teen in the 70's. My mother cooked and we ate at home. She didn't fix prepacked food for convenience and it was meat and vegetables. And whatever she fixed, you ate it or did without.
Eating out was a treat and it was RARELY crap. Kids were outside running and playing instead of sitting inside playing video games. We didn't keep colas or sugar drinks at home. You got milk or water. We didn't keep sweets all the time either, except Nilla Wafers. My Mother worked a lot of that time but managed to get everything done and cook good meals. I don't know how she did it all.
I was a child in the 70s and the following were our general meals:
Breakfast: bacon or sausage, scrambled eggs, white bread toast lathered in butter, cereals like Captain Crunch / Lucky Charms / Cookie Crisp / Count Chocula / Fruity Pebbles that basically consisted of globs of sugar and food dyes, orange juice, and chocolate milk (sometimes). Occasionally grease was used from the bacon or sausage to make gravy and then it was poured over biscuits saturated in butter.
Lunch: nitrates infused bologna (with uncertain meat-like contents), mayonnaise, cheese, and white bread sandwiches, Little Debbie snacks, and bags of Fritos/Lay's/Cheetos/Doritos/etc. in our brown bag lunches. In high school, my daily lunch was a bowl of greasy chicken nuggets, some sort of dip, a candy bar, and a Coke, occasionally sneaking off to McDonalds.
Dinner: while we did have vegetables with each meal (although often fried), grease (Crisco was a staple) and breading were the norm, sugary drinks like Hawaiian Punch and Kool-Aid (in addition to milk) were served, and butter and salt were liberally applied.
I just shared to show that we weren't very discriminating with our diet and didn't eat anything resembling a "healthy" diet. We simply ate things in smaller portions and were physically active all of the time. Video games were just coming out and we were allowed to play them sometimes during the evening or on rainy days, but otherwise, we were outside on our bikes, running around, or playing sports.
Epilogue: this diet hit my parents hard when they reached their 40s and beyond. High cholestrol, hypertension, pre-diabetic, heart issues, strokes, etc. Both were popping a medicine cabinet's worth of prescription pills every day and having medical procedures done constantly. I'm approaching my 50s and have none of this because I eat differently and excercise.
Sounds like we had the same childhood! I don't remember people being nearly as health conscience as they are today back in the 70s. Although I not so sure about the whole, back in the day we were more active thing. That reeks of the whole, "when I was kid we had walk 4 days thru snow filled mountains to get to school" Sure maybe some of the younger gen xers and millenials were a little more prone to being video game junkies, but today I walk my dog daily and I see kids playing all up and down the streets. Scooters, bikes, roller blades, etc. Actually the kids today have way more options for outdoor activities than we had. Except lawn jarts
no one gets to impale anyone anymore. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. 4 -
Look. My mum was very thin. So was my dad. Was it because they replaced one or two of their meals each day with black coffee and cigarettes? Who knows.4
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mutantspicy wrote: »Just out of curiosity has anyone actually confirmed that people in the 70s were skinnier than they are now?
I mean objects appear larger on instragram than they do in real life. That and boob jobs and butt injections.
I'm pretty sure if you go back a bunch of pages toward the beginning there are a couple of charts that show the rise of obesity in America over time. I think that the general fact that the median weight for the population as a whole has increased is pretty well established. The debate is mostly about why - and people's real-life experiences of living in the 70's.
I realize the comment was posted for the purpose of working "boob" and "butt" into the conversation, but I thought it would be useful for current posters to know there is actual evidence that the population in general is fatter now than in the 70's.
eta: grammar3 -
I grew up in a family of 7 people with childhood mostly during the 70's. We had enough to eat, but rarely second helpings. My mom would say "the kitchen is closed" between meals, so we were pretty hungry by dinnertime. We didn't necessarily eat the healthiest food (similar to above poster about cereals, bologna, and white bread - don't forget the fish sticks and frozen french fries) but we didn't have mass quantities of it. Mom would also tell us to go outside and play and we'd be running around, riding bikes or at the pool for hours. Fast food was about once a month to McD's and we were limited by what we could order (small burger, fries and MAYBE a small shake).
Funny, but to this day Mom's pretty proud of the fact that none of her children were fat kids. We're all fairly healthy weight adults, too. Happy Mother's Day, Mom! You did good!
