People Always Look Skinny in Old Photos!

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  • michelefloyd
    michelefloyd Posts: 17
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    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.

    Southeastern Kentucky is one of the poorest regions in the US. Just ask Victoria Beckham! ha I was so surprised to hear you describe that as a rich person's meal. That's the breakfast I was served every day / every time I visited KY from my dawning years to 2006 but I get your point. I think it was more of a weekend (or company) thing for my family and they probably ate oatmeal or eggs and toast during the week. But my mom's idea of toast is with butter, sugar and cinnamon, I might add!

    We haven't farmed in a couple of generations but for the Kentuckian grandparents, that was replaced with coal-mining. I can see where the men wouldn't necessarily put on weight but it's the women I'm thinking of. They stayed home and didn't have more than a family garden. And they didn't have 10 kids to look after either! My grandma had 3 kids but was thin as a rail all her life. When my mom was my age (and had also had 3 kids) she was thinner than I am now having had no children. We ate out all the time and even when we were home, mom made some really unhealthy dinners. I know I was skinny because I was just a kid, but she stayed thin, too.
  • tameko2
    tameko2 Posts: 31,634 Member
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    . . . Let's face it, fifty years ago if you ate a cookie, someone in the family had to bake it.

    Well I'm over fifty years old and I can tell you that they had PLENTY of processed and pre-packaged goodies back then. In fact, some of them were even worse than the products they sell now. I think the major problem nowadays is our distorted view of what a proper portion is. Look at McDonald's. When I was a kid, an adult would order a burger, fries and drink equivalent in size to what they sell as their kiddie meal now. This and the fact that after work/after school activities have gone from physically active things to sitting on ones behind in front of a computer or TV screen for hours.

    I agree, portions were smaller and stuff like soda and juice was served in smaller cups AND was a special treat, not something you drank 3 times a day. when was the last time you actually looked at a "real" juice glass? A traditional juice glass is like 4 ounces. So sure maybe you went back for seconds of juice and had a whopping 8 ounces. Whereas my boyfriend probably drinks about 30 ounces of soda a day, and if I *let* him buy juice, he drinks it out of 16 ounce glasses. sometimes 2 of them. Not to mention unending snacking - sure there were 'bad' snacks before but people ate ONE portion of them, not 3.
  • dmpizza
    dmpizza Posts: 3,321 Member
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    They spent 1000's of calories doing things we have machines(or others) to do, or things we jsut don't bother with anymore, like ironing, etc...
  • dmpizza
    dmpizza Posts: 3,321 Member
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    It's the big bad Americans...... Ooooohhhhhh.......
    Thank you for that.
  • ruby_red_rose
    ruby_red_rose Posts: 321 Member
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    Just my take on it.

    People were more active, women generally were doing most chores manually, alot of our modern conveniences have made us lazy, people expended a lot more energy then watched less tv, no home computors.

    I was born in 75 & remember walking 5-6 miles with my mother to visit my grandmother for an hour or two, the walk would take longer than the visit, we had a car but never used it all the time.

    Just general changes in our lifestyles, also packaged food & ready meals became popular around that time, we never had a freezer till the mid 80's so most of our food although quite carb & fat laden was always fresh cooked & with fresh meat & ingredients.

    I think you are spot on. In addition, all the people you are thinking of have probably added on a little bit more weight every year, so 20 years later, they are all more heavy than they were 20 years ago.
  • sunflower_yogi
    sunflower_yogi Posts: 78 Member
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    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.

    YES. this^.
  • Grokette
    Grokette Posts: 3,330 Member
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    It is a lot of things that play into this..............

    People were more active

    Ate far less fast food and much MORE home cooked food

    No GMO grown vegetables and fruits

    Most of the meat was free range or grass fed, not factory farmed. If grains are given to cows, pigs and chickens to make them fat, what do you think it is doing to us?????

    The food pyramid they want everyone to go by was much more balanced with a lot less grains and more fat and protein.
  • manderson27
    manderson27 Posts: 3,510 Member
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    I was born in 1956 and I remember my hunter gatherer parents going off each day to try and kill a mammoth and collect berries, While us kids did cave paintings for entertainment and ran away from wolves for excercise. :bigsmile:
  • ajball90
    ajball90 Posts: 211 Member
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    I was born in 1990 and I hardly ever was inside, weather permitting. I danced, did gymnastics, and generally did a LOT of running around. Of course my mom would feed us the occasional McDonald's and order pizza every once in awhile but she mostly cooked meals at home. When I got older I sat on the computer more than went outside, chose the easier drive-thru than cooking my own meals, etc. It really has nothing to do with the era, I think, but your decision making.

