Obesity today vs 40-50 years ago.
paticksmama07
Posts: 49 Member
In my grandmother's day the men and women didn't have to workout as hard and as long as we do. I have noted that some members log-in 1,000 calories (deficit) with their workouts. Did our grandparents burn this many calories on a daily basis with housework, chores, walking etc?
It just seems that we have to mechanically move our bodies with the help of machines, videos and the like where our grandparents and my parents just naturally moved more. Didn't they also eat less? Portion sizes? Sugar added in our food? Preservatives.
It saddens me because our country (America) is getting fatter and fatter. The teenagers in my neighborhood are bigger than I am. Soda, burgers and fries? It is so much harder for the average person to lose weight today more so than let's say in the 50s-80s. I'll even say the 1990s. What's your take?
It just seems that we have to mechanically move our bodies with the help of machines, videos and the like where our grandparents and my parents just naturally moved more. Didn't they also eat less? Portion sizes? Sugar added in our food? Preservatives.
It saddens me because our country (America) is getting fatter and fatter. The teenagers in my neighborhood are bigger than I am. Soda, burgers and fries? It is so much harder for the average person to lose weight today more so than let's say in the 50s-80s. I'll even say the 1990s. What's your take?
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I do think it's easier for us to get fat, but no, I wouldn't say it's harder for use to lose weight. I think our biggest problem is portion size and lack of activity.
I don't think we need to log 1000 calorie workouts, that's over training in my opinion. You just need to eat 300-500 calories less than you burn (all day, not just during exercise), and do so for an extended period of time until your reach your goal. Weight loss doesn't HAVE to be hard or overly complicated.0 -
I remember once my brother and I were at this conference and there was a man who was 400+ pound man in front of us. We were just so amazed that anyone could ever take themselves to that point. An old man leaned forward from the row behind us and whispered "when i was your age we'd have to go to the circus to see someone that big!"
That is crazy!0 -
It is difficult. Much of our food is processed, portion sizes are increasing year on year for main courses (at least chocolate bars and crisps are getting smaller!) and our lifestyles are much less active. However, we have better medical care and online support to help balance things out. That's not the way it SHOULD be going but at least we're not losing out as much as we could be.
I can't imagine what I'd have done with my life if I grew up in pre-internet times. My work and leisure life revolves around sitting at a desk - I wasn't an active kid and I can't begin to imagine myself having grown into an active career.0 -
mcdonalds serving sizes were half the size 40 years ago0
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Just think how much time we spend in front of a screen (tv, computer, smart phone, video games, etc). How much time we spend sitting, waiting or driving (commuting to work, driving the kids around, just driving to the grocery store takes me 24 minutes round trip due to traffic, stop lights and slow drivers in their Buicks). Then there's the quality of our food. My parents & grandparents cooked everything from scratch, nothing was served out of a box, can, or package. Eating out? Forget about it. Only on VERY special occasions and absolutely no fast food, ever. There are many studies that show we are definitely eating larger portion sizes at every meal compared to our parents & grandparents. I'm disgusted (not sad) that our country has an obesity epidemic. Especially when the cure is so straightforward.
Less activity + larger portion sizes + low quality food + lack of adequate sleep = obesity.0 -
My mother had nine siblings, and my father was the youngest of 10. They were born in the 40's.
Most of their vegetables came from the garden (that they were expected to work in).
There were pigs to slop, chickens to feed (and eggs to gather), cows to be milked, stalls to be mucked out.
Carry in water from the well. Carry in the firewood or coal; carry out the ash.
After all this was done, you could have breakfast!
Clothes and dishes were hand-washed. There was no such thing as a dryer, just a clothesline.
Food was cooked from scratch, on a stove.
Spring was spent plowing and planting. Summer was spent working in the gardens and hayfields.
Fall was spent spent harvesting, butchering, and preserving.
There was not an over-abundance of leisure time or food (or much else).
They played outside (or Grandma would whack them with a broom as she tried to tidy up!)
They walked to school.
We are spoiled, plain and simple. We get our heat, light, water, food, and entertainment at the touch of a button. Nobody really works hard, not like they used to. (Oh, we complain that we work hard, but let's just be honest, k?)
