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?

Food was mostly not very nice. Certainly not tempting, in the main.

Lots of women spent their lives "on a diet" and us kids copied them. There was a lot of messaging around how the worst thing you could be was fat. "If you can pinch more than an inch you need Kellogg's special k" etc. Even women who didn't overtly diet kept their appetites in check with black coffee and fags. I can't think of a single woman I know from that time who didn't end up with osteoporosis. Turns out there are worse things than being fat, after all. Breaking your collar bone while gardening, for eg. Three times, like my mum did. That's worse than being fat.

Yum! That’s our house now.

Food was a bit grim and utilitarian. School/home both had a clear your plate policy so from a very early age I was adept at surreptitiously disposing of lumpy porridge, grey mash and anything that had been brutalised by the pressure cooker. Food wasn't on tap 24/7 - snacking, multi packs of sweets and crisps, tubs of ice cream in the freezer weren't really a thing. Parties were a riot of upfs - what was that weird plasticky cream in birthday cakes?? And we played out, rode bikes, ran round during school breaks etc.

I was a plump teenager in the 70's whose mother made her feel monstrous. She is still a skinny 6 st and I am more than double her wight. I knew plenty plump people at that time. My DH on the other hand was a very skinny lad when we met and although he is heavier now he is still very slim. My DM made healthy home cooked dinners but there was also crisps, sweet things and fizzy pop. It wasn't all healthy stuff back then.

A lot of this resonates with me - not the athletic part, but certainly had to ask permission to eat, and normally the answer was no. Also had to ask permission to stop eating and again the answer was usually no. Apart from a brief blip aged 10 where my mother pulled me to one side and asked me why I was so fat (which I didn't have an answer for, I was probably hitting puberty), I did spend most of my childhood and teens "nice and slim", said in approving tones, and definitely had an eating disorder by age 16. I still really struggle to regulate myself around food now. In fact I can't remember a time when food was just food, rather than something good, or bad, or compulsory, or forbidden.

That’s what I remember too. The absolutely insane pressure to be thin. At any cost.

Park at Tesco and walk across, it's on the same side of the road. Better than trying to park outside.

Happy Wimpying!

@CrazyHorse what you said re. eating during films is interesting. I presume it is a habit the UK picked from America. Given how much we stream and watch TV and films these days, the custom of eating whilst watching is probably not a good one.

This thread has made for interesting reading.

I think I was remembering what it was like as a child in the 70s, but now my memory has been prompted I remember pretty much every adult woman living on a permanent diet of black coffee with “sweetex”, dry ryvita, and cigarettes. Each of them with a morbid fear of getting fat.

I remember friends who as teenagers had a thread tied around their waist, and if it got tight they weren’t allowed to eat.

How could I have forgotten that?

Agree there was little to no between meals snacking. Portions were smaller. Eat what was put down or wait till next meal. Never asked what you fancied for dinner. Had to ask for a biscuit (a plain one). Chocolate biscuits were for visitors. No fizzy drinks except very rarely. Family of four used to get two one litre bottles of Alpine fizzy drink from deliveryman every week - pineapple crush and cherryade! Doled out by mum in tiny 150ml glasses! Occasional cremola foam. (born 1969).
We had homemade thick soup like broth or lentil followed by apple crumble or eve's pudding once a week.

Mum was a great cook and quite adventurous (for the 1970s) - used to make spag bol with ultra long butoni spaghetti in dark blue waxy wrappers. The bolognaise was just mince, onion, carrot, tomato puree and garlic salt. With grated cheddar on top. But mostly dinners were meat, veg, potatoes and lots of bread. Dad, as a manual worker always got meat - we'd have macaroni cheese and he would have it with a pork chop on the side. Fish on a Friday. Often had tinned fruit and a canned cream thing (TipTop) but a small tin went round four so really just a couple of tablespoons each.

School dinners were nice. A sandwich usually had just one filling - ham or cheese or tomato but no mayonnaise or mustard etc. Salad had no dressing. Curry had fruit in it. I don't remember much fresh fruit except apples and rhubarb.

We did walk everywhere as no car till 1981. Played out all day. Never went out to eat in a restaurant, not until teens I think.

I totally know what you mean: Growing up in the 70’s, snacks certainly weren’t so readily available as we now have them and food portions were definitely smaller. I remember meals being simpler, things like plain toast, boiled eggs or the odd treat of fish and chips on a Friday.