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I would say portion size (when we had a Pepsi/Coke, 12oz was shared...no such thing as a huge 64oz GULP). We ate at home almost all the time, going out was a huge treat and very infrequent (not even once a month). So the portion sizes were smaller. Also, limited time to be a couch potato. My siblings (and I) that were out of HS in the 70s were all "thinner".
My youngest sibling was born in 1973 and has ended up with weight issues and these really surfaced in the late 80s. The big difference was going out to eat (bigger portion size) a lot. My parents were a bit older, only one child at home, more disposable income, more out to eat options, etc. So they started going out to eat a lot in the late 80s. And to some degree, more couch time for my youngest sibling. She had some organized sports (mom would drive her to these activities). We had something going on all the time...mostly just going outside and having totally unstructured play with our buddies.3 -
One reason is we now have drive thru's everywhere. People can sit in the comfort of their own car and order heaping amounts of food for a small price. Heck, we now even have drive thru's for banks and pharmacies. It's a sad situation all around... I read that in America, 7/10 people are considered overweight or obese. It's an epidemic and I'm a part of that statistic, unfortunately.3
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People were more active and gluttony/fast food was a rare thing. Now a days people have as much food as they want 24/7 and we're all sitting around. It's just a different mind set for most people in the western world.1
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layladrew26 wrote: »I was born in 1973. I used to always play out after school, climbing trees etc. as there weren't any gaming console's or tablets/smart phones. We used to walk everywhere too.
Exactly!! This is what made all the difference.1 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »The idea that any one single thing made people fat is silly anyway. Eating cereal didn't "make me hungry", I had emotional reasons for overeating as a kid and used to gorge myself after school when I was alone and stress eat. It wasn't that I was particularly hungry when this happened either. I just wanted food. As I said, it was emotional.
Both my sister and I ate cereal for breakfast, and while I was overweight, she most certainly wasn't.
It's really tempting to point blame, but obesity is a very complex issue and people get fat for a lot of different reasons.
Sorry. I must have missed a few pages. Is someone suggesting now that eating cereal is bad for you??
I eat cereal EVERY day and I'm not fat. Never was.0 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »The idea that any one single thing made people fat is silly anyway. Eating cereal didn't "make me hungry", I had emotional reasons for overeating as a kid and used to gorge myself after school when I was alone and stress eat. It wasn't that I was particularly hungry when this happened either. I just wanted food. As I said, it was emotional.
Both my sister and I ate cereal for breakfast, and while I was overweight, she most certainly wasn't.
It's really tempting to point blame, but obesity is a very complex issue and people get fat for a lot of different reasons.
Sorry. I must have missed a few pages. Is someone suggesting now that eating cereal is bad for you??
I eat cereal EVERY day and I'm not fat. Never was.
Yeah, someone did, a few pages back.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/41953558/#Comment_419535580 -
My family was poor and we ate processed food like Spam, government cheese, Tang and Kool Aid. We went out to eat once a month if Dad got his bonus. We walked everywhere or rode our bikes. And we were out playing War or Capture the Flag or Hide and Seek all day until dark if we weren't building forts or roller skating.6
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I was an adult in the 70s. There was processed food. I grew up on Wonder Bread! I think portions were smaller, whether it was homemade or a TV dinner (which I also grew up on). We weren’t as sedentary, that is true. I also think stress has something to do with weight gain and we are living in a stressful world. And there is high fructose corn syrup in everything.5
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Snowflake1968 wrote: »beaches222 wrote: »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
Listening to complaints from the young mothers in my life, so many people disagree with children being outside playing now without adult supervision 100% of the time. I think it causes fear of CPS being called with parents that want to raise their kids "the old fashioned way" and send their kids outside.
I 100% agree with the food, we got to eat out as a treat maybe once a month or so and even then it was a sit down restaurant, not fast food so the food was always "homecooked" style. The area I'm from only got it's first fast food place in 1997. We did have in the summer, drive up canteens but again, all fresh never frozen except the fries. Headquarters of McCain's was close by.
Dang! The first fast food place was in 1997. Which one did you get?0 -
I know we could all discuss and debate this forever. And probably will.
Talking about it recently with friends (offline) we were all considering one possibility that food wasn't as much of an entertainment thing as it is now. I am sure that's been mentioned in this thread many times but I do think it is true.