We haven't learned how to live with all the luxuries that we take for granted, and it's killing us.0 -
I suspect it is modern lifestyles have an accumulation of lots of little things that one their own would be of little significance but when combined give us more cals in an less out.
So today we are (on average) more sedentary; more office workers, more TV watching, more car travel, less walking, less manual labour, less gardening etc
at the same time we have an increase in cheap oils (palm oil) in our foods, an increase in sugar (in th eUK the typical apple has twice the sugar as it had in post war), increase in portions etc0 -
Kids these days don't play outside as much as they did back then, and most meals were home made and fast food was considered a luxury. Luckily my parents made us go out, forbid us from getting the latest and greatest video game systems, cooked a nightly meal, and limited our TV time.
40+ years ago, being fat was a sign of success because only the wealthy could afford the pastries and being fat meant you didn't have to be a laborer (which a majority of jobs in America were labor intensive). Now unhealthy food is cheaper than healthy food and most labor intensive jobs are done by a machine.0 -
AND TECHNOLOGY.
Here's a small list:
dishwashers
dryers
washing machines
microwaves
vacuum cleaners
I can't think of many more right now, but I'm sure there is plenty0 -
So many things have changed. I think the main thing is portion size. I would say most people overestimate what is a portion size. Also food is, in a way, cheaper.
Fast food does seem to be a desired thing, especially to children, it's marketed to make them want it and to feel left out if they don't have it. Once you get a taste for it it can become a habit. I went to McDonald's maybe three times when I was younger, to eat, I think I went in more times with my mum to use the bathroom!
As a teenager we would hang out at either McDonalds or Pizza Hut, I stopped going to those places a year before I changed my diet completely.
I also believe more people have cars, they don't walk as much.
Kids don't play out as much, which is down to 24 hour kids TV, video games but also I know where I live, all the fields I used to play in have been sold and houses have been built on to them.
So that's it, portion sizes are double what they used to be and everyone drives everywhere.0 -
well I disaggree with the portion thing, they prob ate more cause they worked SOOO MUCH MORE
going even further then the 50's.
woman had to wash every thing by hand and scrub it, get water form far, there were no vacumes, washers dryers, gracery stores,
A lot had gardens and chickens that is like every day tilling, the men didnt have mesins to help with their work, you know they were built, so yes its all our luxerys that have made us obese
I used to unloud trucks by hand I was able to eat what EVER I wanted and still lost tones of weight,0 -
It's a combination of lifestyle and eating style. Our grandparents had three meals a day and that was it, no snacking.
It was the job of food to fuel you, not to enjoy. You'd just get meat and two veg for a main meal and a sandwich for lunch at work - nowhere to get a takeaway or eat out. 90% of the time it was dull but sustained you.
We now have special occasion food every day where once it was only for parties. Even in my youth, a burger and ice cream was considered a treat. It was what you had only at a birthday party, and even then the burger and chips was home-cooked! I'd get pocket money once a week to buy sweets. Now I never have to walk more than 50 metres to buy whatever I'm craving at that particular time.
Not to mention my parents were brought up in the era of rationing - no chance to eat too much fat or sugar even if you wanted to!0 -
In my humble opinion the primary reason that people are for the most part fatter than 50 years ago is due to the widespread use of High Fructose Corn Syrup.0
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We are spoiled, plain and simple. We get our heat, light, water, food, and entertainment at the touch of a button. Nobody really works hard, not like they used to. (Oh, we complain that we work hard, but let's just be honest, k?)
We haven't learned how to live with all the luxuries that we take for granted, and it's killing us.
Whilst I do agree with how things have changed and the amount of manual work has changed, I do disagree with the above part. I for one think it's a case of working hard or working smart. I worked 80/90 hours and was very unfit and healthy, knackered all the time. I don't think in anyway my ancestors worked more "hard". I think they worked smarter.
I think in todays society, people eat lunch standing up, on the go or in half an hour. Downtime is so short that to go to the store and pick something up easy and quick (but laden with fat and preservatives) is a quick way of extending that time. Travel, internet and many other factors mean people can and are working further from home, limiting time spent. The working day has changed dramatically. Again not any more/less "harder" but different challenges.