    ^ me too
  • Kristyannj
    Kristyannj Posts: 1
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    I think people got much more exercise back in the day.
  • Grokette
    Grokette Posts: 3,330 Member
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    I was born in 1956 and I remember my hunter gatherer parents going off each day to try and kill a mammoth and collect berries, While us kids did cave paintings for entertainment and ran away from wolves for excercise. :bigsmile:

    Wow, why bring such smart alleck comments into a great thread???

    Are you putting down those of us that are living the Paleo lifestyle?
  • DannyMussels
    DannyMussels Posts: 1,842 Member
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    Portion sizes have gotten larger, clothing sizes as well (watch some 80s vids and check how slim the guys are).

    Also companies have found ways to make stuff taste better, by jacking up the calories, so typical meals are in the 1000+ range, whereas years ago they were alot more basic. Additives and preservatives (hfcs being cheaper and more shelf stable) will also increase calories on a lot of dishes.

    People drink crap like crazy lattes or coffees nowadays in the 300-800 calorie range that didn't really exist 20-50yrs ago.

    So much more is at everyones fingertips, convenience is rarely a good choice when it comes to your health.

    That's juts a few of the reasons.
  • michelefloyd
    michelefloyd Posts: 17
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    I was born in 1956 and I remember my hunter gatherer parents going off each day to try and kill a mammoth and collect berries, While us kids did cave paintings for entertainment and ran away from wolves for excercise. :bigsmile:

    Wow, why bring such smart alleck comments into a great thread???

    Are you putting down those of us that are living the Paleo lifestyle?

    You guys both gave me a good laugh.
  • DannyMussels
    DannyMussels Posts: 1,842 Member
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    They spent 1000's of calories doing things we have machines(or others) to do, or things we jsut don't bother with anymore, like ironing, etc...

    This is actually a great reason too.

    Back in the day (30-40yrs ago) my dad built his own house, garage, garden, did all his yardwork, siding, driveway, took out trees, painted, singled his roofs, etc.

    Nowadays i think people are too busy to do it themselves, or in lots of cases its cheaper and easier to hire someone else. That, and most things are done easier/faster by machine.

    Very true.
  • Umeboshi
    Umeboshi Posts: 1,637 Member
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    There have always been fat people.
    http://oldtimefatties.tumblr.com/
  • JasonSwetland
    JasonSwetland Posts: 235 Member
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    We ate out 1-2 times a month and if we did eat fast food such as Mcdonalds it was a small fry and a cheeseburger, otherwise all our food was cooked at home. Now its supersized lunches everday, processesed food not home grown in the garden and giant portions. The processed meat has steroids in them- chemicals that trigger hormonal growth. Itamazes me that the idea that we put all these chemicals to make our food grow larger (plants and animals alike) would suddenly stop working once the animal dies- same with Non organic-Veggies.

    Also pop, people drink crates of the stuff now, when I was a kid, soda pop was a rare treat, otherwise it was juice milk (from non steroidal cows) and water. The pop back then used sugar and not corn syrup (which is genticaly mutated to grow bacteria and stimulates growth hormones in our brains)

    All this modified and geneticaly created and modified superfoods passes the modifications on to us and thats why we are so big. You are what you eat. It isnt until we start eating stuff that comes from the ground, grown without chemicals, anti bodies, mutated engineering, that we let our bodies rest and go back to digesting nutrition.

    We eat chemicals and not nutrition. Thats what I think is the difference anyways. Oh and computers- videogames- a lack of competetiveness taught to children in schools also reduces the likelyhood of them being inspired by physical achievement.
  • seehawkmomma
    seehawkmomma Posts: 815
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    I think besides:

    -More fast food/package foods
    -More tv/computers/video game
    -More work/less work-outs

    I really cant see any other reasons why people have gotten obese.

    HOWEVER. There is such a social and health pressure now to lose weight. I predict by the time my daughter is 12 she will not have the same issues kids today are having.
  • seehawkmomma
    seehawkmomma Posts: 815
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    I think besides:

    -More fast food/package foods
    -More tv/computers/video game
    -More work/less work-outs

    I really cant see any other reasons why people have gotten obese.

    HOWEVER. There is such a social and health pressure now to lose weight. I predict by the time my daughter is 12 she will not have the same issues kids today are having.

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