I think they were just less available with processed snacks, and they didn’t come out on demand like snacks do now. Fascinating is how much has changed.

If it was in a box we had it.
Neon orange beans or spaghetti.
Roast on a Sunday.
I can't remember ever having fish and chips as a family.
Brown bread (white bread was a treat from other people's houses).
I was extremely happy when tight jeans became fashionable, I hated bellbottoms.

Is it sad that I don't really remember a great deal of my childhood.

I remember Rise and Shine drink made from a packet!

Yes, it was a treat and full of sugar.

i agree with PP who have said the food in the 70s wasn't better but we just ate smaller portions. Personally, certainly in the later 70s I was into wholefoods so probably did eat more healthily. I was born in 1955 so was an adult by then.

Angel Delight... butterscotch

OMG Brunchies! I remember them! They were minced up sausage meat if I remember correctly. I loved them. Does anyone remember Grillers? They were frozen slices of toast toppers,you toasted the bread on one side then turned it over and put the Griller on the other side and toasted it until it melted. Came in several flavours, chicken and mushroom was my favourite. I think they were made by Findus.

Findus crispy pancakes. I found some, somewhere in the 90's and they didn't taste how I remembered.

I only had one once, in around 1972, and it was vile.

My 80s food (when I was a child) consisted of:
Toast and honey or a small bowl of cornflakes with the top of the milk & sugar with tea for breakfast
School dinner which was usually something like a slice of meat or meat pie with a scoop of mashed potatoes (chips if it's Friday) and some pickled beetroot or sometimes a bit of iceberg lettuce. The best pudding was a doughnut but you usually got something horrible like semolina. The whole school dinner was rank and I'd leave as much as I could get away with.
Our mam usually gave us a biscuit and a cup of tea after school and we could have apples or bread and butter for a snack. I had apples if hungry
Dinner was stuff like mince cooked with onion, carrots celery etc a side of nicely cooked veg and dumplings or boiled potatoes or mash or chips. I'd only eat the carbs if it was chips or boiled potatoes due to the sliminess of the others. My mam also made lovely soups - bacon bones soup was my favourite. If I had a friend over she'd get these frozen burgers and we'd have one each with beans and chips. For pudding it was jelly and evaporated milk or tinned fruit and evap or sometimes a homemade cake.
We had a 10p mix up (about ten sweets) on the weekend. Fizzy drinks for parties only.
She did really well for us on a budget, a lovely Mam. We never went hungry, but to the point of the thread we were not overweight ever.

@TheDowagerCountessofPembroke

Yy re Ski yoghurts. Ditto Swiss muesli and Alpen!

I never had parties or went to birthday parties, but one year as a treat I was allowed to have a friend come for tea at our house. We had a special tea of Birds Eye steaklets, chips and peas. What a birthday treat that was.

Ooh I loved that! Dread to think what was in it now...

It's interesting if you watch those programs where they make families eat the food of previous decades, how much of the food is linked to the status of women. So, in the seventies, there was much more processed food as so many women had entered the workplace, compared to say, the thirties, when most mothers were at home and most things were made from scratch.

Our meals were mainly home cooked with the occasional shop bought pie or burger. But the meat pie was divided into 4 and only a very small accompaniment and a burger was served with gravy, peas and potato. Our portions were a lot smaller than I would estimate today.

My mum wouldn't buy crispy pancakes as they had 'no food value'. We did have angel delight though.

School dinners in primary and sandwiches in secondary but just 4 small quarters with basic filling like fish paste or cheese. And a penguin bar.

No snacks as such but I recall quite a few sweets once I had pocket money. My teeth are dreadful.

I think I ate even less when I was in my late teens as I smoked quite a bit.

Started eating more when I left home (21) as I would cook extra food intending to eat the next day but ate later that evening (if I didn't go out) so double portions. Also used to drink a lot of alcohol.

I used to walk everywhere for years though. Obviously walking to school but also when I started college and then work I would walk around 3 miles to the next town to save my bus fare for nights out.

Spaghetti hoops.
Short spaghetti in tins.
Spaghetti alphabet things.
Powdered packet soups made with a pint of water and bulked up with bread.
Those hockey puck burgers. With spaghetti hoops.
Tinned hotdogs.
Salmon paste on white bread.
Chip pan always on the hob. Chips always tested best when the fat was fairly old. Jesus, the potatoes my mum must have peeled.

Thinking about it, I reckon the ratio of shit meals to decent is probably the same as in our house now.. only thr food we eat is tastier.