Women are now working and looking after children. Is this because money is needed, cos the price of fish has gone up or is it about wanting a career. The whole working world has changed but I certainly don't think we are spoilt per se. I think we are looking for quick fixes to spend more time with our loved ones and if that comes in the shape of a store bought prepared chicken curry then for some the work life balance becomes unbalanced.
:flowerforyou:0 -
AND TECHNOLOGY.
Here's a small list:
dishwashers
dryers
washing machines
microwaves
vacuum cleaners
I can't think of many more right now, but I'm sure there is plenty
cars
aeroplane
etc, meaning travel easier, people working 30 miles from home. Traffic, stress.
Soon technology will bite us on our fat *kitten*!!!!0 -
Make of this what you will, but in developed societies, where basic living requirements are met and people aren't scrabbling for food, obesity is highly correlated to levels of equality in society. In other words, countries where the difference between the richest and poorest in society is greatest (eg the UK and US) have greater levels of obesity than countries where the gap is smaller (eg Sweden, Japan).
The level of obesity is greater in all comparable strata of society (ie earnings bands).0 -
It's true- obesity rates have skyrocketed out of controle in the past decade and a large reason is due to the food that is available to us now. Food companies make their money selling us "fast, affordable, convenient" food, which ends up being loaded with empty calories and preservatives. They market foods as "snacks" and things you can eat "on the go" that end up equaling calories of a regular normal sized meal. McDonalds "Snack" Wraps... Taco Bells "Crunch Wraps"... they are designed for us to mindlessly eat while we are on the go.
Kids food is marketed for parents convenience... which equals to microwavable, preservative laden garbage that have zero nutritional value. Why worry about having to cook dinner after a busy day at work when you can just throw in a box of bagle bites into the microwave for your kid.
And that mindset is just brainwashed into our heads via marketing strategies!0 -
well I disaggree with the portion thing, they prob ate more cause they worked SOOO MUCH MORE
Different kind of food though, I'm talking about portions in fast food, back then there was only one size which is the equivalent to what you get today in a small portion. They offer an extra large portion for just a few pennies more and it's hard to resist. same with chocolate bars coming in king size, crisps are in larger bags.
Back then they would have had a solid meal but it would mean more boiled potatoes, more vegetables, meat wasn't cheap but they would have had a normal size portion. Nobody follows that these days, most portions if meat are double the size they should be. My Dad is terrible for doing that, he's only started cooking since retirement. They were eating less and working harder.0 -
If you guys are interested, a very good book o the matter is "Elsewhere, U.S.A" by Dalton Conley. It is more focused on how frazzled our lives has been, but it really hits home on all of these topics.
I also did a Masters paper on how modern society/technologies have affected obesity rates in the US and developing countries. I am not going to bore everyone on here about the outcomes of that paper, but if you are interested, message me and I will be happy to talk about it.0 -
I personally believe over-scheduling has so much to do with this! I have to fight my kids to keep them down to just a few activities a week. Their friends are in every club and sport. It's so competitive out there. So when my kids start doing more sports we end up in the drive thru. Notice the irony there? But even when I only allow 1-2 activities each - you times that by 2 kids, 2 parents who are working 60+ hours a week, the school day. Time to sit down and eat goes out the window really quickly. When my daughter was a preschooler/toddler we ate 3 meals and 2 snacks at the table everyday. I spent the majority of my day cooking and cleaning up meals. Now we are lucky if as a family we eat all together 1-2 times a week. It's sad and I'm working so hard on it but between school, church, work. I even cook ahead usually and prepare my meals for the week but when you spend most of your day in your mini van - you aren't sitting at home eating meals.
And my friends say that I'm "strict" because my kids can only do a few extra activities - for many moms and dads it is a lot worse.0 -
We are spoiled, plain and simple. We get our heat, light, water, food, and entertainment at the touch of a button. Nobody really works hard, not like they used to. (Oh, we complain that we work hard, but let's just be honest, k?)
We haven't learned how to live with all the luxuries that we take for granted, and it's killing us.
Whilst I do agree with how things have changed and the amount of manual work has changed, I do disagree with the above part. I for one think it's a case of working hard or working smart. I worked 80/90 hours and was very unfit and healthy, knackered all the time. I don't think in anyway my ancestors worked more "hard". I think they worked smarter.
