The 70s and diet - what were we eating?

[Alicay]

Watched a programme about The Cure last night. There was footage of the group from '81 (I think) and they were all like pipe cleaners - that really slight, skinny look. Not an inch on them. Growing up I can remember the majority (of young people at least) having that kind of physique. Also, recently saw Gregory's Girl and was struck by the school scenes - kids all like whippets. Now im fat and in my fifties I'm trying to remember what I/people ate. think for me it was cornflakes with sugar for breakfast, orange juice then modest packed lunch (I never got crisps, but some kids got a packet of walkers) or a disgusting school dinner of meat pie and veg that I barely touched) dinner was always vegetable soup then say pasta (fancy, but Italian roots) then stewed fruit. I'd be raging hungry on that diet now. Thinking about it maybe food was just less appealing/quantities smaller? Is it all just down to the extra snacks we have now?
Any 70's/earlier people remember better than me?

The environment was definitely just far less obesogenic. Far fewer convenience foods ( ready meals, take always, ready to eat sandwiches/ pies etc). Not that many cafes. Portions were smaller. Food was also more seasonal ( no raspberries in November) so yeah, food in winter in the UK was often not that delicious.

People were more active in the 70s and 80s. You walked to your local school and played out in the streets at evenings and weekends. I had a little pocket money and bought Saturday morning sweets but not during the week.

Full fats, whole milk, no ultra processed foods, meat on the bone, veggies and whole grains.

Lots of mince in my house, disguised as 'curry' or spag bol. Or cottage pie. Sunday roasts. Very little convenience food and puddings only on Sundays, after the roast. The pudding would be something homemade too- apple pie or whatever.

Biscuits weren't freely available- Mum used to buy boxes of broken biscuits from the cash and carry but you had to ask for one.

Sweets and treats, apart from at Christmas, were only bought with our pocket money. There were no crisps/sweets/cakes in the house usually, or fizzy drinks. Drinks were water, tea or milk. Orange juice was a starter at a posh restaurant.

Also- my mother was a terrible cook, so that helped with the not overeating...

I would agree with pp. We walked everywhere or caught the bus. We ate what Mum put down to us - usually meat and two veg. A treat was a Penguin biscuit or a small KitKat.
There was a Wimpy or a Golden Egg we occasionally went to, but otherwise cafés sold regular tea or coffee and modest snacks. Although I only regularly started going to cafes when I went out to work.
There were far fewer food choices, and there was often a problem with availability.

@Shodan - my Mum used to buy those boxes of broken biscuits! We were always pleased when we found a complete one!

Oh the Golden Egg! I loved that. And the WImpy. I still occasionally yearn for a Brown Derby 😁

Especially if it was a chocolate digestive or a pink wafer!

I remember being often hungry in the 70s. I don’t think we had much money and it had to stretch far. There was often just a poached egg on toast for dinner or mushrooms on toast and bread and jam for after. Mum cooked a lot of liver (urghh) casserole but threw a sausage in for me. Pork chops with hand cut chips cooked in a proper chip pan with tinned veg. Ham salad - slice of ham, piece of curly lettuce and some tomato possibly with a couple of new potatoes.

I remember the first time we had spaghetti bolognese which was around the time the family income improved as Dad got promoted. This was 1980. By then my parents had discovered cook books so meals became a lot more adventurous: ‘stuffed liver braised’ and pork with apricots, that sort of thing.

I was born in 1970 and was rake thin until I went to Uni and became in charge of my own hunger. I’m fat now.

We only really had sweets, chocolate or crisps once a week at most. Only had fizzy drinks on birthdays or Christmas. Didn’t have processed food very often. I can remember having a pot noodle and thinking it was a real treat! But yes I think the main thing is probably activity as we were allowed to roam around or be out on bikes all the time.

Chocolate crisps etc were genuinely once a week treats
less snacking
very little convenience food and takeaways were a rare treat
better quality ingredients with fewer chemicals sprayed on them
less fried stuff
more seasonal eating

😄

My diet was dull, not a lot of fruit and veg. Growing up there was a lot of toast and stews of various types. Portions were small and there was no snacking. I don't recall breakfast (probably toast), lunch would be egg or mushrooms on toast, occasionally beans. Evening meal would be a casserole or stew. Food wasn't tasty or exciting it was purely functional. We walked everywhere, even to make a phone call. I was skinny (so we're all my friends) but I also recall being tired a lot of the time/low energy.

I went to university in 1978, and was impressed that there was a choice in the canteen, having never had food choices at school or home!
Even at uni, when we had coffee, it was just Maxwell House with a bit of milk.
I remember when a McDonald's opened and we thought it was strange to have a burger in a bun and chips!

