People Always Look Skinny in Old Photos!

Fast food was around but not so prevalent as it is today. Moms usually stayed at home and made meals, even like the ones you described, instead of picking up McDonalds or pizza on the way home from work. Kids played outside and were active outside of school hours. Video games didn't exist in 1976 beyond Pong and neither did the personal computer. People might still have sat in front of the TV but there were only 4 channels so there wasn't always something on to watch.

Agreed, people were a lot more active. Also - I've heard that the size of dinner plates have increased a lot. So back then, a full plate was a lot smaller than what it is now.

I agree with you girls -- I was born in 1970, and I don't think I stayed inside much at all when the weather was good. And I helped my mom maintain 3+ acres of yard and fields, and hauled firewood. My parents still do all that stuff, and they're 71 and 73, and still in good shape.

I also wonder if more additives and artificial sweeteners in everything is having an impact. I know we had some of that growing up (Cheetos was one of my favorite snacks, not to mention TV dinners when mom and dad were out), but...? I also wonder about the hormones in meats. I try not to be a nutjob about this stuff, but I wonder if that's why teenagers look like they're 25 by the time they're 12...?

My guess is less processed food, less fast food, and more activity. Let's face it, fifty years ago if you ate a cookie, someone in the family had to bake it.

I have also heard, but I'm not sure if it's true, that the use of corn syrup during Johnson's presidency changed the American diet.

I believe a major contributor to obesity is the lack of education regarding our diets. We do have alot of automation and are definitely burning less calories. While we burn less calories, we consume much higher concentrations of fats and carbs. As long as there is no balance in our intake and output the problem of obesity will escalate. Bottom line, educational settings is where this information needs to be dessiminated as most parents lack the knowledge to educate themselves, much less their children.

This is not a new topic, I know. It's common knowledge that obesity is an issue now. But won't it always be an issue if the lifestyle we *naturally* fall into is one that conflicts with good health? When we all used to walk places, cook our own food, etc,, we didn't do it because we were watching our weight. We *had* to do it and it scarcely crossed our minds to go about it any other way.

Maybe I'm having a "this is unfair!" moment but I can't help but think that we spend so much as a society punishing people for being overweight when what we're actually asking them to do is go against human nature. It's hard to cure laziness when people are already programmed to look for the best and easiest way to do things.

This is my deep thought for the day, incidentally.

That is not by nature. That is definitely "nurture"

We've since become a nation of lazy, entitlement-minded fatties.

People are undisciplined and inactive. Further, fattening foods abound to satisfy our gluttonous population.
America the beautiful is now America the FAT!

Don't just slam the U.S. This is a world-wide epidemic in developed countries. If there's one thing that MFP has shown me, through my friends in many countries, it's this.

Michele, I think you're right. We, humans, have been developing better and easier ways to do things for tens of thousands of years, starting with fire and the wheel. I find it a little humorous that we spend hours in the gym or on the sidewalks burning the calories that our great-greats burned just to survive another day or season.

I was born in 1962 and we always ate fresh food which my Mum prepared. There was little in the way of processed foods, and all we had was a 12 inch ice box - no freezers. Mum stayed at home and had a mangle washing machine - she didn't get an automatic until the late 70s. I spent so much time in the garden (we had a third of an acre and a lot of grass to cut and leaves to collect!), in the gym (I was a gymnast), dancing (ballroom, Latin and contemporary), and trampolining competitively until I was 22! We were really active! Also we didn't have cars - as an undergraduate it was really only third year medics, and some post grads who were allowed them on campus so I walked or rode my bike for years, including when I started teaching until I passed my driving test and got my first car. I stayed active until an injury to my back resulted in a 5 stone weight gain! I have currently 33 lbs (2 stone 5 lbs) still to lose but I am getting back to being active and I love it!

Processed foods, corn syrup, food additives, artificial sweeteners, fast food, "conveniences" that reduce our need to be active, GMOs, Monsanto, portion sizes, etc.

I am guessing very few parked themselves on the couch fir the night with a pint of Ben and Jerrys and/or family size bag of potato chips.....

You are so funny! LOL!

This is not a new topic, I know. It's common knowledge that obesity is an issue now. But won't it always be an issue if the lifestyle we *naturally* fall into is one that conflicts with good health? When we all used to walk places, cook our own food, etc,, we didn't do it because we were watching our weight. We *had* to do it and it scarcely crossed our minds to go about it any other way.

Maybe I'm having a "this is unfair!" moment but I can't help but think that we spend so much as a society punishing people for being overweight when what we're actually asking them to do is go against human nature. It's hard to cure laziness when people are already programmed to look for the best and easiest way to do things.

This is my deep thought for the day, incidentally.

That is not by nature. That is definitely "nurture"

Totally agree - we have to address our life styles - which is what we are doing here!

I agree with you girls -- I was born in 1970, and I don't think I stayed inside much at all when the weather was good. And I helped my mom maintain 3+ acres of yard and fields, and hauled firewood. My parents still do all that stuff, and they're 71 and 73, and still in good shape.

I also wonder if more additives and artificial sweeteners in everything is having an impact. I know we had some of that growing up (Cheetos was one of my favorite snacks, not to mention TV dinners when mom and dad were out), but...? I also wonder about the hormones in meats. I try not to be a nutjob about this stuff, but I wonder if that's why teenagers look like they're 25 by the time they're 12...?

Personally, I think it's the advent of processed foods in general that has done the most work in making us fatter. Taking the OPs original breakfast, now the biscuits are made from finely processed flour and not made at home. The flour in the gravy itself goes the same. In fact, I would be surprised if any gravy now sold on market shelves are actually made using rendered animal fats, like they used to be.

Of course, people that ate that example breakfast didn't get fat immediately because
a) People did more manual labor. It's hard to think of any technological advance that doesn't involve *someone* doing less physical labor. Technology has advanced much since then.
b) Getting fat off of that breakfast takes time, especially if you then go and work on the farm that produced it for the rest of the day.
c) It is likely that you were served a smaller portion back then, simply because animals were not as big and factory farming was only getting revved up.
d) The amount of meat that we're now taking in, per capita, is far larger than it used to be. It's likely that the breakfast the OP described was normal back then because it was simply awesome that we were able to get that many meats, in those quantities, at the table without going broke. Historically, humans have eaten relatively small amounts of meat out of a diet of mostly vegetables (excluding certain African and Mandarin tribes). In other words, that breakfast was a novelty. If you could afford to eat that (even at industrial food prices) you're still talking a lot of money. Leading me to the next point:
e) That's a rich person's breakfast. Or it's a farmer's. Either way, I think it's pretty safe to say that unless you're one of those two people, you didn't eat that every day. You probably ate a packaged cereal instead. Which is just as bad, IMHO.

Oops, forgot to mention I married in early 2007 and I know marriage is supposed to be the death knell for anyone's girlish figure.

Lol! Not always, I'm 2 dress sizes smaller now than when I got married 6 years ago :happy: Mind you, hubby seems to have gained what I have lost!