I think in todays society, people eat lunch standing up, on the go or in half an hour. Downtime is so short that to go to the store and pick something up easy and quick (but laden with fat and preservatives) is a quick way of extending that time. Travel, internet and many other factors mean people can and are working further from home, limiting time spent. The working day has changed dramatically. Again not any more/less "harder" but different challenges.
Women are now working and looking after children. Is this because money is needed, cos the price of fish has gone up or is it about wanting a career. The whole working world has changed but I certainly don't think we are spoilt per se. I think we are looking for quick fixes to spend more time with our loved ones and if that comes in the shape of a store bought prepared chicken curry then for some the work life balance becomes unbalanced.
:flowerforyou:
This is also my thought......women have to work now too, and I know I don't always have time to prepare a healthy homecooked meal. I get home at 530 or 6 and the kids have to be in bed by 830 so if I were to cook a meal every night, I'd never spend time with them!0 -
This is also my thought......women have to work now too, and I know I don't always have time to prepare a healthy homecooked meal. I get home at 530 or 6 and the kids have to be in bed by 830 so if I were to cook a meal every night, I'd never spend time with them!
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this!!!! (sorry still learning how to quote but the above poster is spot on in my book!)0 -
I think part if the issue is that most (vast majority) didn't get fat to begin with. My grandmother was skinny her whole life. I don't think I ever saw her eat at a fastfood joint. The last time we went out to eat was to a little diner that had it's own vegetable garden out back. I just recently got ahold of some pictures of her family from teh 30's and 40's. There was a car in one of the pics, and I found out that it was the only car between the 5 of them. It was her little brothers, and it was his "race car". Small towns back then didn't have restaurants or fast food joints. Nearly everything was made from scratch, so they took longer and ate less. Of course most small towns today still don't have many restaurants, but they all have a Mc-D's..0
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WARNING: Gonna paint with a huge paintbrush here.
My grandparents, born in Mississippi during the Great Depression, were literally sharecroppers as children and spent the majority of their day during harvest towing sacks the length of an adult man's body through the rows of cotton plants, picking bolls until their fingers bled. They were skinny as rails because they could barely afford to eat. Every bit of food they got had to count, had to be as calorically-dense as possible. That's why vegetables were cooked with saltpork and bacon drippings, and breads and biscuits were made with lard. As America's economy shifted from an agrarian one to one based upon information technology, we've largely stopped doing manual labor as a nation. Now, any movement we get is during hours of recreation, which are greater in quantity than in our grandparents' day, but the activities we choose for recreation are largely sedentary. Don't get me wrong, I have a very muscular, extremely toned joystick hand. But we've become sitters, rather than haulers and movers.
FWIW, my grandmother was obese as her life became more sedentary, but she didn't adjust her eating to reflect the new lifestyle. She suffered strokes and died a long, slow death as a result. My grandfather remained skinny, but he, too, suffered as a result of failing to adapt to "modern" life. He suffered strokes, as well, and all four of their children have had cardiac and hypertension issues. My generation, the grandchildren, are doing what we can to change our mindset, eating less and focusing on nutritional density, moving more and focusing on preventative health maintenance, rather than reactionary medical solutions. Hopefully, it won't take a generation and a half for our new, better habits to take hold.0 -
Our lives are much different than they were 50 years ago. We live in a time of cheap food. I believe this is the first time in history where this has been the case. Back 20-50 years ago people didn't know much about nutrition, but they didn't really need to. They couldn't just walk into a fast food joint and pig out for next to nothing. Every meal had to be planned and portions were small for financial reasons.