Our meals were definitely smaller, one chop each for dinner, roast dinner was 2 slices of meat, 3 roast potatoes, then leftover meat with mash potatoes and pickle the next day. We always had smoked haddock and bread and butter on a Saturday. We also had steak and kidney pudding each week, not so healthy. We never had snacks or crisps, one bottle of squash each week, when it was gone, it was tap water, tea or coffee. Breakfasts were cornflakes or toast, then bacon and egg on a Sunday. I remember a lot of salads in the summer, ham, lettuce, tomatoe and cucumber. We did always have chocolate biscuits, 2 each. I was given lunch money which I spent on a portion of chips, as we were allowed to leave school at lunchtime. Basically my Mum shopped every day for food for that day, there was nothing more to eat once it was gone and if you didn’t like what was given, tough, there wasn’t anything else.

The other thing was, we ate what was dished up. If you didn't, you went without- you weren't offered an alternative. Not as a punishment, or a conscious effort, but it just wasn't a 'thing', I don't think.

There's a Wimpy in Huddersfield where they still serve the Brown Derby if you are anywhere near there!

Exactly ☝!!!
am heading out for the day and got myself an emergency cereal bar in case I die of hunger. I think as a teen I MIGHT have taken an apple or wrapped a biscuit in foil which would have then crumbled and been chucked. Either way less calories than the crappy cereal bar.
We were showing teen DCs the stranger danger Charlie adverts on YouTube recently. The mum rewarding the kid for not going off with the stranger was - an apple.🍎

I was like a whippet in the 80s. My mum was, and still is, a brilliant cook. However she also had an undiagnosed eating disorder, in my opinion. She would create huge meals, especially for guests but never eat anything herself. She was very controlling about food. I wasn’t allowed anything. In her opinion having a fat child was a huge point of shame. She would also tell me that being fat was the worse thing you could do as no one wants to be friends with a fat girl.

Anyway, I think that we just ate less. No take aways and few snacks between meals.

Sadly I'm not- but I'd seriously consider making the trip 😁

Portions were smaller. As kids it was 2 fish fingers each, the tin of beans between 4. Although we always had a pudding.
Less choice.
Not really a concept of snacking.
Fizzy drinks at lunchtime. Sugar whenever, but there was a limit- like just at mealtimes.
Eating out or on the go wasn't a thing. We took a pack up when we went out.
All food cooked/ prepared at home.
So different to now.

@Mindymomo - my Mum shopped every day for food as well. The butcher, the grocer then the greengrocer. Shops closed early on Thursday, nothing was open on a Sunday. As you said, when the food was gone, it was gone.
I remember an Italian restaurant opening in our town and everyone thought it was very exotic!

I watched a clip on YouTube from the 1970s of Mary berry cooking on daytime TV. She made an omelette...then she said how you could cut it into quarters and everyone could have a piece. Nowadays we'd probably have half or more likely the whole thing per person

So true! If we had burgers at home we had the thin frozen ones, no bun, probably with some mash and peas or beans.

Generally portion sizes were smaller and food was plainer - we often had a small piece of meat or fish, boiled potatoes, some veg.

Dessert was often plain yogurt with a spoonful of jam, or tinned fruit. We did also have proper puddings / cakes, but not most days.

I was a 70s kid and meal sizes were mini compared to now. Plus not a lot of snacking going on.

So - a typical kid's meal would have been 2 fishfingers and a tablespoon of garden peas. And that would have lasted a child til next morning.

Cereal was the amount in those variety pack boxes. Some kids had one pack of crisps at school break. But it wasn't the huge family sized pack of today. It was the smallest size bags with 10 crisps if lucky. And you probably gave 5 of them away.

School dinners were hearty though. Maybe stew and dumpling plus a suet pud with custard.

Just water to drink. ⅓pint milk for morning.

Moving to teen diet. Well, i didn't hit teen til 1980.

I skipped brekkie altogether

I had nothing til lunch

Then one Hollands meat and potato pie with baked beans. And one bag of sweets (Revels usually small pack size)

Got home - usually raided the fridge for milk. Tea time would have been a breaded shape thing (rissole, remember Brunchies?! Fishcake, burger small)

Plus always garden peas. And that lasted me til next lunchtime.

I did a long paper round and was very active. I was 7 stone til early 20s at 5'4"

I didn't like fizzy juice/coke so never had that.

I thought i ate a lot of sweets. And i did have sweets every single day. But a lot was one individual sized pack of minstrels/revels/rolo etc.

I would not have had more than one per day. I did not like crisps much and rarely to never ate them.

I ate very little fruit either.