Even in the 90s for example, teenage girls pretty much acted like they never ate or drank. It wasn't cool to be seen chowing down at Taco Bell even though everyone did just that. Now, even stylish teenage girls are featuring their acai breakfast bowl brunches, bowls of pho & ramen, sushi, unicorn Frappuccinos, boutique cupcakes that cost $9...food is an accessory and an activity more than it ever was in the past.
I think in the 70s, there were not all that many "cool" or "fun" foods...food was seen more as fuel or something nerdy that just wasn't cool to partake of. Marketing was not targeting the segments it is now. Food was for kids and for families, pretty much. Wholesome & boring and bland. Now we have food companies marketing to every category of people and often focusing on the young and hip. It's even seen as aspirational and definitely as a source of entertainment & "fun".
In our shift to not smoking and drinking being less glamorous, we've embraced food, food, and more food...bigger, better, faster food...along with high-calorie venti lattes and mochas. Just another thought.7 -
seltzermint555 wrote: »
Talking about it recently with friends (offline) we were all considering one possibility that food wasn't as much of an entertainment thing as it is now. I am sure that's been mentioned in this thread many times but I do think it is true.
Now we have food companies marketing to every category of people and often focusing on the young and hip. It's even seen as aspirational and definitely as a source of entertainment & "fun".
In our shift to not smoking and drinking being less glamorous, we've embraced food, food, and more food...bigger, better, faster food...along with high-calorie venti lattes and mochas. Just another thought.
I was thinking about this too... food as entertainment. I know some years back when I still watched morning shows (Today), I remember wondering when every minor holiday/event had become an excuse for a food blowout ("Coming up... the perfect Arbor Day menu!"). And of course nowadays we have hundreds of websites/channels devoted to food. I have a couple of FB friends that post a steady stream of decadent recipe ideas. Food shows & recipes don't make people fat, of course, but I think it helps keeps food on the brain. And I think you're on to something there with the thought about trendy beverages & food taking over for smoking & drinking. In the 70s, my parents always had a cigarette and/or a drink in their hands, but didn't seem to care so much about food. Now everybody has a Starbucks cup in their hands and our entertainment often revolves around food.
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We've already mentioned portion sizes and fast food. Not to pick on Starbuck's but considering that a lot of people make it a daily habit to buy these coffee milkshakes (and they aren't small either) that's a lot of calories if one drinks one daily. In the old days, in 1980s, it was very rare to buy coffee to go. I remember a few trucks when I was working in NYC, that would self coffee (I think it was 25 cents back then) but the paper cups were small about 6 oz - 8 oz. and you could get it black or with milk/sugar. But that was it. No such thing as a latte. At work there was a coffee pot and you drank it black or with milk/sugar and it was 4 oz. There is one coffee chain shop in my city that makes delicious COFFEE, but you cannot get any flavored stuff at all. They have lattes, capuccino and mocha, but that's it for the fancy stuff. Today I bought a coffee from them and there were tourists in there who asked for flavored coffee latte (milkshake) and they didn't know what to do when they said they had no flavors!2
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lucerorojo wrote: »We've already mentioned portion sizes and fast food. Not to pick on Starbuck's but considering that a lot of people make it a daily habit to buy these coffee milkshakes (and they aren't small either) that's a lot of calories if one drinks one daily. In the old days, in 1980s, it was very rare to buy coffee to go. I remember a few trucks when I was working in NYC, that would self coffee (I think it was 25 cents back then) but the paper cups were small about 6 oz - 8 oz. and you could get it black or with milk/sugar. But that was it. No such thing as a latte. At work there was a coffee pot and you drank it black or with milk/sugar and it was 4 oz. There is one coffee chain shop in my city that makes delicious COFFEE, but you cannot get any flavored stuff at all. They have lattes, capuccino and mocha, but that's it for the fancy stuff. Today I bought a coffee from them and there were tourists in there who asked for flavored coffee latte (milkshake) and they didn't know what to do when they said they had no flavors!
I was never a coffee drinker until coffee *drinks* started to come in vogue and my mom would always tell me, "You don't want coffee... you want dessert." She wasn't wrong
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The Happy Meal size was the adult portion size! Portion sizes have doubled or more for restaurants.2
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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?
Because the small soda we have today at the fast food restaurants is the large of the 1970s. Plus, we now have free refills.
I'd say we eat more and move less than we did then.
I was a kid in the 1970s and we were outside on our bikes or playing football, baseball and basketball all summer. Today, kids (and parents) are on some screen that hadn't been invented back then.
We eat more and move less.1
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