Now, when we need to start worrying about nutrition, the majority don't really know how to... because we were never taught anything about it. At 31 I'm having to learn all of this stuff on my own. I had ideas about nutrition before. I knew if I ate less I would weight less, but that's not really the whole story. Now, as I learn this stuff, I'm trying to pass it on to my kids. And I hope that everyone that learns about nutrition does the same. Hopefully in a few generations humans won't have to worry about it because everyone will know about proper nutrition.0 -
All the posts' observations are on the spot. Interestingly, even starting in the 30's and 40's, there was among the medical community an understanding of the correlation between lack of exercise and heart disease. I'm a movie buff of that era, and among the "short" films shown in theaters were "campaign" films, usually depicting a portly banker suffering an angina attack at his desk, or over a business dinner of cigars and a plate ladened with steak; and subsequently scolded by a doctor and his wife to exercise (this meant golf for the well to do) and eat properly (more fish). In Nazi Germany during the 1930's there was a huge pamphlet campaign admonishing homemakers to replace meat as a meal staple, and serve fish three times a week.0
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It's most definitely lifestyle and diet that is the main difference, but I think we've all gone slightly too nostalgic in our outlook.
Our (Great) Grandparents weren't all skinny and ripped from doing lots of manual labour and living off the land. It's true there were an awful lot fewer folks over 300lbs in the first half of last century compared to now, but remember there were quite a few well-fed folks like Fatty Arbuckle and Oliver Hardy in the 1920s and 30s too.
The early 20th C. diet contained a LOT more fat, but a lot less SUGAR. Bread and butter, bread and dripping, stews and casseroles made with much fattier cuts of meat than we'd dream of eating today. Home-made cakes and pastry, suet & lard were used abundantly and seldom was anything wasted.
Food was bough from fishmongers, poulterers, butchers, bakers, grocers and green grocers. They ate what was in season and cooked from fresh. There were canned and pickled goods too, of course. My family comes from a long line of shopkeepers; Fishmongers in the UK and Grocers in the USA, and my paternal grandpa was short & stout like me, and I don't think it's all down to genetics.
People did go out to eat, but there were no fast-food outlets; cafés and restaurants were the norm and afternoon tea with cream cakes was customary, but there were still fish & chips and pies to be bought as a snack or more likely as a meal having been out to the pictures or the dance halls (which were very popular and as we know know, really good exercise)
Folk walked and/or cycled locally as cars were a luxury. You took the tram, bus or train to travel further afield. Kids spent all their free time outdoors and not cooped up in front of TV or computer games. The service sector (banking, (local & national) government, bookkeepers etc) were but a small proportion of the workforce compared to now and there was no IT or customer call centres unless you consider the ladies at the telephone exchanges transferring trunk calls.
About 60% of today's workforce is sedentary and when we come home we flop in front of the telly or the PC/games console all night and stuff ourselves with biscuits and crisps, so it's no wonder we're turning into living effigies of the Michelin Man or the Pilsbury Doughboy! :laugh:0 -
Everyone has made great points. Add this one: Advertising. We are inundated with advertising for the latest and greatest processed food. The big food companies don't care about our waistlines! So yes, lack of activity, big portions, processed foods, more alcohol...we are fatter than ever.0
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I do keep reading through about kids being indoors more now and I find that so different from my kids and the kids I know. Now one thing is that they are in more structured activities (volleyball, soccer, etc... being played as a team versus just out in the back yard like I use to play it). BUT when the weather is at all nice I can't keep my kids inside at all. My laundry gets weeks behind in the summer because my kids want to be outside from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. lol and my son is only 5 so can't be out without me. The whole neighborhood is out all day and into the night and it's like that constantly. I'm glad for it although it does make it difficult to keep up with chores and tasks that need to be done in the home! My little man cries when it's time to come inside even if he's been out all day long and my pre-teen and her friends spend hours outside practicing volleyball or just going for walks. I can't get these kids to stay inside except in the winter when it's under 20 degrees - then we all wimp out and they resort to climbing my walls (literally).0
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both diet and lifestyle are very much different nowadays. Fifty or so years ago not only were portions smaller but food was natural and home cooked.
There were fewer mechanical aids such as automatic washers, dryers, vacuum cleaners. Kids played outside more and people generally led a far less sedentary life since leisure didnt revolve around tv, computers and the like and, since there was a lot less traffic on the roads, people walked a lot more.
My kids always spent a lot of time playing outdoors but it still seems far less than I did growing up. When they come in it's straight upstairs to watch tv or play computer games. When I was young we had one tv in the house and childrens programmes ended at 5pm. When we came indoors our parents were watching tv and we entertained ourselves - usually playing fairly physical games that got us in trouble for the noise and mess we made.0
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